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Women from the Dominican and Jewish community gathered together to speak about their shared history, specifically in regards to Sosúa, the settlement in the Dominican Republic that served as home to Jewish refugees fleeing the Holocaust.
Story and photos by Sandra E. García
The sunlight beamed throughout the room unto the upturned faces, all of different hues and ages, faces that filled the Riverdale-Yonkers Society for Ethical Culture Center in the Bronx for a special event this past Sun., Dec. 4th.
In the back of the room, a large aluminum container filled with mangú, the mashed plantain dish that is a staple of Dominican homes, was placed right across from the challah, the special braided bread served at the Jewish family table.
At every glance, no matter where you turned, the embrace between two cultures was unmistakable.
Late on a bright Sunday morning, local members of the Dominican and Jewish community gathered to acknowledge and celebrate their vivid shared history together as part of a fundraiser to benefit The Dominican Women Development Center in Washington Heights.
The brunch gathering served foremost as a forum for many of the older Jewish audience members to share their vivid memories of arriving in Sosúa, the small town in Puerto Plata, in the Dominican Republic.
“I did not have a childhood; I always get choked up when I talk about it,” said Ruth Kohn. “But when I got to Sosúa I felt free.”
Kohn, a Holocaust survivor who fled Berlin to Sosúa, spoke to the audience as part of a dialogue moderated by Lilliam Perez, Senior Advisor and Deputy Director of Intergovernmental Affairs at New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. Perez had previously worked on The Sosúa Project, as spearheaded by then-State Senator Scheiderman. The Project, a traveling exhibition, seeks to recapture and tell the story of how Jewish families, fleeing the persecutions of the Holocaust, were recruited as settlers to come to Sosúa. The exhibit explores what awaited the refugees there, what roles the Dominican and U.S. governments and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee played, how the settlers worked with their Dominican neighbors to establish themselves, and what kind of a town they created in the New World.
Moreover, the Sosúa Project speaks to a very poignant shared history between Dominicans and Jews.
As Kohn shared her story with the audience, her voice tightened with emotion, particularly when asked about her childhood.
“The Jews that were in Sosúa came from a place where they were considered the scum of the earth,” she said.
She note that there had been a small, if remarkable, stroke of fortune in her family’s departure to the Dominican Republic.
“If we would’ve left a day later, we wouldn’t have been able to come,” said Kohn. Hitler had changed the age requirement for those who were allowed to flee the country the day after Kohn and her family fled.
“When we left Germany, you had to be under 18 and over 45; the following day, Hitler changed it to under 14 and over 60,” said Kohn. “We were lucky.”
As Kohn described it, she was ripped from the life she knew in Germany at the age of 14.
But upon arrival, Kohn says she found people who welcomed her and her family, sharing memories of how the Dominican people treated her with love.
“Dominican people are friendly and generous,” Kohn said.
She spoke about her troubles learning to speak Spanish, and how for a year she didn’t understand anything.
“I had no idea what to do in the school, I spoke no Spanish and we weren’t allowed to speak German,” Kohn said.
“But my report card is now in exhibit at the Jewish museum in Sosúa,” she noted.
Many in the audience chuckled at the telling of the memory. It did not seem unfamiliar to those gathered, the experience of traveling from one country to another, with little handle on the language or the customs to be encountered there, only to find later that the new world would soon be called home.
Several silent auctions were also held in order to raise funds for the community-based center. After a performance by The Sosúa Dare to Dance Together Program, a theatre company comprised of over 10 students who acted out the words of Trujillo, Queen Elizabeth, and Adolf Hitler, the program drew to a close.
“It was wonderful. It was a really close encounter of people from both cultures,” said Rosita Romero, executive director of The Dominican Women’s Development Center. “It was a great event to promote the center’s many programs that provide services for the community.”
Moreover, Romero felt that the history shared could serve to point up lessons for today.
“Both cultures showcased the hospitality and goodness in the human heart. We bring that human strength to the process of relating to other people. People talked about how welcomed they were in the Dominican Republic and the love and dignity there,” she said. “We expect to be treated the same, with dignity, love and respect by the Jewish community and all other communities,” said Romero.
For more information on The Sosúa Project, please visit http://www.mjhnyc.org/final/, and for further information on the Dominican Women’s Development Center (DWDC), please call 212.994.6060 or visit www.dwdc.org.
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