Sosua, a small town in the Dominican Republic and a surprising Jewish community

By Elizabeth and Boris Shields

My husband and I were recently holidaying at a small resort not far from Puerta Plata in the Dominican Republic. One visits this country in Central America for escape from the Canadian winter, to swim in warm waters, and to be able to enjoy a walk without slipping on ice.

The one place friends told us not to miss was the beach-front resort town of Sosúa at the north end of the country, an hour’s drive from our resort at Costambar. The attraction for us was not the long stretch of sandy beach, bordered by tourist-trap stores, on the Caribbean. The great attraction was the Jewish Museum, synagogue and cemetery.

In order to get there, we hired a taxi for the day. After rolling down his window many times to ask pedestrians where the Jewish Museum was, the driver found it – a little house set in a garden, right in the centre of town.

The museum existed for fifty years but was only reopened in 2003 after a lengthy renovation. It houses historical documents, photographs, objects and people’s testimonials. One can easily spend a good hour there. The charming small synagogue – at right angles to the museum – also sits in the garden. It is a wooden frame house with blue doors, shutters and pillars; inside are long benches covered in blue velvet. The central bimah is a surprise; it is a feature of Sephardic synagogues, but these agricultural West European Jews were of course Ashkenazi.

How did the synagogue and museum come to be there? What were Jews doing in this small city, which only got connected to the national network of paved roads in 1980?

This is what we discovered. The first Jews had come to the island of Hispaniola (now divided between the Republic and Haiti) when it was discovered by Christopher Columbus, who set sail from Spain in 1492, the very day of the Alhambra Decree. The crew had at least five Jews on board, among them an interpreter, a surgeon, a physician.

Our story begins in July 1938. The then President Trujillo, a brutal dictator who was guilty of the massacre of 15,000 unarmed Haitians, nevertheless set a shining example to the 32 other countries attending a conference at Evian-les-Bains (on the French side of Lake Geneva,) called by President Roosevelt to discuss the emigration and resettlement of “political refugees and those persecuted by reason of race or religion” (no mention of the word Jews.)

Trujillo, representing the Dominican Republic, took an outstandingly different stand from all the other countries present. He offered to receive 100,000 Jewish immigrants. His was the only offer. There was silence from all the other representatives.

For the purpose, he sold 22,230 hectares in Sosúa, an almost completely uninhabited region, to the American Joint Distribution Committee and to Agrojoint, which created the D.R. Settlement Association., dubbed DORSA.

The Republic issued 5000 visas between 1939 and 1942, but due to bureaucratic difficulties in the countries of origin, eventually just 600 persons of Ashkenazi descent, all from urban backgrounds, settled there. (After 1942, it became impossible for any more Jews to escape from Europe.)

The refugee settlers founded an agricultural settlement, and ran an employee-owned dairy cooperative. Their settlement later boasted its own water works, sanitation system, clinic, school, library, theatre, shops and bank, as well as the synagogue. The settlers had to process their perishable agricultural products to assure a longer shelf life, allowing them to ship the produce to market with very precarious transportation conditions. Cheese and sausage industries were born thus! Today very large factories, such as Productos Sosúa, until recently still owned by descendents of the first settlers, continue to produce leading brands.

What motivated President Trujillo? He was, first, eager to mollify international critics after the massacre of the Haitians. Secondly, he sought to ‘’whiten’’ the Dominican populace! (The museum has a wall of pictures of babies born to the first settlers. The children are fair, strangely almost super-blonde, so that generation clearly did not intermarry!)

The Jews and their descendants were guaranteed “the opportunity to continue their lives and their occupations free from interferences, discrimination or persecution with rights of freedom of religion and religious ceremonies, with equal civil, legal and economic rights, as well as all other rights inherent to the Human beings.’’ (This was the Accord between DORSA and the Dominican government.)

The current population of known Jews is approximately 400. Most of them live in the capital Santo Domingo, which also has a synagogue. A high percentage has intermarried.

Today, Jewish and non-Jewish tourists are travelling to Sosúa, now an attractive small city with a wonderful beach. The museum is open for certain every weekday; occasional services are held in the synagogue. Both the synagogue and museum are well worth a visit.

Only a few dozen Jews remain in the city, and, although not visible as storekeepers, Jewish founders or their offspring are heavily invested in the hotel business, agribusiness and food processing plants. Thus, the legacy of the original Jewish settlers continues in Sosúa.