History of the Jews in El Salvador
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Jews have been present in El Salvador since the early 19th Century. Starting with Sephardic French Jews and continuing with the arrival of World War II Ashkenazi refugees.
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[edit] History of the Jews in El Salvador
Open support of the Fascists during the 1930s hampered Jewish security,[citation needed] but the situation improved after World War II. On Sept. 11, 1948, El Salvador recognized the State of Israel, and in 1956 the Instituto Cultural El Salvador-Israel was founded.
Jerusalén is a municipality in the La Paz department of El Salvador. It was named by the Cordova family, more specifically by Juan Cordova. They were Sephardi Jews who were expelled from Spain.
During the civil war many Jews left the country. The Comunidad Israelita de El Salvador was established in 1944 with a Jewish community center opening in 1945 and a synagogue in 1950 and in 2008 the Sephardic Orthodox Jewish Council of America and the Sephardic Jewish Community is founded by Jorge Yoram Torres.
[edit] 1990s
The signing of peace treaties in 1991 led to the return of several Jewish couples with children who had moved elsewhere during the Salvadoran civil war. A new community center and synagogue were inaugurated in the past decade. The Comunidad Israelita de El Salvador holds services on Friday, Shabbat morning, and on holy days. For Pesach, Rosh Hashannah, Sukkot, Channukah, Purim and Yom Haatzmaut the women's committee organizes meals for the community to share and celebrate together.
University students have a Jewish students association, EJES (Estudiantes Judíos de El Salvador), and a Zionist group, FUSLA (Federación de Universitarios Sionistas de Latinoamérica), both of which are active throughout the year. For adults, the community offers different educational classes in Hebrew and other topics of interest. The "Chevra of Women" offers a course in Jewish cooking, and there is a monthly Jewish bulletin called el Kehilatón, which advertises synagogue events. The Noar Shelanu youth movement, to which about 30 children age 8–18 belong, meets weekly. The kindergarten for young children also meets weekly. Two emissaries teach Hebrew and Judaism.
[edit] Relations with Israel
Israel has an embassy in San Salvador. In 2006, El Salvador announced plans to move the embassy to Tel Aviv where the rest of the embassies are located. This has been met by controversy, with many believing this to decision to be under the influence of the Palestinian community and the President himself, Tony Saca, who is of Palestinian descent.
One of the few times of tension between the two countries was during the civil war, when the Israeli Honorary Consul was kidnapped and murdered by guerrillas.[citation needed]
[edit] References and notes
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This article is missing citations or needs footnotes. Please help add inline citations to guard against copyright violations and factual inaccuracies. (August 2007) |
- Beker, Avi. "El Salvador." Jewish Communities of the World. Lerner Publications Company, Minneapolis, 1998.]]
- "El Salvador." Encyclopedia Judaica.
- "El Salvador." la Unión Judía de Congregaciones de Latinoamérica y el Caribe
- Zaidner, Michael. Jewish Travel Guide. Vallentine Mitchell, Portland, 2000.
[edit] See also
José Castellanos Contreras, diplomat who provided Salvadoran nationality papers to tens of thousands of Jews during World War II.
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