Mexico – a friendly haven for Jews

The travel writer, Paul Theroux includes Mexico in a list of perfect tourist destinations: ‘Pretty big. Not too dirty. Nice food. Courteous people. Sunshine. Lots of masterpieces. Ruins all over the place. Names that ring a bell. Long, vague history.’

by ROBYN SASSEN

WITH A history stretching back over 2.000 years, into Mayan and Aztec civilisations, it also boasts visceral and politically infl ammatory contemporary art produced by Frida Kahlo and her husband Diego Rivera – a descendant of Converso Jews.

Travel to Mexico for observant Jews is not complicated, however, by the perception of exoticism. Jews have been living in Mexico for centuries; numbering over 50 000, the community today is considered a haven for Jews.

Fernando Cortes’ conquest of the Aztecs in 1521 brought the fi rst wave of Jewish emigration to Mexico.

The Jews then were largely Conversos, forced into Catholicism during the Spanish Inquisition of 1492.

In spite of the hidden nature of their cultural status and the threat of being burned at the stake for being discovered to be “Judaizing”, they persisted in secretly circumcising their sons and keeping kosher.

In the 1860s, Maximilian I of Mexico invited Jewish immigration from Europe, which sparked the second wave of Jewish emigration.

From the 1880s, Jews fl eeing Russian pogroms settled in Mexico in their thousands, and with the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in the 1920s, Sephardic Jews from Turkey, Morocco and France also fl ed to Mexico.

Nazi persecution a decade later also forged Jewish immigration. In addition, a small community of American Jews has relocated to Mexico.

Contemporary Jewish Mexico is in the majority Ashkenazi; most live in Mexico City, where there are more than 30 synagogues, most of which are Orthodox. The community’s Chevrah Kadisha was established in 1922.

There are 12 Jewish day schools, including ones catering to the haredi community, as well as yeshivas. The community is fed by a range of schooling, including the secular “Yiddische Schule”, in which Yiddish is taught – Ladino is spoken among the older members of the community and those with Spanish forebears. Zionist youth movements such as Bnei Akiva, Habonim and Hashomer Hatzair are active in Mexico City.

The mizrachi community comprises Syrian immigrants, nominally recognised as Arab Jews. The Sephardic sector is descended from Turkish and Spanish immigrants.

In addition to Mexico City, smaller pockets of Jews live in the cities of Jalisco, Guadalajara, Monterrey, Veracruz, Culiacán, Tijuana, Cancún and Cabos.

These small communities are closed to integration: Until recently, marriage between Sephardi and Ashkenazi Jews was considered intermarriage, and was avoided.

In Tijuana, Cancún and Cabos, Chabad Centres comprehensively facilitate needs for the community and visitors. On a civil level, the Central Committee for the Jewish Community of Mexico, established in 1938, is an umbrella body for Jews in Mexico.

While some cities have their own kosher plants, others cater for kosher patrons with a more personal touch. In the city of Cabo, Cabo Kosher is the fi rst and only kosher meal service.

Operating like a Mr Delivery, they deliver food ordered online or telephonically. A feeder from Chabad, Cabo Kosher offers Glatt Kosher meat and chicken, but also has fish on their menu. Their dairy products are all Chalav Yisrael.

In the city of Cancún, there is a similar service, under Chabad, providing kosher food to any hotel in the Cancún and Riviera Maya regions.

Chicken and meat products are imported from New York, Guadalajara and Mexico City. The city also boasts a healthy stock of kosher foods in its supermarkets.

Mexico boasts a rich array of exciting tourist venues, including a focus on the Jewish culture. The Tuvia Maizel Museum in Mexico City – also known as the Museo Historico Judio Y del Holocausto – offers insight into the Holocaust roots of Mexican Jewry, as well as the history of Jewish culture in broader Mexico. Founded in 1970, it was remodelled in 1999 and has since accommodated over 150.000 visitors.

More recently, the Memory and Tolerance Museum in Mexico City’s CBD, a fi ve-storey glass and concrete building with a fl oor space of 7 000m2, was inaugurated last October.

The dream of Mexican Holocaust survivors and their offspring, the museum was a decade in the making, funded almost entirely by private individuals, many of them Jewish.

“It’s important as a nation to be very vigilant about any act of exclusion,” said Mexico’s President Felipe Caldéron, on opening the venue.

“We have not overcome discrimination, which affects many groups of society.”

The museum focuses on Jewish persecution as well as genocides and atrocities in other parts of the world, including Rwanda, Yugoslavia, Cambodia and South Africa.

Said refugee Vjollca Bajraj who fled to Mexico after the ethnic cleansing in Kosovo: “Mexico is a tolerant place, though there’s still a lot to be done here, like in the rest of the world.”

This museum is part of an aggressive marketing campaign for Mexico, mooted two years ago by Caldéron, built on the premise that Mexico has everything. One of its primary economic drivers is the tourist industry, and it continues to fl ourish.

Mexico is today considered a haven for Jews. Anti-Semitism is virtually non-existent; Jews hold high positions in government and business; Jewish artists and writers are considered among the cream of society.

Most Mexican Jews are middle to uppermiddle class. In 2003, President Vicente Fox passed a law forbidding discrimination, including anti-Semitism, legislating what has been practised for years.

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Ten tips for when you go to Mexico:

 

• You need a visa to visit Mexico. The Mexican Embassy is in Pretoria: (012) 460-1004, and a tourist visa for South African passportholders is free of charge.

• Special medical precautions are only necessary for travel to Mexico if you intend travelling to jungles or remote areas, in which case, consult your tour guide.

• Mexico’s climate is tropical to temperate, varying according to altitude, winds and Pacifi c Ocean currents. The Yucatan Peninsula and low-lying areas of the south enjoy a tropical climate; weather in the higher altitudes

is temperate. Coastal areas receive plenty of rain; most of the country is dry.

Mexico’s east and west coast are at risk of hurricanes during summer and autumn.

• Spanish is spoken throughout Mexico; English is spoken in the tourist areas.

• At the time of going to press, one South African rand will buy you 1,7 New Mexican Pesos (MXN)

• The “casas de cambio” (exchange houses) are faster, more easily available and operate with longer working hours than the banks, for changing currency.

• Traffi c in Mexico is on the right hand side. Vol 15 N.13

• Electricity in Mexico is 127 volts. The majority of plugs are two flat-pronged-style plugs. Some have a third, round, prong for earth.

• Avoid drinking tap water in Mexico. Be wary of drinks that have water added to them, fruit and vegetables that may have been washed in tap water, and ice.

Mexico uses three time zones. Most of the country uses Central Standard Time, which is six hours behind South Africa.

Daylight saving begins at 02:00 on the first Sunday in April and falls back to Standard Time on the last Sunday in October at 02:00.

Source: SA Jewish Report Vol 15 N.13