This Jewish colony established in the Dominican Republic during the Holocaust will soon become a historical relic as a result of attrition and emigration.
Sosua, on the northern coast of this lush, pro-American Caribbean island, was a sleepy town of 100 inhabitants when European Jews fleeing Nazi terror began to arrive in 1940. Today, Sosua has a population of some 7,000. But only an estimated 35 of its families are Jewish. At one point, just before the end of World War II, about 600 Jews lived there. The community has been decimated by deaths (about 150 Jews are buried in the Jewish cemetery) and by emigration.
The history of Jewish settlement in Sosua began in the late 1930s, when Rafael Trujillo, the dictator of the Dominican Republic, announced he would accept up to 100,000 Jewish refugees. Because of wartime conditions in Europe, no more than a relative handful ever got to its shores.
REASONS FOR TRUJILLO’S GENEROSITY
Trujillo’s generosity was probably prompted by three reasons. He hoped he could “whiten” his population if Jewish settles married Dominicans. He thought he could improve his image, famished by his slaughter of 20,000 members of the Black, Haitian minority in 1937. He figured that Jewish entrepreneurial drive could be an asset in his underdeveloped nation.
His calculations were not unrealistic. Intermarriages occurred, especially in the second generation. And the settlers, the majority of whom were from Germany and Austria, contributed to the economic well being of the Dominican Republic by building what is now the biggest butter and cheese factory in the country and a processed meat plant as well.
The settlers, who were trained on the spot as dairy farmers, supply the raw milk and meat for the two factories. As a result of their enterprise, Sosua grew, leaving the Jews here as a tiny minority.
The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee which helped establish the colony in cooperation with the Dominican Republic government, originally hoped that the settlers could earn a livelihood with vegetable crops. The land, however, was dry, suitable only for cattle herds.
‘WE WEREN’T IDEALISTS’
The JDC also attempted to set up an agricultural cooperative, but it failed, and individual initiative won the day. “We weren’t idealists, as in Palestine, says Kurt Luis Hess, a veteran settler who is 74.
Hess himself was born in Erfurt, Germany, and arrived in the Dominican Republic, via Spain and France, in 1939. It was by sheer chance that he applied for a visa, he says. He did so after various Latin American nations, and the U.S., rejected his applications.
Like all the Jews who came to Sosua, Hess received a plot of land, cows and a house on credit. He also taught his fellow settlers Spanish — which he had learned as a youth — and did administrative work for the JDC. He married a Protestant Dominican woman, Ana Julia, and they had two sons, one of whom considers himself Jewish.
After World War II, many of the settlers immigrated to the U.S. “Some were unhappy as farmers, having come from big cities, and not being used to forming,” Hess explains. “Others saw better opportunities for themselves and their children.”
Hess’ two sons live in Los Angeles and West Berlin, but this is in keeping with the pattern of emigration, the young people having left. Judy Neumann Kaiser, 39, is an example of the phenomenon. Her parents, who moved here from Israel felt that she could obtain a superior education in the U.S. And, perhaps more important, they thought she could meet an eligible Jewish man there. Kaiser married an American and today lives in Phoenix, Arizona. She visits her family regularly.
Because so many Jews have left Sosua, the rabbi, who died some eight years ago, has not been replaced. An Israeli settler, who is a cantor by profession, leads Jews in prayer in Sosua’s small clapboard synagogue near the sea.
Despite the drastic decline of the Jewish community, Hess has no regrets he stayed. His share in the butter and cheese factory has made him comfortable, and he has had a good marriage. He claims he has never experienced anti-Semitism in the Dominican Republic. “The Dominicans are such a racially mixed people, without racial pride,” he says.
He says he never accustomed himself to the tropical weather, but this is a minor complaint. I visit my sons in Los Angeles and West Berlin, but I’m always glad to be back in Sosua.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
