The history of the Jews in Latin America began with conversos who joined the Spanish and Portuguese expeditions to the continents. The Alhambra Decree of 1492 led to the mass conversion of Spain's Jews to Catholicism and the expulsion of those who refused to do so. However, the vast majority of conversos never made it to the New World and remained in Spain slowly assimilating to the dominant Catholic culture. This was due to the requirement by Spain's Blood Statutes to provide written documentation of Old Christian lineage to travel to the New World. However, the first Jews came with the first expedition of Christopher Columbus, including Rodrigo de Triana and Luis De Torres.^[1]

However, throughout the 15th and 16th centuries a number of converso families migrated to the Netherlands, France and eventually Italy, from where they joined other expeditions to the Americas. Others migrated to England or France and accompanied their colonists as traders and merchants. By the late 16th century, fully functioning Jewish communities were founded in the Portuguese colony of Brazil, the Dutch Suriname and Curaçao; Spanish Santo Domingo, and the English colonies of Jamaica and Barbados. In addition, there were unorganized communities of Jews in Spanish and Portuguese territories where the Inquisition was active, including Colombia, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Mexico and Peru. Many in such communities were crypto-Jews, who had generally concealed their identity from the authorities.

By the mid-17th century, the largest Jewish communities in the Western Hemisphere were located in Suriname and Brazil. Several Jewish communities in the Caribbean, Central and South America flourished, particularly in those areas under Dutch and English control, which were more tolerant. More immigrants went to this region as part of the massive emigration of Jews from eastern Europe in the late 19th century. During and after World War II, many Ashkenazi Jews emigrated to South America for refuge. In the 21st century, fewer than 300,000 Jews live in Latin America. They are concentrated in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Mexico and Uruguay. There are many important Jewish sites found in Latin America with the most notable being Beth Shalom Temple in Havana.

Argentina

Jews fleeing the Inquisition settled in Argentina, where they intermarried with native women. Portuguese traders and smugglers in the Virreinato del Río de la Plata were considered by many to be crypto-Jewish, but no community emerged after Argentina achieved independence. After 1810 (and about mid-nineteenth century), more Jews, especially from France, began to settle in Argentina. By the end of the century in Argentina, as in America, many Jewish immigrants were coming from Eastern Europe (mainly Russia and Poland) fleeing Tsarist persecution. Upon arrival they were generally called "Russians" in reference to their region of origin.

Jewish individuals and families emigrated from Europe to Argentina before and after World War II, in an attempt to escape the Holocaust and later postwar antisemitism. Between 250,000 and 300,000 Jews now live in Argentina, the vast majority of whom reside in the cities of Buenos Aires, Rosario, Córdoba, Mendoza, La Plata and San Miguel de Tucumán. Argentina has the third-largest Jewish community in the Americas after the United States and Canada, and the sixth largest in the world. According to recent surveys, more than a million Argentines have at least one grandparent of Jewish ethnicity.^[2] The Jewish Argentine community legally receives seven holidays per year, with both days of Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and the first and last two days of Passover, according to the law 26,089.

Bolivia

Jewish presence in Bolivia started at the beginning of the Spanish colonial period. Santa Cruz de la Sierra,^[3] was founded in 1557 by Ñuflo de Chávez who was accompanied by a small group of pioneers, including several crypto-Jews from Ascuncion and Buenos Aires. The city became known as a safe haven for Jews during the Inquisition in the region.^[2]

The second wave of Conversos came to Santa Cruz de la Sierra after 1570, when the Spanish Inquisition began operating in Lima. Alleged marranos (that is, New Christians whom others rightly or wrongly suspected of crypto-Judaism), settled in Potosi, La Paz and La Plata. After they gained economic success in mining and commerce, they faced suspicion and persecution from the Inquisition and local authorities. Most of these marrano families moved to Santa Cruz de la Sierra, as it was an isolated urban settlement where the Inquisition did not bother the conversos.^[4] Most of the converso settlers were men, and many intermarried with indigenous or mestizo women, founding mixed-race or mestizo families. Conversos also settled in adjacent towns of Vallegrande, Postrervalle, Portachuelo, Terevinto, Pucara, Cotoca and others.^[5]

Many of Santa Cruz's oldest families are of partial Jewish heritage; Some traces of Jewish culture can still be found in family traditions, as well as local customs. For example, some families have family-heirloom seven-branched candle sticks or the custom of lighting candles on Friday at sunset. The typical local dishes can be all prepared with kosher practices (none mix milk and meat, pork is served, but never mixed with other foods).^[4] Scholars disagree on provenance and recency of these practices. After almost five centuries, some of the descendants of these families claim awareness of Jewish origins, but practice Catholicism (in certain cases with some Jewish syncretism).

From independence in 1825 to the end of the 19th century, some Jewish merchants and traders (both Sephardim and Ashkenazim) immigrated to Bolivia. Most took local women as wives, founding families that eventually merged into the mainstream Catholic society. This was often the case in the eastern regions of Santa Cruz, Tarija, Beni and Pando, where these merchants came from Brazil or Argentina.

During the 20th century, substantial Jewish settlement began in Bolivia. In 1905, a group of Russian Jews, followed by Argentines, settled in Bolivia. In 1917, it was estimated that there were 20 to 25 professing Jews in the country. By 1933, when the Nazi era in Germany started, there were 30 Jewish families. The first large Jewish immigration occurred during the 1930s; the population had climbed to an estimated 8,000 at the end of 1942. During the 1940s, 2,200 Jews emigrated from Bolivia to other countries. But the ones who remained have created communities in La Paz, Cochabamba, Oruro, Santa Cruz, Sucre, Tarija and Potosí. After World War II, a small number of Polish Jews immigrated to Bolivia.

By 2006, approximately 700 Jews remained in Bolivia. There are synagogues in the cities of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, La Paz, and Cochabamba. Most Bolivian Jews live in Santa Cruz de la Sierra.^[6]

Brazil

Jews settled early in Brazil, especially in areas of Dutch rule. They set up a synagogue in Recife in 1636, which is considered the first synagogue in the Americas. Most of these Jews were conversos who had fled Spain and Portugal to the religious freedom of the Netherlands when the Inquisition began in Portugal in 1536. In 1656, following the Portuguese reconquest of Brazil, Jews left for the Caribbean islands and New Amsterdam under Dutch rule; the latter was taken over by the English in 1664 and was renamed as New York City.

After independence in the 19th century, Brazil attracted more Jews among its immigrants, and pressure in Europe convinced more Jews to leave. Jewish immigration rose throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, at a time of massive emigration from the Russian Empire (including Poland and Ukraine). Jewish immigration to Brazil was rather low between 1881 and 1900 although this was the height of other international immigration to Brazil; many were going to more industrialized countries. Between 1921 and 1942 worldwide immigration to Brazil fell by 21%, but Jewish immigration to Brazil increased by 57,000. This was in response to anti-immigration legislation and immigration quotas passed by the United States, Argentina, Canada and South Africa, persisting even after the crisis of Jews under the Third Reich became clear. The Brazilian government generally did not enforce its own immigration legislation. Lastly, the Jews in Brazil developed strong support structures and economic opportunities, which attracted Eastern European and Polish Jewish immigration.^[7]

Brazil has the 9th largest Jewish community in the world, about 107,329 by 2010, according to the IBGE census.^[8] The Jewish Confederation of Brazil (CONIB) estimates that there are more than 120,000 Jews in Brazil.^[9] Brazilian Jews play an active role in politics, sports, academia, trade and industry, and are well integrated in all spheres of Brazilian life. The majority of Brazilian Jews live in the state of São Paulo, but there are also sizable communities in Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande do Sul, Minas Gerais and Paraná.

Chile

Although a relatively small community amounting to no more than 1% of the country's religious minorities, Jews in Chile have achieved prominent positions in its society. They have had key roles both before and after its independence in 1810. Most Chilean Jews today reside in Santiago and Valparaíso, but there are significant communities in the north and south of the country.

Mario Kreutzberger, otherwise known as "Don Francisco" and host of 'Sábado Gigante', the longest-running TV show in the world, is a Chilean Jew of German origin. Other Chilean Jews who have achieved recognition in arts and culture include Alejandro Jodorowsky, now established in France and best known internationally for his literary and filmic work. Others include Nissim Sharim (actor), Shlomit Baytelman (actress) and Anita Klesky (actress). Volodia Teitelboim, poet and former leader of the Chilean Communist Party, is one of the many Jews to have held important political positions in the country.

Tomás Hirsch is leader of the radical Green-Communist coalition and former presidential candidate in 2005. State ministers Karen Poniachick (Minister for Mining) and Clarisa Hardy (Minister for Social Affairs) are also Jewish. In the field of sport, tennis player Nicolás Massú (gold medalist in Athens 2004 and former top-ten in the ATP rankings) has Jewish background.

Many of the country's most important companies, particularly in the retail and commercial field, have been set up by Jews. Examples are Calderon, Gendelman, Hites, and Pollak (commercial retailers) and Rosen (Mattress and Bed Industries).

Colombia

"New Christians", fled the Iberian peninsula to escape persecution and seek religious freedom during the 16th and 17th centuries. It is estimated that some reached northern areas of Colombia, which at the time was known as New Granada. Most if not all of these people assimilated into Colombian society. Some continue to practice traces of Sephardic Jewish rituals as family traditions.

In the 18th century, practicing Spanish and Portuguese Jews came from Jamaica and Curaçao, where they had flourished under English and Dutch rule. These Jews started practicing their religion openly in Colombia at the end of the 18th century, although it was not officially legal to do so, given the established Catholic Church. After independence, Judaism was recognized as a legal religion. The government granted the Jews land for a cemetery.

Many Jews who came during the 18th and 19th centuries achieved prominent positions in Colombian society. Some married local women and felt they had to abandon or diminish their Jewish identity. These included author Jorge Isaacs of English Jewish ancestry, the industrialist James Martin Eder (who adopted the more Christian name of Santiago Eder when he translated his name to Spanish) born into the Latvian Jewish community, as well as the De Lima, Salazar, Espinoza, Arias, Ramirez, Perez and Lobo families of Caribbean Sephardim. Coincidentally, these persons and their families settled in the Cauca Valley region of Colombia. They have continued to be influential members of society in cities such as Cali. Over the generations most of their descendants were raised as secular Christians.

During the early part of the 20th century, numerous Sephardic Jewish immigrants came from Greece, Turkey, North Africa and Syria. Shortly after, Jewish immigrants began to arrive from Eastern Europe. A wave of immigrants came after the rise of Nazism in 1933 and the imposition of antisemitic laws and practices, including more than 7,000 German Jews. From 1939 until the end of World War II, immigration was put to a halt by anti-immigrant feelings in the country and restrictions on immigration from Germany.^[10]

Colombia asked Germans who were on the U.S. blacklist to leave and allowed Jewish refugees in the country illegally to stay.^[11] The Jewish population increased dramatically in the 1950s and 1960s, and institutions such as synagogues, schools and social clubs were established throughout the largest cities in the country.

The changing economy and wave of kidnappings during the last decade of the 20th century led many members of Colombia's Jewish community to emigrate. Most settled in Miami and other parts of the United States. Successes in the nation's Democratic security Policy has encouraged citizens to return; it has drastically reduced violence in the rural areas and criminality rates in urban areas, as well as in spurring the economy. The situation in Colombia has improved to the extent that many Venezuelan Jews are now seeking refuge in Colombia.

In the early 21st century, most of the Jews in Colombia are concentrated in Bogotá, with about 20,000 members, and Barranquilla, with about 7,000 members. Large communities are found in Cali and Medellín, but very few practicing Jews. Smaller communities are found in Cartagena and the island of San Andres. There are 14 official synagogues throughout the country. In Bogotá, Jews each run their own religious and cultural institutions. The Confederación de Asociaciones Judías de Colombia, located in Bogotá, is the central organization that coordinates Jews and Jewish institutions in Colombia.

In the new millennium, after years of study, a group of Colombians with Jewish ancestry formally converted to Judaism to be accepted as Jews according to the halakha.^[12]

Costa Rica

The first Jews in Costa Rica were probably conversos, who arrived in the 16th and 17th centuries with Spanish expeditions. In the 19th century Sephardic merchants from Curaçao, Jamaica, Panama and the Caribbean followed. They lived mostly in Central Valley, married local women, and were soon assimilated into the country's general society. Most eventually gave up Judaism altogether.

A third wave of Jewish immigrants came before World War I and especially in the 1930s, as Ashkenazi Jews fled a Europe threatened by Nazi Germany. Most of these immigrants came from the Polish town Żelechów. The term Polacos, which was originally a slur referring to these immigrants, has come to mean door-to-door salesman in colloquial Costa Rican Spanish.

The country's first synagogue, the Orthodox Shaarei Zion, was built in 1933 in the capital San José (it is located along 3rd Avenue and 6th Street). Along with a wave of nationalism, in the 1940s there was some antisemitism in Costa Rica, but generally there have been few problems.

Since the late 20th century there has been a fourth wave of Jewish immigration made up of American and Israeli expatriates who are retiring here or doing business in the country. The Jewish community is estimated to number 2,500 to 3,000 people, most of them living in the capital.^[13]

The San José suburb of Rohrmoser has a strong Jewish influence due to its residents. A couple of synagogues are located here, as well as a kosher deli and restaurant. The Plaza Rohrmoser shopping center had the only kosher Burger King in the country. The Centro Israelita Sionista (Zionist Israeli Center) is a large Orthodox compound where a synagogue, library and museum are located. In 2015, the Chaim Weizmann comprehensive school in San Jose had over 300 students in kindergarten, primary, and secondary grades learning in both Spanish and Hebrew.^[14]

Cuba

Jews have lived on the island of Cuba for centuries. Some Cubans trace Jewish ancestry to crypto-Jews, called Marranos, who fled the Spanish Inquisition. Early colonists generally married native women and few of their descendants, after centuries of residence, practice Judaism today. There was significant Jewish immigration to Cuba in the first half of the 20th century, as noted in other countries of Latin America. During this time, Beth Shalom Temple in Havana was constructed and became the most prominent Latin American Jewish synagogue. There were 15,000 Jews in Cuba in 1959, but many Jewish businessmen and professionals left Cuba for the United States after the Cuban revolution, fearing class persecution under the Communists.

In the early 1990s, Operation Cigar was launched, and in the period of five years, more than 400 Cuban Jews secretly immigrated to Israel.^[15][16] In February 2007 The New York Times estimated that about 1,500 Jews live in Cuba, most of them (about 1,000) in Havana.^[17] Beth Shalom Temple is now one of the most popular sites in Cuba and is constantly listed as one of the holiest Jewish sites in the world.

Curaçao

Curaçao has the oldest active Jewish congregation in the Americas—dating to 1651—and the oldest synagogue of the Americas, in continuous use since its completion in 1732 on the site of a previous synagogue. The Jewish community of Curaçao also played a key role in supporting early Jewish congregations in the United States in the 18th and 19th centuries, including in New York City and Newport, Rhode Island, where the Touro Synagogue was built. Growth in Latin American Jewish communities, primarily in Colombia and Venezuela, resulted from the influx of Curaçaoan Jews. In 1856 and 1902 the Jews of Coro (Venezuela) were plundered, maltreated, and driven to seek refuge in their native Curaçao.

Dominican Republic

Converso Merchants of Sephardic origin arrived in southern Hispaniola during the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries, fleeing the outcome of the Spanish Inquisition. Over the centuries, many Jews and their descendants assimilated into the general population and some have converted into the Catholic religion, although many of the country's Jews still retain elements of the Sephardic culture of their ancestors. Later, in the 18th and 19th centuries, many Sephardic families from Curaçao emigrated to the Dominican Republic.^{[18][19][20][21][22]}

Sosua, meanwhile, is a small town close to Puerto Plata was founded by Jews fleeing the rising Nazi regime of the 1930s.^{[citation needed]} Rafael Trujillo, the country's dictator, welcomed many Jewish refugees to his island mainly for their skills rather than for religious persecution. Present-day Sosua still possesses a synagogue and a museum of Jewish history. Descendants of those Jews can still be found in many other villages and towns on the north of the island close to Sosua.^{[citation needed]}

Ecuador

For some time, prior to the 20th century, many Jews in Ecuador were of Sephardic ancestry and some retained their use of the Judaeo-Spanish (Ladino) language. However, today, most Jewish people in Ecuador are of Ashkenazi ancestry.^[23][24] Some assume that these groups were among the European settlers of Ecuador.

Many Jewish people came from Germany in 1939, on a ship called the "Koenigstein". During the years 1933–43, there were a population of 2,700 Jewish immigrants. In 1939, the Jewish population, mostly German and Polish Jews, were expelled by a decree of the Italian influenced government of Alberto Enriquez Gallo. The antisemitism spread in the population, but was stopped by the intervention of the American embassy. In 1945, there was a reported population of 3,000. About 85% of them were European refugees.

The rise of Jewish immigration to Ecuador was when the Holocaust started. In 1950, there was an estimation of 4,000 persons living in Ecuador. Most of the active Jewish communities in Ecuador are from German origin. The majority of Ecuadorian Jews live in Quito and Guayaquil. There is a Jewish school in Quito. In Guayaquil, there is a Jewish Community under the auspices of Los Caminos de Israel^[25] called Nachle Emuna Congregation. Now in 2017 in Ecuador there are only 290 reported Jews in the country. "Among the Jewish immigrants who came to Ecuador were also professionals, intellectuals and artists, some of whom were professors and writers. Other Alberto Capua, Giorgio Ottolenghi, Aldo Mugla, Francisco Breth, Hans Herman, Leopold Levy, Paul Engel, Marco Turkel, Henry Fente, Benno Weiser, Otto Glass, Egon Fellig, and Karl Kohn. Olga Fis valued and spread the Ecuadorian folk art, Constanza Capua conducted archaeological, anthropological and colonial art.

From Sephardic ancestry were Leonidas Gilces and his younger brother Angel Theodore Gilces whom helped many immigrants such as Charles Liebman who reach the capital with his library, which became the most important of the capital. Simon Goldberg who had a library in Berlin, Goethe library of old books that contributed to the dissemination of reading. Vera Kohn was a psychologist and teacher, tasks that at mid-century were not of interest of Ecuadorian women who used to live in their homes given away, devoid of intellectual curiosity and only care about social life. They were not interested in politics, with the exception of Paul Beter, belonging to the second generation of Jews, who became Minister of Economy and Central Bank President.

El Salvador

Alsatian-born Bernardo Haas, who came to El Salvador in 1868, was believed to be the country's first Jewish immigrant. Another Jew, Leon Libes, was documented as the first German Jew in 1888. Sephardic families also arrived from countries such as Turkey, Egypt, Tunisia Spain and France. De Sola helped to found the first synagogue and became an invaluable member of the Jewish community. In 1936, World War II caused the Jewish community to help their ancestors escape from Europe. Some had their relatives in El Salvador. But some were forced to go into countries such as Brazil, Ecuador, Guatemala and Panama. On 30 July 1939, President Martinez barred an entry of fifty Jewish refugees going to El Salvador on the German ship Portland. On 11 September 1948, the community started and continues to support a school "Colegio Estado de Israel". According to the latest Census, there are currently about 100 Jews living in El Salvador, mostly in the capital city of San Salvador. Most of them have Sephardic roots. There is a small town called Armenia in rural El Salvador where people practice Orthodox Sephardic Judaism since the inquisition.^[26]

French Guiana

History of the Jews in French Guiana redirects here.

Jews arrived in French Guiana by the way of the Dutch West India Company. Later on 12 September 1659, Jews arrived from Dutch colonies in Brazil. The company appointed David Nassy, a Brazilian refugee, patron of an exclusive Jewish settlement on the western side of the island of Cayenne, an area called Remire or Irmire. From 1658 to 1659, Paulo Jacomo Pinto began negotiating with the Dutch authorities in Amsterdam to allow a group of Jews from Livorno, Italy to settle in the Americas. On 20 July 1600, more than 150 Sephardic Jews left Livorno (Leghorn) and settled in Cayenne. The French agreed to those terms, an exceptional policy that was not common among the French colonies. Nevertheless, nearly two-thirds of the population left for the Dutch colony of Suriname.

Over the decades, the Leghorn Jews of Cayenne immigrated to Suriname. In 1667, the remaining Jewish community was captured by the occupying British forces and moved the population to either Suriname or Barbados to work in sugarcane production. Since the late 17th century, few Jews have lived in French Guiana. In 1992, 20 Jewish families from Suriname and North Africa attempted to re-establish the community in Cayenne. A Chabad organization exists in the country and maintains Jewish life within the community. Today, 800 Jews live in French Guiana, predominately in Cayenne.

Guatemala

History of the Jews in Guatemala redirects here.

The Jews in Guatemala are mainly descendants from immigrants from Germany, Eastern Europe and the Middle East that arrived in the second half of the 19th century and first half of the 20th.

The first Jewish families arrived from the town of Kempen, Posen, Prussia (today Kepno, Poland), establishing themselves in Guatemala City and Quetzaltenango. Immigrants from the Middle East (mainly Turkey) immigrated during the first three decades of the 20th century. Many immigrated during World War II. There are approximately 900 Jews living in Guatemala today. Most live in Guatemala City. Today, the Jewish community in Guatemala is made up of Orthodox Jews, Sephardi, Eastern European and German Jews. Zdroj:https://en.wikipedia.org?pojem=History_of_the_Jews_in_Guatemala
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