From the late 1800s through World War II, Eastern European Jews fled persecution and violence of their homelands for the safe shores of America. Many of them found refuge in Latin America.
La Plaza explores the assimilation process of Latin American Jews in the U.S. in Latino Jews: Journey to the Americas.
Jewish immigration to Latin America—primarily to Argentina, Cuba, and Mexico—was sometimes accidental and sometimes the result of being turned away by the U.S. While in Latin America, most people of Jewish descent were identified as Jews first and foremost. Upon arriving in the U.S., however, they are often considered Latinos first, Jews second. La Plaza speaks with several Boston-area Latino Jews about their dual—or triple—identity. Rosita Fine, who left Chile when Salvador Allende came to power, has assimilated to the American Jewish community and is happy to be Jewish without reservation. In contrast, Sandra Mayo, an Argentinean Jew who passed as Catholic in her homeland, has found a place in the Latino community.
Lucia Mayerson-David, from Chile, notes that Latino Jews often have a different perspective than American Jews because they or their families are more likely to have lived through the Holocaust. The U.S. did not accept many Jews from 1935-1945, so many Eastern European Jews fleeing the Holocaust went to Latin America instead. For this reason, says Mayerson-David, Latino Jews have a stronger sense of having been persecuted than their American counterparts. Likewise, Ester Shapiro from Cuba identifies more with Latinos and other people of color than with American Jews, who she thinks identify themselves with White America.
Jennifer Nieman, a young Puerto Rican Jewish woman representative of a new generation of Latino Jews, sees herself as a "mutt:" she considers herself Cuban Jewish, although she's never lived in Cuba or been to Israel. She embraces her blended identity and her "differentness," and feels that she is better off for it.