The Jewish community of Puerto Rico has only two synagogues serving it, according to three delegates from Puerto Rico who attended the biennial convention of the Women’s League for Conservative Judaism at the Concord Hotel here last week. The Jewish Community Center of Puerto Rico in Santurce, a Conservative synagogue, serves some 250 families and a small Reform congregation serves some 40 families, they reported.
The three delegates, Esther Law, Susy Kaiser and Ana Wagner, said the community center is affiliated with the United Synagogue and its Sisterhood is affiliated with the Women’s League, Because the Jewish community in Puerto Rico is approximately 65 percent Cuban and 35 percent American, the Conservative synagogue is bilingual. Worship services are conducted alternately in Spanish and English and meetings are conducted in both languages.
As an example of the bilingual nature of their Jewish community, the delegates, who are members of the community center, brought with them for sale at the convention a cook book entitled “Kosher Cooking in the Caribbean, ” with all recipes printed in both Spanish and English. Many of the recipes, such as arroz con pollo chicken and rice), are of Spanish origin.
JEWISH ACTIVITIES NOT LACKING
For the same 25 families that observe kashrut, meat is ordered every several months and flown in from New York or Miami, the three delegates said. In San Juan, kosher frozen poultry and delicatessen products are always available in a supermarket. The Conservative synagogue, which they described as the center of Jewish life on the island, maintains a Jewish library and Dr. Israel Ganapolsky, a physician, is a certified Mohie.
In some ways the Jewish community feels removed from the center of organized Jewry in America, the delegates noted, but there is no serious lack of Jewish activities. For the children, there is Hebrew school three times a week and a Young Judaea club. In addition, to the Women’s League and United Synagogue, the United Jewish Appeal, Israel Bonds, Hadassah and other organizations are active on the island.
The three delegates themselves reflect the varied backgrounds of the members of the Puerto Rico Jewish Community. Mrs. Kaiser is the wife of Rabbi Claudio Kaiser, who has been spiritual leader at the Jewish Community Center for the past year. He studied for the rabbinate at the Conservative Seminarian in Argentina. They were both born in Peru, of German and Austrian parents who emigrated to Lima before World War II. Mrs. Law also grew up in Lima; but she is married to an American who works for the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration in Puerto Rico. By contrast, Mrs. Wagner, along with many other Jews, fled Cuba at the time of the Castro revolution.
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