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PAGE 14RH THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE October 3, 1986 GATE CITY LODGE #144 B’nai B’Rith WISHES A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ITS MEMBERS, THEIR FAMILIES AND FRIENDS Bernard B. Kornmehl, President Robert Galanti, President-Designate Stewart I. Aaron. Vice President Barry Gold. Vice President Arie Kohn. Vice President Steven Leibcl. V'ice President Victor Profis, Vice President Allan Brezel. Treasurer David S. Franco. Recording Secretary Barry Silver. Monitor SERVICE GUILD, Inc. Jewish Home Gift Shop thanks you for your patronage and con tinuing support and wishes all our many friends HAPPY HOLIDAYS Sound the Shofar for peace throughout the World in the coming year Mack Frankel A tlanta Post No. 112 Jewish War Veterans of the United States AII. Smith, Commander And Ladies’ A uxiliary Eleanor T. Schwartz, President Sosua's fortunate 600' by George Bernard Of the 100,000 Jews from Aus tria and Germany who were offered settlement by Dominican Republic President Rafael Trujillo in 1938, only about 600 squeezed through Europe’s tangled red tape and clos ing doors as Hitler’s Final Solution foreclosed on asylum and Jewish life. Judith Kibel is one of the fortu nate “600.” When she arrived here in 1940, she chose kitchen work over latrine duty. Today she rents apartments. In 1947, many of the original Jewish settlers departed for the United States, Canada and Israel. Judith, however, elected to remain in this region of the country which Christopher Columbus ex plored on his first trip to the New World. “Jewish life is not the same as it was when we first came here. You know, there are only 36 Jewish families left from the 1940 group.” “There’s considerably more," claimed a local merchant, pointing to the movement of the European Jewish settlers and their families to Semi-Annual Half-Price Sale i Hie v Sampler Open Mon.-Sat. 10-6 2105 N. DECATUR RD. (at Clairmonti 325-4147 nearby and surrounding areas of the country. Judith’s neighbors, Pablo Cohen and Horst Wagner, also of the original 600, were away in Miami Beach. “They, too, return to Sosua, no matter how many times they leave the country,” Judith said. She added that the Dominican Republic is a land of vast natural resources, religious freedom and opportunity. “There’s no prejudice here, none at all,” she said. Ev eryone is Dominican, no matter your skin color or religion.” Carol Rubenstein of New York, who was visiting Judith, revealed that there were five bar mitzvas in Sosua last year. She expressed the hope that no one would write about Sosua which is already in the early stages of a tourist boom. “Soon my uncle, my aunt and all my relatives will be flocking here,” she cried. “It won’t be the same.” Judith noted that the grand children of the original settlers are of mixed Dominican-Jewish blood through intermarriage. The child ren of the 600 refugees were sent abroad for higher education and most remained in Israel, the U.S., Canada and Europe. In fact, Ju dith’s two daughters continue to live in California. Today, the legacy of these Euro pean Jews can be found in the dairy farms they inaugurated here, which they still operate, producing much of the milk, meat and cheese consumed by this West Indies nation of 5 1 /: million. Wolfgang Oberfeld, tour opera tor for Turinter and the luxurious Bahia Beach Hotel in Samana, tells sightseers that the Jews have made major contributions to the growth of this nation. “Because of the Jews who settled in Sosua, spe cial trade arrangements exist with U.S., Canada and Israel.” Ober feld, who once lived in Tel Aviv noted that Sosua cheese is charac teristically “white, extremely deli cious made under strict kosher conditions.” He added that Sosua also exports a variety of smoked meats to the U.S. and Puerto Rico Oberfeld revealed that in the entire Dominican Republic, there are 2,500 Jews. Also, the first inter racial marriage between a Jewish descendant of a 1940 arrival and a Dominican occurred in 1970. Primarily through word of mouth and a few newspaper articles, Jews from many countries are arriving in record numbers in search of her itage and culture. Many are remain ing in Sosua. And over at nearby Sosuamar, a sprawling, perfectly landscaped re sort of breathtaking spacious villas and apartments, culinary delica cies, well-tended tennis courts along a generous-size swimming pool overlooking Sosua Beach, the names of Weinberg, Bloom and Wolfson are commonplace among guests. Five minutes away down the road from Sosuamar, Judith is tell ing friends she’s becomingannoyed answering tourists’ questions about Sosua. Secretly, however, she enjoys every moment of it. She also cher ishes two possessions which she has framed: a personal letter trom Is raeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin thanking her for wishing him a happy birthday; the other, from the Israeli government prais ing her support of Israel duringthe controversial strike on a French- built Iraqi nuclear reactor in 1981. May the New Year bring you happiness, good health and peace. uron mitt ATLANTA ■ SECTION nojiu NATIONALS® COUNCIL cnnrlmSfm'J ^Cl L 0F JEWISH WOMEN EDUCATION • SOCIAL ACTION • SERVICE