Everybody I’m so happy ER to be here with you ER I really appreciate what suum has done for all of us because we are far but we are close so I’m now in Mexico City at the office that ER used to be also the office of the ER community of the ashkanazi community
It’s the same window those were the ones who ER brought together all the problems of the immigrants at this same office long ago and H now today I was invited by Danny and thank you so much to talk to you about this place what happened to this synagogue that was an abandoned
Place because the Jews moved to other neighborhoods and this was abandoned ER so we recovered it about 14 years ago and we opened it as a cultural center for the ER people everybody if there is people here from New York I’m sure you have been to the eldrid street synagogue
And I always say that that is our older sister because it has the same story it was the first ashkenazic synagogue in the city it was inspired in a synagogue of Lithuania they moved to other neighborhoods it was kind of abandon they recover it and now it’s open as a
Mus so we have the same story and H I would like to share my screen because I want H I always love to be um in um images to find in images everything that I would like to say because I really love images I’m just trying to put this
Like this okay so um first of all I want to tell you who H the people that made possible this synagogue where where did they come from and with images of the people before they migrated to Mexico at the beginning of the 20th century and specifically in the
1920s because in Mexico we had Jewish immigrants of the Ottoman Empire of Aleppo and Damascus Syria first and Greece turkey and other balanic places in the 1900s they came to Mexico escaping the ultra nationalistic movement of the Turks and then the ashkenazim came after in the 1920s and
Those were the ones who created nit Israel synagogue so from Russia from Lithuania from Ukraine from Poland from Hungary from Germany were the people that arrived in Mexico in the 1920s and they were escaping the pogon s the anti-Semitism and the Russian Revolution so they needed freedom and they took a
Ship here we can see an announcement of the idish newspaper their ve of Mr clel who is offering ship tickets and Facilities to come to America some of them were coming to Mexico this was the mexic boat that brought a lot of Spanish in refugee to Mexico too and they
Arrived most of them to Veracruz that is the kind of Ellis Ireland in another proportion ER other others arrived to other ports but most of the Jews came to verac Cruz and in verac Cruz they took a a a train a train that brought them to the city to the Central
City this is the socalo the main Square 11 streets arrive to This Heart of the City it used to be the transportation center to go all over the the the city and if you walk behind this National Palace where the president works and this president today he also lives there
You will get to the H neighborhood that it’s called the lam meret neighborhood because that’s where the market of lam meret you used to be and most of the immigrants established themselves around the the the the streets that were in that neighborhood and they lived in this kind
Of living that I don’t have an English word for it but I say it’s like a horizontal tenement it’s a central patio the people live around there is always like one two or most of it not most not more than three h stories and people
Share a life in this kind of places and that’s where many stories started to be built and I I tell you this because also the Jews started to pray in these kind of rooms because you know that to pray as Jews we don’t need buildings we don’t
Have to build places we need the people and the book so at the beginning the immigrants have that they had the books and because they brought them from Europe and they had the people so H they they organized the services very easily and you know we are
A people that are all the time moving so our rituals cannot be just in one place so H at the beginning these places were part of life for many things and most of the immigrants they started as pedlers selling things all over in the streets with three words of Spanish because they
Didn’t know it and it was very difficult but they managed to bring their families the the the the other part of the families that were waiting ER in Europe for notices and by selling and gaining every scent they could it was a this kind of living even if they were a
Professionals if they were doctors if they were Architects lawyers they couldn’t do it when they came to Mexico because they didn’t have money they didn’t have the the law in form or they didn’t have the language so this was the beginning and they managed to pray to
Study to arrange the problems of the people and and in the in 1912 ER it was born the mount siai community for all the Jews it gathered some ashkenazim because it was 1912 there were not many ashkenazim some Er from Greece from Turkey from Al Aleppo from damasco the majority and they
Organized the first Jewish organization whose name is a beneficial Society mon SI and the first thing they organized was the cemetery because that is the most a a complicated a a institution to to get and you know why then in 198 they bought a house for the praying for the
Meetings for everything that was before this building then and they were all together but in 1922 and that’s why I have here a a meila when the ashkenazim were praying in this first synagogue in Mexico they had a problem with the Arab speaking Jews and I don’t like to talk
About this but that’s what they wrote I don’t know what happened but this is written 1922 puim we were reading meil and suddenly the Jews uh the the arab-speaking Jews came and they interrupted us and they said that it was their turn and it was very offensive so
We decided to split and create our own congregation whose name is n Israel as you can see in edish in this newspaper of the idish the edish derve ER and and the the problem is that they were really different cultures different kind of approach to the
Reading of the Torah to the a ideologies the ashkenazim came with many um ideas of different Revolution utions and the Arab speaking Jews they didn’t have those revolutions so they have different mindsets so they split and in Plaza de la Santisima number 11 the ashkenazim started their own community in
1922 and ER I put this picture just to repeat that you can bring your books to any place and have a synagogue with no complications also takuba kin takuba 15 was another place that was a cultural social Sport Center for the Jews and they also converted this meeting Hall in a
Synagogue for the high holidays also they have another praying Hall in CCO de mayo and number 32 as you can see no in 1932 in Cinco de Mayo number 38 this is an invitation because they are announcing that they are having this new place for all the necessities of the
Ashkenazim and also at Jesus Maria number three where also the YF school was born there was another synagogue that was not a synagogue as as such it was a place that was adapted for the necessities of the ashkanazi community and they also were praying over there
Here you can see that the community is in Jesus Maria 3 Mex and this was really funny because you know Jesus Maria is Jesus Mary and we in Mexico we are used to identify our synagogues by the name of the streets they are so there was an immigrant who
Wrote a letter to his father in Europe Europe saying Dad we are fine you know it’s February and we don’t have a sweater this is amazing the people are nice we have a job and we even have a Shool the Jesus Mary Shool so I can guess that maybe some of you are
Laughing and yes it was like oh my God where did I send my kid my boy but it was just the name that identified this synagogue of the ashkenazim before the first synagogue then they organized to buy two houses in husto Sierra Street and that’s
Where we are I am now and er they turned the houses down to build this first not only synagogue but Community Center for the ashkenazim and this is the key that was used to open the door this H September of 1941 that is very s significant because
It’s times of the war they the Holocaust was a very active the people who built the synagogue they didn’t know what was happening not everything that was happening and it was very difficult to know when they got the news but at least as I say they could cry together in this
Place so that was important and we can see that it has a very interesting facade because if you know something about the architect of the colonial city of Mexico in the 16 17 18 centuries it looked like this with red and gray Stones it was a bolor city and this is
Neocolonial this is not Colonial and it was a facade that it’s completely discrete if you pass through you don’t really see this magenda bit that has the the door you just pass through but then inside there is a big surprise because there is a little piece of Lithuania
Five blocks from the socalo of Mexico and why is this I’m sure it is because the people who did this they were ashkanazi they arrived to a place that was free and open for opportunities but they came from the persecution so they prefer not to be seen then there is
An interior facade that I am going to show you with my camera and it became the community center for weddings this is the invitation for the first wedding that took place in this in this place H this is the picture I just showed you because I’m sitting in the same place
Right now H these are the organizers of the community for all the problems this is the rabbi rafalin this is Mr Shimon feltman that was the leader for more than 50 years he was an amazing leader this was Mr clip the moil with the best family name for his profession Mr clip
This was a a canor and also he was a shet gitler and many others also they were also having cultural activities and the poet Heim graad for example came to this place sometime also there were Gatherings of the Zionist movement inside of the place and also um as a Zionist movement of
Religious people this was a place and we will get to see very soon this emblem of Israel inside of the synagogue which means that it was a Zionist place also the religious people gathered and discussed how to get all the rituals done and here we have an an very old
Picture of this place with the sepharim here and there it was simh and they also had special hananim that were invited to come to to to sing in the high holidays like for example Richard Tucker who became very famous in Broadway and other other Haim and what is most remember are the
Meals that were made by shelle and etel schle they were the Caterers this was the cook he was Morales he was not Jewish but he was really the the one who who put his hands in the in the Mills but sh was so famous as the ER the the
The one who take took care of the synagogue and the one who had the catering here and they always served the same menu with no changes because the people were missing their flavors they wanted to be able to eat what they were missing and that was really nice not
Only for the stomach but also for their hearts and all the weddings that took place here and the ER other weddings and rituals we have so many pictures of the weddings and also the bar mitzvas and here we can see ifer it was the name of
The famous musician of the idish es and everything Mr ifer and this was the rabbi abigor he was a survivor of the Holocaust and he made a great job here and there was a whole life around the streets in the historic Center of Mexico there were kosher caterings
And groceries and Butchery houses kosher and in the markets they could have a kosher a chicken and also there were a they could find everything around in the public schools at the beginning but then the Jewish schools started also in this area and there was a whole life in the
Historic Center people brought their families they had their kids in Mexico who were already Jewish Mexican kids they saved money and they were able to move forward to other neighborhoods like condesa like Roma like hipodromo and start a new life in all those new neighborhoods that
They were not rich but they had a better situation and I’m sure that you are familiar with these stories because this is universal the Jews are always moving and looking for a a better situation so we have these other synagogues that were born after the Jews moved from this one
And this one after some years it a it was a in a very difficult situation because the Kaya who owns the the the building has a lot of problems with many of the members they don’t have enough money never and they are not living in
This area so why to ER put money in a place that it’s not being used so it started to have a lot of dust and the micro little animals and humidity that it’s an an area of a lot of humidity so everything started to be bad there was a
Era family of Jews who ER adopted Judaism they were not born Jews and they adopted this place and they invited people for praying but that start that lasted some years it was a a great activity but then it was very complicated because the area is complicated and it was very very
Complicated to get here so it it became an abandoned place until 2007 that there was an idea of recovering the synagogue and ER I I was asked my opinion because I started to do Jewish tours at the neighborhood where this synagogue was always the last and the Highlight so I
Got a key from the community because not always there was somebody to open to me so they asked me what do you think should we recover it what for and I suggested well I think we can ER re re cycle it not as a Jewish praying hall
Because the Jews are not coming but we can make a cultural center for everybody so juice and not juice Mexican and not Mexican can can learn first of all what is a synagogue because this is the only one that can be entered freely there is also the archive in Colonia Roma ER and
You can visit it but with an appointment here this is the only one that you don’t need an appointment you just get in so er the money came for the restoration from H donators not from the community there was a team that started all this restoration and it ER the idea was to
Get the the light of the place again and my idea was to fill it with light with activity with people everything from the Jewish culture in all its diversity but for everybody and we have been doing 14 years of so many activities one of those
Was was made by Dany here who showed our his great job his great ER work of the chetas and er many many many activities that were shown ER maybe in the in the hall downstairs and most of them upstairs that we are about to go but I’m just
Showing you a little bit of what the restoration was about before we leave the office go to see the place and come back to the office and I will be glad ER I don’t know if if if the people will be able to to ask something but here we can
See a beautiful ER water painting of the um of the facade that you can see outside and here I am going to um to change to my phone so we can go out and see the place so let me thank you so much Monica and yes hello to everybody this is Donnie
Rodstein uh uh living in myor but actually in in uh New Jersey at the moment so Monica is just transferring over to her phone where she’s going to be taking us um on a beautiful Journey uh let me just find her here and uh and so she’s going to be showing us the
Interior of the synagogue where she is right now so let me just find you uh Monica and we will get you on here in a second there she is okay perfect wonderful enjoy uh Monica you need to unmute so let me unmute you right now you there you are
We hear you and we see you but I don’t hear you let me see why is this just a second H because I am listening with my we can hear you you don’t need to hear us just a a little second don’t worry about it Monica if do you do
You hear me and see me yes yes yes yes okay I don’t hear you so I will speak don’t worry and I hope nothing will all good will be bad thank so now you can see the patio right yes yes okay perfect so this is the interior facade that you can see
That has nothing to do with the exterior one you don’t saw you didn’t see the exterior in life but you saw the the the the painting and here you can see that we have two buildings the building where I was sitting that used to have a kosher
Restaurant and now it’s we use it for some exhibitions for some H cultural things then here it’s where the meals took place for the weddings and where Danny was showing his work of the chetas some years ago but what really is amazing of this place it’s upstairs so
I’m going up the stairs and I really hope you don’t need to tell me anything because I don’t hear you I hope everything will be fine these are some drawings in that that an immigrant donated to the place of his stle and look how beautiful the floor is and how so
Um it’s just probably an internet thing that floor okay here we are is it going good Danny yes yes yes yes yes okay so this is the bimma the central bimma it’s all made of wood but it has really nice work work of glass we can see
Here a a glass work but my favorites have to do with music you know the Jewish people are so much in music all the time so this is ALU it’s part of a Psalm that has to do to with the entrance of the land of Israel both the instruments are mixed from
Europe and from the Bible from different stages this one is also so this is the Bea that it was it’s so beautiful but it was not the original one and how do I know it was not the original one because we have this picture this picture shows us a a
Wedding where you can see this white Corridor over there and now we only have this little piece so it was different in the in these times the people used to go up to the Arona codes from the sides and now you have to get up from the center so this was changed after
1948 because you can see this that I showed you also the picture and it was the same job of the Arona kodes and the bimma now let me show you the beautiful Arona codes and I left downstairs my picture of the one in Lithuania that
Inspired this one this is a copy of a synagogue in cholet in Lithuania that the main donator he said I want you to copy the synagogue I came from and I will pay for it but in the one of Lithuania and I will show you the
Picture when I get down to the office in this part there is only Windows here we only have a top window that is not a window and then we have a menora that it’s I don’t know who designed it but I can tell you it was made by Mexican Artisans you can
Tell and it even has something that looks like corn I don’t know if you can see it it’s a beautiful mexicanizado Mexico and I’m showing you the Amud it’s a a furniture that was used to put the book also I want to show you other details I love another one that I think
Has to do with Mexico too but I’m not sure and it’s that mural of the ganeden I hope you can see it it’s very naive it’s not the great piece of art but it’s the ganeden and it does show you Adam or Eve because of the second
Commandment but it shows you the animals and the plants and it seems to me very tropical like verac Cruz I don’t know but I like to think about it and I I also like to think that they did this because they felt they were in heaven when they found freedom in Mexico and
Look at the the beautiful ceiling I will show it to you very soon and the women’s section was upstairs and it’s everything it’s painted and this is also something that it’s very similar to the eldrid street synagogue in New York because you think it’s Marble but it’s painted it’s
A trumpet I don’t know French but it’s like that it’s like a trick to the eye so let me go a little bit farther to see the ceiling from the beginning to the end because it’s a beautiful thing to see it’s all hand painted by Mr
Mishkin and others and the colors are so beautiful are like colors of the of the earth I don’t know how to say it what else should I show you here I don’t know the benches these benches should be facing to the front but they are not facing the front because after
The restoration when there was the first wedding the bride asked to be to the center so because we don’t have Services anymore but we have concerts and book presentations we just kept them like this but it’s not the way they should be I have to tell
You and I also want to show you the beautiful chandelier that used to be so damaged before the restoration but now it’s very beautifully arranged I have some pictures from just down and it’s very beautiful so I think this is what I wanted to tell you here it was used as
The social religious and cultural place of of the ashkenazim since it was inaugurated in 19 41 until the 60s when most of the ashkanazi moved to other neighborhoods when they moved to condesa to Roma not Roma those were the Jews from aleo and damasco when they moved to a hipodromo
And to neighborhoods that now are so trendy and now there are Jewish living there but they are very young Jews that they are in the artistic different kind of artistic movements in the art in the music it’s a very trendy area but that’s where the Jews moved from here to have a
New stage of their lives so in the 1960 in 1965 the Acapulco Street synagogue was inaugurated ated and er that marked the time to ER stop coming here some people H were coming in the 70s very very few then in the 80s the era family was H in charge of the
Place and then it was over so that’s when we started to think about the restoration so now I would like to go down to show you some of the activities that we have had at this beautiful place Monica you can hear me yet right no can
You hear me or no you can’t don’t worry about it um so everyone uh we’re going to go back down to the um computer where there’s going to be a an additional PowerPoint um that Monica is going to be showing uh all of the different activities uh uh that um that she’s uh
Organizing at the synagogue and just to answer a couple questions that have come through I put in the chat and we can put it again the synagogue’s website where you can get in touch with Monica if you’re going to Mexico City uh for a visit and you would like a tour I don’t
I don’t know how often she does tours in English but definitely tours in Spanish um and she’s just a wealth of information so we’ll definitely get you her contact UM and while we’re waiting for her to connect again I’m also excited to share news that uh we’re doing another
Documentary film we did one about mayorca now we’re doing another one all over Latin America and we already went and visited Monica in Mexico City and filmed with her so we’ll show that trailer at the end of this session as well and provide a link for people to
Learn more information and help support us and help uh get that uh that project off the ground so we’re just going to wait for Monica to come back onto her screen on the computer and we will be uh Contin here we are okay I hope everything went fine because I couldn’t hear
Anything it went perfect can you hear us can you hear me now Monica yes yes yes perfect it was amazing uh it was a beautiful beautiful tour and I was just letting everyone know that we’re going back to the PowerPoint to learn more about different events and then we’ll
Have uh in the next 10 minutes or so uh some Q&A we already have a number of fantastic questions and um and just to confirm with you later uh the website where everyone can find you and your email address so people can St yes please and I would like you to come if
You come to Mexico ER we offer tours of the Jewish neighborhoods and also of the synagogue and also you can come by yourselves and have a self-guided tour and I would love to receive all of you ER okay so I would like to show you a
Little H sample of what we we have been doing because there’s so much happening until October 7 I have to tell you that we have not have anything explosive in Mexico but yes a lot of hate expressed in the media so now I used to have the
Doors open and now they are closed but we are receiving the visitors but the events are cancelled and I hope soon we will be o again open to everybody because that’s what we love here so this is the there was an inauguration for the community and then there was an
Inauguration for Society for everybody with the Latin L the quartetto Latino Americano one of the greatest quartets I would say in the world they came here and we were so happy to show that the place was open we every year receive groups of the children and not so young
And younger people of the Jewish communities when they are working on their shorashim projects and also we have lectures before holidays like pesak like Rosas sh we like to share haroset with everybody we like to share Hal how you say the halaula and all of these because for these lectures 90% or
95% of the people who attend are not Jewish are people people that want to know about who are the Jews and everything and this is a place that gives them the opportunity this was with an Holocaust Survivor and also we had a a visit with different churches and with
Also blind people who are our neighbors and the um all kinds of groups that come every time and also to the neighborhood as I told you this is a a beautiful square that is in front of the synagogue and there there is another synagogue that is next door just three houses and
It’s the first synagogue of Mexico it was built by the mount siai congregation in 1923 so that is also included and the ER a some weddings very very few because the Jews prefer to to have their weddings more where the Jews live and not so far in this area where you you
Don’t know if there will be the closing streets or something because that H happens all the time also there is a tour that includes a an actress that she appears as an immigrant in the middle of the tour and I was inspired I also want
To tell you people of New York I was inspired in the tenement Museum which is my favorite museum well the night of the museums that is an activity organized by the ministry of culture they er every museum has activities once a month in the night so we take advantage if it’s near to
Rosashana if it’s near to some holiday or if we do like this one it was just music of lvia and New York and they put everybody to dance the night of the museum in collaboration with the Inquisition Museum was amazing we had more than 700 people and also this woman
Came from Argentina to to um perform bashevis singer a um stories or this woman who married a Jew she’s from China and she has something that she calls chibo like Hebrew and Chinese this is Hebrew but with Chinese movement of the letters it was very fun we have had so many concerts or
Kmer or sapharic music and folkloric dances and art of the cavala both with Mexican art or a this do that was El Golem that is a mute ER film what bought with live music and also movies of the Jews in Mexico uh cabalistic meditation the inauguration of this
Mural that I think you saw when I was in the patio that has to do with the letters of the alphabet in the in history so we did it in the place that we inaugurated that mural and adol Forman that I’m sure that many of you
Have heard he’s the curator of the Dead Sea Scrolls when he came to Mexico I invited him to talk about it here or this is very interesting when it’s the day of the de all the museums in Mexico are filled with flowers with color with all the offerings so we always invite
People to learn about the death in Judaism so in this occasion I invited Sami who is the the chief of the Herra kades kadisha and I asked him to bring the the the clothes he used to to bury the people in the cemetery to learn how they do it so it was really
Interesting also a sha Shadow theater or um Morocco Jews um this record that was recorded inside of the synagogue and won a Latin Grammy of sapharic Music Adrian gustus and Mia moscona who is a great writer in Mexico in Laino and Margo gland that now it’s 93 years old
And she’s still in Twitter in Instagram not in Instagram in Facebook and writing and having recognition all over the world um we do also special visits like the one at the Inquisition Palace other synagogues the Jewish cemeteries ER the the Jewish neighborhood ER the Colonia Roma that
It’s also very trendy and I’m sure that you many of you saw Roma the movie that won an Oscar is about that neighborhood so we visit it also and also for taba we we have had different activities in the streets and the night of the museum with
Special needs with the Kadima that it’s a group of people with a dis dis disabilities they came and they gave a tour to the blind people it was really nice who gave us massages the Blind and the movies documentaries maybe some of you saw parison aits of my friends Aron
And Ester Coen who have been giving it in different stages when the last earthquake in 2017 I asked this two artists to come and do music and poetry to get money to help the people of the disaster and we have been in TV in this program and the
Shakespeare and the Jews who where my husband was reading some texts and this is my son-in-law with the SHA Shi he gave a lecture he’s in Chicago University and also medieval songs idish Cabaret the Jewish objects there was a lecture and also this Gothic music but
With edish songs that were written in a ghetto ER the cabala lessons that have been H taking place for years with Anette Pier our teacher or the ram once a month the group Sear that is a beautiful H group that was created by by elas FKA my husband and here they are in
The sinagogue and also H this that was the Jews and the Spanish Exile with songs of the Spanish Exile exhibits like this one of the Holocaust and the football and the music Silence by silent by the Nazis or the saphic concert for hanuka this is motch our cat and
Also all these groups of the families of the community the Jewish family names with Alejandra Rubenstein cmon ER the guide team we are we all give tours and put him spill the Moe house I’m sure you know it the Jewish writers the book presentation of Istanbul other orchestras I don’t know
If I’m late so I’m going very very quickly pesak and the haroset and the Tangos but with idish Tangos because people who asked me to perform in the synagogue I asked them to include something Jewish so that has been a a gift for them and for us new discoveries
This group that they call themselves go ketar because they are not Jewish and the this woman who gave us a pickles Workshop it was really fun to hear her stories also and we also have a Hala and family memories with Monica busal Dan you know her she’s in Barcelona and once
A very good friend amazing yes she gave us this beautiful workshop and the Jazz by Jewish compositors different schools that are not Jewish they also come including the German school or collaborations with other museums in the H surrounding H neighborhood this is a reading of a play
That could not be performed but they thought it came the pandemia so it was really complicated and when the pandemia started just to end I just want to comment with you that I didn’t know what to do I couldn’t come to the synagogue I couldn’t do any events or guiding tours
So I started to interview very very old people more than 90 years old some of them have 93 years old 90 85 89 and I want them to talk about their family stories of immigration so it started every Monday and then it became just once a month because I’m now I’m really
Busy but I think this is very very important because these people have treasures and now and and each each SC each interview has a lot of pictures so now because of the pandemia I have a great archive that I would never do it if it was not for the pandemic so I
Don’t know what comes next but this is what I wanted to ER to to share with you and I don’t know if there will be any participation of the public because I see 570 people oh my God that’s correct oh my God you you you are
Speaking to to uh a huge massive group of people uh that we could not all fit in uh the synagogue so this is great that you have this last slide up Monica because I’m understanding that this is the best email for people to get in touch with you uh yeah that is my
Personal email and I would love you to see our Facebook and our YouTube channel though it’s all in Spanish but now it’s so easy to get translations so we have many many videos in YouTube and also Facebook and Instagram I didn’t put but in in Instagram is it’s
The sinagoga Sierra and you can follow us and I would be very happy to to get in touch with all of you so I think I can should I stop Shing or not yet leave it on for one more minute so people can take a picture or or write it down um is
The email synagoga husto Sierra gmail.com also working yes yes and I and I I answer it so it’s working of course okay great so there’s two emails for people to get in touch there’s many people who are coming to visit who would love to stay in touch with you and
There’s so many questions that I know we will not get to all of them today so please uh write to um to Monica if uh if your question uh is not answered in the next uh you know eight minutes um so so Monica thank you so much that was just
Incredible I think we’re all here kind of Blown Away um those I highly recommend it if you can get to Mexico City and meet Monica and be in the space uh in person it’s rather incredible can you tell us Monica there’s many people asking about what is the Jewish
Community like today how many Jews are living in Mexico City how many synagogues are reform are conservative are Orthodox what part of Mexico City um do Jews live in if you can speak about that sure well the community is between 40 to 45 thousand that ER people in Mexico
Don’t believe that they say they are more than a million but we are just 45,000 and we have all kinds of Institutions it’s a huge organized Community with institutions for every need that you can think of the one that I really love so much now that touches
Me so much it’s a a group of religious women that give a koser meals at the hospitals so you can be ER pampered by them and they are so beautiful angels but you have for everything so it’s 445,000 most of them are in Mexico City a few Community a few people are in
Monteray guadalahara Cancun and quaka outside but most of the other are in Mexico City we have four main communities by origin the Aleppo Community is Mont is mend David the damasco community is Mount Si they are both from Syria but they are separated but we are all mixed by marriages but
The the institutions are different synagogues cemeteries and schools they are different so mon SI mendavid the Ashkenazi community and the sephar community because it’s separated from the Arab speaking that now nobody speaks Arab and there is a concer and they are all Orthodox although the people are not
All Orthodox but the communities are all Orthodox but one that is BET BET L that now in this days is fusioning with be Israel that was so small that now it’s becoming part of BET that is the conservative one no reform no Reconstructionist no more liberal communities that is Mexico we have about
15 day schools that belong to the Ministry of Education but they have Jewish different kind of ideologies there is a English-speaking one a montesorri one that’s where my children went H there is a sist several sist schools and the edish speaking schools they are now they don’t have idish
Anymore which is a tragedy I believe because it’s not a a language that it’s gone it’s a culture but that’s another story and we have about maybe 45 synagogues maybe 50 synagogues because each time the Jews move to other neighborhoods they built new synagogues so we have a lot in
Different neighborhoods now the Jews when they move to from the historic Center they went to condesa or to Roma the the Syrian ones then they moved to poano if you come to Mexico I’m sure you will take a hotel maybe in that area and then now we have many o many different
Neighborhoods where we live in the Northeast theal Bosque lasas Laura Santa Fe L De Las Palmas and those are suburbs nobody walks in those places that’s why I love to come to the historic Center because I live in one of those suburbs and I like to be in touch with the
People wow um this is unbelievable uh so much information all at the same time this is great that uh that we that we are having this recording and we’ll talk afterwards Mara about um how to make that available for people who wanted to to rewatch this for example um something that I find
Fascinating Monica that I always like to speak to about is how many people come that are not Jewish that come to synagoga Sierra or people that believe they might have Jewish roots because I know that that’s something that um that you know we all also in mayorca and
We’re also looking to um to to learn more about emerging communities all over Latin America the truth is that I don’t have numbers right but now in this days that the H synagogue has not activities most of the visitors that come are Jewish from outside Mexico most
Of them from the United States that come either with tours that are organized by us or by agencies that ask us the tour or by other agencies that include the synagogue that makes me very happy ER others that just pass through Pass pass by and they ring the bell and they come
Some are Jewish some are not but most of them are justs that are looking for Jewish places like you and me when we travel when we have activities I can tell you 90% of the people that come are not Jewish when they want to learn about rosashana about Jon kipur about cabala
About all of the Jewish things that the Jews have near to their houses they are not coming here to get it they will go to poano to get it so H that’s where we have a lot of not Jewish people but I don’t have
Numbers I can work on them but not no no I think it’s it’s part of this you know what we’re suffering now I think in the world is this extension of Jewish culture which is so much of the work that you do all of the activities and
The and the zooms and everything is trying to share this Jewish culture with other people so we’re not you know uh this kind of you know uh secret society that no one has any interaction with um I know we’re almost at a time but Monica
You said it was okay for the the the world premiere of uh this trailer that we’re working on where we filmed and you’ll see images of this synagogue that you’re in right now so I’m excited to share this two-minute trailer with you and I hope everyone enjoys it here and
Then we’ll come on for for our final goodbyes so hope everyone enjoys this and uh this is this is a project we’re we’re doing with many different people all over Latin America including Monica so hope everyone enjoys my name is Donnie rodstein and I’m a documentary filmmaker I want to
Tell you about an extraordinary phenomenon taking place in Latin America today I actually had to go there myself to see if it was true there are different Christian groups interested in converting to Judaism man because people have been rejected by the established Jewish communities they’re going and forming their own now you have emerging Communities going away from traditional communities that’s crazy our plan is to create a documentary series that will shine a light on these unknown stories highlighting their different hopes experiences and challenges this
For right now we are looking for producing Partners to help prepare the project and secure funding so we can return to Latin America to tell this story Completely well thank everyone for for watching that and and thank you Monica for letting us share our work uh with everyone here and uh we’re really excited to keep telling the story of Mexico City and synagoga husto sier and all the incredible work that you’re doing Monica and uh and hopefully we can
Keep sharing this and and getting it out to to more people um so Danny I really wish you the best of the logs that is an amazing trailer that excites me so much I think H it will be a a great success to to do it so I wish you the the best
Of lucks thank you so much Monica and I really want to come back there soon we’re actually going to San Miguel de aende uh for a friend’s wedding so we’re we’re going to see you this year for sure and I’m just putting in the chat a
Link for everyone to follow up on that documentary project where we’re looking to close the funding as soon as possible to to come back in Mexico so we could film um and in Puerto Rico and in Brazil there’s so many stories out there so a lot of that has to do with
Myjewishlearning.com so Mara thank you so much for for for letting myself for letting Monica come and share our stories with so many people it’s incredible the work you’re doing thank you so so much Monica and Donnie um this was a fantastic tour and uh I don’t know
If you meant to to lead us well into our next tour Monica when you shared the migot Esther um but our next tour will be of Jewish Persia um and we are having a bit of a a porum theme um so uh if if that was interesting to you we look
Forward to sharing details about our next tour soon and as always thank you so much for sharing your questions and I I hope that uh this is just the beginning of your learning for uh Mexico City and the Jewish Community there thank you all thank you for the invitation thank you