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The Southern Israelite
<•.'Mexico and
A Review of Recent Events and History
By DAVID MANN
Mexico is now in the limelight of Jewish news. Recently
scores of Jewish peddlers were driven from the market
places of Mexico City. The United States Government
has been asked to intervene. J he following article pro-
vides a background for understanding the present situa
tion. It also gives an interesting resume of the history of
the Mexican Jewish community.
THE ■JEWISH PEDDLERS' QUARTER
In Mexico City, from where the Jewish traders are reported to have been expelled
in recent allegedly anti-Semitic incidents.
American Jewry, grown accustomed
to the routine record of Rumania,
Hungary, Germany and other East
European countries on the roster of
anti-Semitic sponsors, was startled
one day recently to discover that a
new Jewish problem had been cre
ated. Mexico had put in its bid for
consideration as a contender for hon
ors in anti-Jewish discrimination. At
once the wheels of Jewish sympathy,
driven fast by the rapid succession
of dispatches describing ever new in
cidents of prejudice and violence, be
gan to operate. The first tangible
effort to end the excesses and to in
tercede on behalf of Mexican Jewry
was made by Alfred M. Cohen, Pres
ident of the B’nai B’rith, who tele
graphed to Secretary of State Ktirn-
son and urged that the American Gov
ernment, make representations to the
Mexican Government in regard to the
reported outrages.
The news stories had described the
sudden and violent ejection of Jew
ish peddlers from the market places
of Mexico City. This was followed
by speeches urging death to the Jews.
A situation was created which threat
ened to engulf all of Mexican Jewry
in a wave of blind fury.
For Mexico to have joined the
ranks of those countries with acute
Jewish problems is a powerful indi
cation of the growing menace of
world-wide anti-Semitism, which some
sociologists definitely attribute to the
current economic depression, which is
universal in its effects. But though
Mexico has been quick to imitate the
Jew-baiting practices of so experi
enced an anti-Semitic land as Ger
many, its Jewish problem is the
youngest of any country’s. For Jews
have pricked themselves on the Mexi
can consciousness only during the last
decade.
It was in 1021 that there began to
trickle into Mexico the Jews who fled
from Europe and could find no entry
into the United States. During the
past ten years approximately 0,000
Jewish immigrants have come into
Mexico, most of them from Poland
and some from Russia. But even that
small number forcefully attracted at
tention to itself. That was a purely
economic circumstance. For those who
entered the land brought a subsis
tence for only a few months. Ar
tisans or petty merchants, they hoped
to gain a foothold in their new land
of settlement. But Mexican condi
tions were against them. In the first
place, Mexico has one of the most
powerful trade union organizations in
the world. It refused to admit the
Jewish newcomers. The merchants
had no means to start themselves in
business. The result was that the ma
jority had to earn a livelihood by
becoming peddlers. That immediately
created a conflict .with the native
traders. Though scores of Jews have,
since 11)21, established themselves in
such various businesses as jewelry,
garages, industrial chemistry, pharm-
ALFRED M. COHEN
As soon as the news dispatches brought
the story of the ejection of and violence
to scores of Jewish peddlers in the market
place of Mexico City, Alfred M. Cohen,
International President of B’nai B'rith,
wired to Secretary of State Stimson, aski
mg that representations be made to the
Mexican Government.
acy, manufacturing, engraving, tail
oring and shoe-making, there are still
thousands who are forced to earn
their living from itinerant vending,
from booths or pushcarts.
It was not merely the desire to
make a political gesture which in
spired Alfred M. Cohen to protest to
the United States Government against
the new outbreaks in Mexico City.
The B nai B’rith, of which he is the
head, has done more to integrate the
Jewish immigrants into the life of
Mexico than any other organization.
The B nai B rith, made aware of the
struggle of the newcomers to earn a
livelihood and of the embarrassing
efforts of some of them to gain un
lawful entry into the United States,
undertook to stabilize the life of the
immigrants. It gave the new arrivals
a meeting house, taught them Span
ish, provided them with loans (which
started off most of them in their own
businesses) and impressed upon them
the need for recognizing that Mexico
was their country and that efforts to
penetrate the l nited States would
e both futile and dangerous. The
woik of carrying out these activities
was entrusted to J. L. Weinberger,
of \ era Cruz. And it is to the ex
haustive material compiled by Mr.
Weinberger that this writer ‘is in
debted for very valuable information
on Jewish conditions in Mexico.
The records indicate that Jews first
came to Mexico in 1538. Ti esc were
the remnants of the masse-
been swept out of Spain w ;i result
of the Inquisition. Hundred- of Jews
found their way to Mexico dimm,
the sixteenth and seventeenth cen
turies. They had hoped to secure
safety from religious persecution and
also the opportunities for economic
advancement. They were quickly dis-
illusioned, however, for the 1 muni
tion worked just as feverishly in
Mexico. Thus the country produced
its own Marranos. Many, however,
deserted to Christianity forever. As
a result of the Mexican revolution in
the nineteenth century Jew- found
conditions better. Jews from Levan
tine countries immigrated to Mexico.
It is estimated that about 1 1,0011 of
these Sephardic Jews are now resi
dent in America’s southern sister re
public. They build up a Jewish com
munal life of their own, along the
lines of Spanish tradition. When the
new Jewish immigration began in
1921 the Sephardic Jews maintained a
distance from the newcomers, though
their relations have always been
friendly. They could hardly be called
intimate, however, or even helpful.
Because of the keen competition of
fered by the Jews to the local trader.'
the Mexican Government, two years
ago, inaugurated a series of restric
tive immigration laws designed to
prevent any further influx from East
ern Europe. Though there was no
overt anti-Semitic bias to this legis
lation, it is worth noting that ninety
per cent of the East European im
migration consisted of Jews.
It was in 1925 that anti-Semitism
gained real impetus in Mexico. The
immigration of several thousand Jmw
in that year overflooded the market
places of Mexico City, where the ma
jority of the Jews located themselves.
Several newspapers began to conduct
a campaign of anti-Jewish propagan
da, demanding that the invaders be
ejected. In 1928 there was a recur
rence of anti-Semitism in the city ot
Merida. One newspaper had launched
a campaign for the ousting of all
Jewish merchants in the city.
B’nai B’rith appealed to the Governor
of Yucatan, who promised ettectW
action to prevent such violence. The
excitement then subsided. a ‘ •
conditions seemed to be ad ■' ! y-
themselves so rapidly that the • nal
B’rith decided to discontinue
tivities last June and to tun < \t‘
its great variety of project
local Jewish community, whi
at last been organized. But
ently business conditions have
so depressed that hundreds
have again been driven into
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