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MEMORY OF THE WORLD REGISTER Collection of the Center of Documentation and Investigation of the

Ashkenazi Community in Mexico (16th to 20th Century) (Mexico)

Ref N° 2008-11 PART A 1.- SUMMARY

The Center of Documentation and Investigation of the Ashkenazi Community of Mexico keeps, preserves and disseminates the Ashkenazi culture, the culture of the Jewish people that was on the verge of disappearing during the Nazi era. It also safeguards the historic memory of the Jewish minority in Mexico that arrived from Central and Eastern Europe.

Introduction.

From the end of the 19th century the Jews of Central and Eastern Europe decided to emigrate towards America so as to find better living conditions. At that moment, large groups of Jews cut their ties to the lands in which they had developed a way of life, a language (Yiddish) and a manner of being: the Ashkenazi.

Their former life ended violently and forever. At first, because of the pogroms unleashed by the Cossacks and Ukrainians, at the dawn of the 20th century by the First World War and the Bolshevik Revolution, but mostly from the rise of Nazism in Germany in the 30s that led to the loss of six million people and thus to the disappearance of the Jewish communities of Central and Eastern Europe.

At that moment, the Ashkenazi culture was threatened with extinction once the study centers and places for creating culture were wiped out during the Second World War. The few survivors of the Holocaust bore upon their shoulders the difficult task of rescuing themselves and their Jewish identity that had been so heavily menaced during the six years of war, the ghettos and the concentration and extermination camps. The responsibility for rescuing that culture fell on the shoulders of the Latin American communities that took over the job of safeguarding the culture of their ancestors.

When the religious and cultural centers disappeared because of the Holocaust, there was only a remnant of material which was rescued by the Allied Army in 1945 in the city of Offenbach, Germany. Thousand of books that had been confiscated by the Nazis had been stored there. Returning them to their original libraries was out of question because their caretakers had all been killed. It was decided to resort to the already established Jewish communities in Latin America and Mexico was one of the depositories that received 1,000 of those books rescued by the Allies which were lodged at the library of the Ashkenazi community.

Immigration to Mexico.

Immigration to the New World had begun from the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th. The most important treasures brought by those immigrants were their most valuable books, many of which would later disappear in the ashes of the Holocaust.

The migratory flow swerved towards Latin America due to the quotas that were instituted in the United States beginning in 1921. During the war, the doors into the United States were closed off to refugees, as happened in most of the Latin American countries as well.

Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Uruguay, Venezuela and Costa Rica were among the countries that attracted the first immigrants in the 20th century. People of Ashkenazi origin arrived in these areas looking foremost for a place to survive economically and to continue with their Jewish identity, culture and traditions.

Thus, in the first two decades of the last century, Jews coming from countries such as Russia, Poland, Rumania, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Austria, Germany and France settled in Mexico. Their

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store of knowledge was very important since most of them were familiar with their own culture and with the productions of universal culture.

Foundation of the community.

To retain their identity and continuity for the coming generations, they founded a community very similar in its functions to what they had left behind them in Europe. It was called Nidjei Israel (1922).

The Jews in Mexico separated by sectors, according to their place of origin, such as the Ashkenazi, the Sephardic and the Arabic speakers, that is, Jews arriving from Syria and Lebanon. The latter eventually separated from those originally from Damascus into their Monte Sinaí Community and those from Aleppo into the Maguen David Community. Originally, everybody had been united in one sole community in 1912 which was called Alianza Beneficencia Monte Sinaí. They established a synagogue, a small school and bought land for a cemetery.

The Ashkenazi community was the first one to separate because of differences in praying and traditions. Then they began developing several welfare and assistance institutions such as the Chamber of Commerce, the OSE clinic, the old people’s home in Cuernavaca called Eshel, as well as schools and synagogues. Its members had arrived with diverse ideologies like Zionism, Socialism or Communism and Bundism, which gave way to the creation of several cultural centers and the edition of various magazines and newspapers. Among the most important organizations there was the club called Young Men’s Hebrew Association founded by a group of US Jews who arrived in Mexico fleeing from the military draft in the years of the First World War. This club and its members were the basis for the creation of other institutions in the Ashkenazi sector as the center of community life.

Creation of the Center of Documentation.

Each organization was charged with safeguarding its files, documents and particularly its libraries. However, although the idea of forming a center of documentation had been considered since the 50s, it was only established towards the end of the 20th century. In 1993, beginning with the edition of the seven books that form part of Generaciones Judías en México (Jewish Generations in Mexico), the Ashkenazi Kehillah (1922-1992) decided to create a Center of Documentation and Investigation of the Ashkenazi Community in Mexico.

By that time it was deemed basic to rescue the Ashkenazi culture, its literary, religious, historic production as well as the life of those communities that had vanished. Thus, several libraries of former centers were rescued creating a valuable body in the field of letters and periodicals as well as the rescue of files of various institutions created in the country.

This way two urgent lines of preservation were presented: the first one, of the Ashkenazi culture and the second, of the history of the Jews in Mexico, which just like other non-national minorities that arrived in the country at the beginning of the 20th century are part of the multicultural and pluriethnic history of the country. It was of great importance to stress that this Jewish minority was part of Mexican history and the knowledge of its archives was fundamental to be aware of the local or regional history that contributed an important part to national history.

The Center or CDICA is made up by collections that date back to the 16th up to the 20th century. There is a library where the Fonds for Antique Hebrew Books, the Fonds Mexico and that of Translations into Yiddish and Hebrew are among the most significant, together with a Library of periodicals with the first newspapers edited in Yiddish in the country and an Archive that contains the collections of the various institutions of the Ashkenazi sector. Among these is that of the Comité Central Israelita (Jewish Central Committee) that became the representative organization of the community before the Mexican government along with that of the Chamber of Commerce, a Graphic File with 8000 photographs of the one hundred years of the establishment of the community and an oral history file that includes more than 200 interviews made to immigrants, intellectuals, community leaders, etc.

The CDICA is unique in its type; its collections are priceless because they are unique and irreplaceable; these documents of the cultural, religious or social institutions and organizations are

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unique because they are original, usually handwritten in Yiddish together with religious books or Yiddish translations of world culture that only flourished during a lapse of time in the 19th and 20th centuries when they were edited in Europe.

The fact that they are part of the history of the country opens a new window of research not only about Mexican history but also towards the history of Jewish life and culture in Latin America.

The CDICA is unique in Mexico and in Latin America because the one in Argentina suffered a terrorist attack and is still in the process of recovery, both the building and its collections. The other Jewish communities in Latin America such as Chile only have a Center of Jewish studies that is located inside the local University; there is another one in Brazil, also at the University, dedicated to the study of crypto Judaism. There are centers of documentation in Europe, one in Paris, France and another one in Warsaw, Poland that is still not catalogued and contains only manuscripts.

The Center of Documentation and Investigation of the Ashkenazi Community of Mexico is part of the specialized educational and research of the immigration of the Ashkenazi Jews to this country that is done at the Universidad Hebraica and the 14 Jewish schools. The library has 16 000 printed books from the XVIth century to the present and all the manuscripts from the Ashkenazi institutions in Mexico. The specialization and theme focus mainly on the humanities; all aspects of jewish studies and cultural history.

The collections are maintained in the Ashkenazi Synagogue Complex in Mexico where they are since the complex was built in 1957. We can assert that these collections are of cultural and social importance to Mexico, as they reflect the cultural and social history of a community that has contributed substantially to the progress of the country.

The national relevance of the Center collections has been recognized by the Mexican government. The European significance of the collections is reflected in their Ashkenazi Jewish scope. The culture of the Ashkenazi Jews in Europe was characterized by an exchange with the other cultures, and the development of great ideas and scientific discoveries, that has to be preserved after the Holocaust.

The Center is open to the educational programme of the community that combines strong Jewish identity and a thorough knowledge of literature, philosophy, history and science, with its non Jewish environment, and has made an important contribution to a society that is pluriethnic and multicultural.

MISSION.

Preservation of the Ashkenazi culture has been the mission of the Center of Documentation and Investigation in Mexico; it is an essential part of the history of the Jewish people that requires documents and books rescued from the Nazi Fascist onslaught. But it also requires the rescue and safekeeping of the historic memory of those Jews who arrived in Mexico in the two most important stages of immigration: after the religious persecutions at the beginning of the century and after the Second World War.

2.- DATA ABOUT THE AUTHOR OF THE PROPOSAL

2.1 Name

CENTRO DE DOCUMENTACIÓN E INVESTIGACIÓN DE LA COMUNIDAD ASHKENAZÍ DE MÉXICO. COMUNIDAD ASHKENAZÍ DE MÉXICO, A.C. 2.2 Relationship with the element of proposed documentary patrimony. Responsible for conserving, safeguarding and disseminating the historic culture and memory of the Ashkenazi Community of Mexico.

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2.3 People to contact Dra. Alicia Gojman de Backal.

2.4 Personal Information Dra. Alicia Gojman de Backal Director Centro de Documentación e Investigación de la Comunidad Ashkenazí de México Comunidad Ashkenazí de México, A.C. Definitive Titular C Full time Professor FES Acatlán, UNAM. PRIDE D. National Level II Investigator Acapulco 70 2° piso. Col. Roma C. P. 06700, Delegación Cuauhtémoc. Tel. (55) 5211-5688 e-mail: cdica@hotmail.com 3. IDENTITY AND DESCRIPTION OF THE DOCUMENTARY PATRIMONY 3.1 Name and information of the identifying elements of the documentary patrimony proposed for their registry. Name: Centro de Documentación e Investigación de la Comunidad Ashkenazí de México. 3.2 Description

The Center of Documentation and Investigation of the Ashkenazi Community of Mexico includes the following collections:

I. LIBRARY.

NAME OF FONDS ORCOLLECTION

FIRST AND LASTDATES

NUMBER OFUNITS

1. Antique Hebrew Fonds 1568-1945 1400

2. Mexico Fonds 1927-2007 1156

3. Yiddish Translation Fonds 1918-1957 725

4. Incorporated Libraries

a. Boris Rosen Collection 1913-1990 1972

b. Alicia and Isaac Backal Collection 1930-2006 1156

c. Bertha Moss Collection 1950-1990 493

d. José and Eva Gojman Collection 1918-1950 157

The library keeps and safeguards 16,000 volumes, the greater part of them written in Yiddish and Hebrew, and a few in other languages such as Polish, Lithuanian, Hungarian, Russian and others. It shows the importance of safekeeping the Ashkenazi culture in the world. After the Holocaust and

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the loss of all the Jewish communities in Europe, the CDICA made the commitment to fight for the rescue of its culture. It holds several fonds that transmit various aspects of this rescue. On the other hand and at the same time, the importance of keeping the historic memory of the Jewish minority of this origin is implicit, because it forms an inseparable part of the contemporary history of Mexico. The main fonds are:

1) ANTIQUE HEBREW FONDS:

It comprises almost 1,400 Hebrew books that were printed between the 16th century and the Second World War. The translations of Hebrew sources, particularly those from the Bible to other languages and to bilingual editions, have been incorporated. Of our 1,400 Hebrew volumes, some 120 deal with profane knowledge such as history, bibliography, geography, general philosophy, linguistics, psychology and belles-lettres. The rest, that is, 92% of the fonds and almost the totality of the oldest section, are religious books. We must stress that in Jewish tradition, a religious book is usually not a devotional text like in Christianity, but rather a work of hermeneutic or juridical erudition. The 83 doctrinal books and the 145 books of liturgy occupy only 6% and 10% of the fonds respectively, while 75% deal with the exegesis of the sacred texts. 463 volumes refer to the Bible in the form of editions, commentaries and homiletic explorations; 265 volumes contain texts and explanations of the Talmud and 368 are devoted to the compilation of medieval and modern codes of rabbinic jurisprudence as well as its interpretation and practical application.

Most of these books were edited in the four centers of Polish Judaism of that time: Krakow and Lvov (Lemberg) in the Austro Hungarian Empire where modern Hebrew typography had its origin and Warsaw and Vilnius in the Tsarist empire. The volumes edited before 1850 are 102: one in the second half of the 16th century; two in the first half of the 17th century; five in the second half of the same century; 22 in the first half of the 18th century; 29 in the second half of the same century and 43 in the first half of the 20th century.

The collection is of special interest for two reasons: the first, because it is the only one of its kind in Mexico and the second, because of the extraordinary historic saga that brought it here.

Our Hebrew volumes from Frankfort or Warsaw evoke, in the words of Michel Foucalt, a strong “heterotopic” element, because they set in motion the ambiguous relationship of the Mexicans towards the deeply religious faraway world of old Europe. The beauty of the historic Hebrew books may be a precise result of the richness of its intercultural references.

The fonds is divided into nine sections:

a) LITURGY:

Order and mode of celebrating divine services. When we refer to Jewish religious practices, we call the prayers and acts in the synagogue service: liturgy. When worship ceased at the Jerusalem Temple, liturgy was based, in the first place, in reading the Torah (Bible) and in second place on the prayers. The Talmud only considers the morning and afternoon prayers as obligatory serving as a substitute for the daily sacrifices performed in olden days.

b) BIBLE:

Name of a collection of documents kept from the time when the Jewish people were independent and that were part of their national literature. It was later canonized and under the name of Holy Scriptures is the basis of their religion, as well as that of the Christian and Moslem religions.

Nevi´im Rishonim, Earlier prophets (Books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings), with commentaries. Volume 2 of the Rabbinic Bible. Venice. Printing press of Juan de Gara, 1568, in folio. Specimen from an unknown European collection, donated by the Jewish Cultural Reconstruction Organization.

There are religious books for women in Yiddish: “Tsena Urena” and its commentaries. Paraphrase of the Pentateuch in Yiddish, with material from the Midrash and antique comments integrated; there is one written by Jacob b. Issac Ashkenazi of Janow (circa 1590) with reproductions of wood carvings of the 17th century editions.

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c) EXEGESIS AND HOMILETICS:

Interpretation of the Bible as the Holy Scriptures. It accepts the authority of the Bible as divine revelation and tolerates neither changes in the text nor any doubts about its authors and only tries to find the exact meaning of its words and to derive moral teachings from them. Bible Exegesis has been an intellectual effort of the greatest magnitude for the Jewish people in exile, particularly during the thousand years that followed the grouping and canonization of the books of the Bible. Primitive exegetic tasks originally began by translating the text to Aramaic that had become the popular language in Palestine.

d) TALMUD:

Name of the two encyclopedic works compiled in Babylon and in Eretz Israel that contain the summary of Jewish tradition, composed as interpretation of the Mishna. The word Talmud is used as teaching, knowledge, study, etc. In the case of this particular work, it is the interpretative vision of the Bible, through the compendium of the Mishna, tannaitic text edited in the 2nd century of the Common Era. by R. Judah the Prince. The consignation of the Babylonian Talmud was fixed approximately in the year 500 of the Common Era; that of the Palestinian Talmud in 400 C.E. However, the beginning of the cultural tradition that gave way to both works must be fixed at the time of the end of the canon, that is, in the 2nd century Before the Common Era.

e) HALACHA:

The word comes from the Hebrew “holech” which means “to walk” and is applied to the set of legal and religious rulings. We could say that the Halacha is a group of legal norms that do not derive directly from the Bible, but that also include the customs, rabbinic decrees, rules, derived hermeneutic rules and, sometimes, rules that are not exactly of religious character, but rather refer to the usual customs of the country.

f) HAGGADA:

It designs a set of non legal literary elements from the Talmud and rabbinic literature. In it we find stories and legends about Bible characters and from historic episodes. The Haggada pursues a didactic goal through its stories, parables, proverbs, allegories and even metaphysics and natural science.

g) MEDITATION.

Moses Maimonides (1135-1204), More Nevujim, “Guide of the Perplexed” about the philosophic foundations of Judaism. Vilnius: Printing press of Shraga-Feivel Garber for the bookshop of Isaac Funk, 1904. Specimen of the Bet-Midrash “Nidjei Israel”.

h) HISTORY AND SOCIETY.

Tel Aviv City Hall, “Legislation of Construction and Industry”: Ordinances and decrees referring to matters of construction and urbanism, land and roads, work and industry with a map of urban areas. Preface by Meir Dizengoff, Mayor of Tel Aviv. Tel Aviv; printing press of A. Strud and sons, 1934.

i) LANGUAGE AND BELLES LETTRES

The title of each book of this collection in the catalogue is in Spanish. For the public that reads no Hebrew, we made a summary of the contents, identifying authors, printers, and owners locating them chronologically and geographically. The complex historic saga that brought these books from

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Europe to Mexico is amply documented. Each book has a characteristic mark: binding peculiarities, physical deterioration, seals and inscriptions.

The books arrived in various ways: the first ones were sent because Samuel Eliezer Donchik (first rabbi of the institution) requested them from some New York Jewish organizations and he received several Talmudic books; these can be recognized because Rabbi Donchik marked each volume in his handwriting. Apparently, there were some other donations from abroad, because among the Hebrew books we have discovered a number of seals from religious Jewish libraries in the United States. It is common to find books printed in Germany, sold in Russia, taken by some immigrant to the United Status and finally sent to Mexico. However, the most precious part of the Hebrew fonds comes from the library of the Mexican Jewish Central Committee. Those books have seals from more than forty European Jewish libraries such as Czechoslovakia, Poland, the Baltic countries, Hungary and Greece. Among the most frequently seen seals are those from the three rabbinic seminaries that existed in Germany before the war: the Jewish Theological Seminary of Breslau, the Superior School for the Science of Judaism and the Rabbinic Seminary for Orthodox Judaism. There are seals of four great community libraries such as Berlin, Frankfort, Karlsruhe and Koenigsberg.

After the 1945 victory, the Allied armies discovered Jewish book hide-outs in the German countryside, in warehouses, factories, castles, mines and even railroad wagons. The deposits that were in the area of US occupation were gathered in an industrial building in Offenbach, where an incredible effort of restitution was carried out. The Central Committee* took steps to request that part of those books be sent to Mexico to form the basis of a Jewish public library; a few months later, one thousand books arrived in our country.

2) MEXICO FONDS (1927-2007).

The Mexico Fonds has 1156 volumes and it constitutes a contribution to the study of the Jewish presence in Mexico because of the subjects it contains, as well as the deep message of the books printed in Hebrew and Yiddish as transmitters of its own culture. Talking about Yiddish is talking about human patrimony.

The students or readers can reconstruct the formation of the Jewish Community in Mexico, as well as to be aware of the historic moment when Spanish took over the place as transmitter of Judaism in our country. It is a meeting of the culture and history of a non national minority with the receiving society, in which books became the instrument for communicating and for mutual enrichment. Abraham Golomb, famous teacher, dean of the Colegio Israelita de México and of the Nuevo Colegio Israelita, published his Pedagogic Essays in 1955 and in them he says: “All the papers that I have written during many years have appeared in the Yiddish and Hebrew languages. Now I have decided to transcribe, for the very first time, at least a small part of my work in the language of the country where I have lived and worked during more than ten years, in an environment of liberty and peace, hoping they will be of some use to the cultured public in Mexico. That would be for me reason to be very satisfied”.

The Mexico Fonds has the complete production of Rabbi Dr. Jacob Avigdor, rabbi of the Ashkenazi Community of Mexico, who was a very prolific writer who penned at least ten books about religious, ethical and philosophic subjects, most of which were edited by the Ashkenazi Kehillah of Mexico, Nidjei Israel and printed by the Imprenta Moderna, property of Manuel Pintel, located in Garciadiego 28. His book La Visión del Judaísmo (The Vision of Judaism) was published in Spanish in 1959. It is a series of philosophic essays about the Jewish holidays, in which he says: “The book that I am editing is proof of a pioneer work. There are many Jews in the Spanish speaking countries, but unfortunately there are no Jewish books that deal with Jewish knowledge, with Jewish thought, nor with Jewish sanctity. The goal and intent of this book is to give some content of Jewish knowledge to Spanish speaking Jews.

The Colegio Israelita de México has been the pioneer as an institution for the printing of books and school textbooks. Thus the Mexico Fonds has the books by C. Pres, titled Mein Bichl (My little

* The Central Committee is the organization that unites the various sectors of the Jewish Community in Mexico. It was founded in November, 1938 and it is its representative before the Mexican government.

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Book), textbooks for the first grade of elementary school, printed in 1941. The book is the 12th edition, printed in the Imprenta Energía, property of the writer Meyer Corona, located in Soledad 10. Although it is the 12th edition, we believe it is probable the only sample existing nowadays. The School also edited the schoolbooks Lomir Lernen (Let’s Study), which is a Yiddish reader for the third and fourth years of elementary school. The books were printed in 1941 at the Imprenta Lincoln, located in Justo Sierra 45.

The Mexico Fonds has the first Yiddish grammar book written by Professor Bayon titled Arbeitsbuch far Yiddish in Folkshul (Yiddish Grammar for the Practical Use of Elementary Schools), edited by the Colegio Israelita de México in 1947 and printed in the Saber Press, located in Bajío 319.

The Colegio Israelita published in 1947 the first children’s stories, titled Maiselach far Kinder (Stories for Children) edited also at the Saber Press, property of Professor Meyer Berger. The architect Abraham Engel, former student of the institution, designed the cover and illustrations of the book. Some of the books included in this textbook, such as Little Red Riding Hood and The Three Bears, were translated to Yiddish for the first time in Mexico.

It is interesting to note that years later, Jewish institutions took over both the knowledge as well as the printing of books by non Jewish people about Jewish subjects. An example of the previous is the work or R.P. Dr. Felipe Pardiñas Comentarios sobre las enseñanzas del Concilio Vaticano II acerca del pueblo judío (Commentaries on the Teachings of the 2nd Vatican Council about the Jewish People), published by the Instituto Cultural Mexicano Israelí, in March of 1966.

A third step is the acceptance of the receiving society of Jewish themes written by Jewish intellectuals. An example is the book by Sergio Nudelstejer, Albert Einstein, un hombre en su Tiempo (Albert Einstein, a Man in his Time) published in Mexico by Costa–Amic editors in 1980.

The book Encuentro y alteridad. Vida cultural judía en América Latina (Meeting and Otherness. Jewish Cultural Life in Latin America) coordinated by Judith Bokser Liwerant and Alicia Gojman de Backal, published by the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Mexican Association of Friends of Tel Aviv University and the Fondo de Cultura Económica in 1999.

The Mexico Fonds of the Documentation Center is the largest collection in Mexico, in spite of the fact that some books included in it may appear in private collections, but as a Fonds, it is unique in Mexico.

As the Jewish Community began taking root in the country, so did its literature. The Mexico Fonds has the first Yiddish books edited in Mexico, among which are:

a) The book Drei Wegn (Three Roads) appeared in Mexico in 1927; it is a compendium of poems written by I. Berliner, J. Glantz and M. Glicowsky. The book was typographed in Yiddish characters by the writer B. Vladek of the Forwards newspaper of New York in 1924 and sent to the Cultural Jewish Society of Mexico. The typographic job was performed by Moises Glicowsky, who learned the trade during his work as editor of the Mexicaner Lebn (Jewish Life in Mexico) newspaper. This book was sponsored by the Yugnt (Youth) literary group.

b) In 1929, the book Blondzendike Gaister (Lost Spirits) of poetry and prose by Moises Glicowsky appeared. It was edited in the Alma printing press, located in Soledad 24. One and only book in Mexico.

c) Meyer Perkis (Meyer Bal Hanes) wrote the book Matbeyes Fun Main Pushke (Coins from my Piggy Bank) that holds stories, poems and maxims. The text was published in the Alma printing press, property of the same Perkis. One and only book in Mexico.

d) In 1936, the community newspaper Der Weg (The Road), edited Shtot Fun Palatzn (City of Palaces) by I. Berliner with drawings by Diego Rivera, with a prologue by Moisés Rosenberg that included a glossary of Mexican vernacular words. This book is considered the first great Jewish Mexican work that described the difference of the social classes in Mexico and the poverty that prevailed in this country.

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e) In 1936, Jacobo Glantz wrote the book Fonen und Blut (Flags and Blood) that dealt with Spain in 1936, work sponsored by Guezbir of México (Jewish political party that sponsored the idea of creating a Jewish homeland in Birobidjan in the USSR) located in Palma 31, first floor. In his poems, Glantz described the Spanish Civil War. The money from the sale of those books was allotted to backing those who were fighting for the liberty of Spain.

f) In 1939, Glantz published, again sponsored by Guezbir as well as his friends and colleagues, the book Trit In Di Berg (Steps in the Mountains), poems written between 1926 and 1936. Parts of the book contain Mexican subjects such as: The Indian Hut, Mexico surrounded by Mountains, A Native Village, Chapultepec Castle, etc.

g) In 1939, Der Weg edited a book by Leo Forem, titled Carmen un Andere Dertzeilungen (Carmen and other Stories) which is divided in two parts: the first one titled Mexicanismos (Mexican Vernacular) that includes nine stories about life in Mexico.

h) Meyer Corona wrote Heimishe Mentchn (Trustworthy People), sponsored by the Cultural Club of Mexico, in 1939. It is made up of sixteen stories about Jewish life in Mexico.

i) In the middle of 1939, Yosef Winiecki wrote the book Oif Biblishe Motivn (Biblical Motifs, maxims, epigrams and paraphrases) with a prologue by Moises Rosenberg, edited by Der Weg (The Road).

3) TRANSLATIONS TO YIDDISH AND HEBREW

The series of translations of the Works of Universal Literature to Yiddish and Hebrew holds 725 volumes:

The series of translations of Works of Universal Literature is located within the library of the Center of Documentation and Investigation of the Ashkenazi Community.

These translations were made so as to approach and involve European Jews into universal culture.

The creation of the Bund (Union), a Jewish Polish socialist party, was very influential in performing these translations because the leftist Jewish parties in Poland tried to palliate the great economic needs that prevailed in the country through the richness of culture. They created clubs, libraries, cultural leagues, theater circles, professional groups, press, magazines written in Yiddish, Hebrew, Polish and Russian, as well as Jewish schools where Jewish history and literature were taught. There were courses for workers and hundreds of classes for the Jewish working population were organized. These classes were taught in Yiddish, considered the language of the people, of the common man, who had at the same time generated a very rich press and literature. The Yiddish language got the Jews to approach universal culture and began to awaken their interest in the non Jewish world.

The translations to Hebrew were influenced by the Haskalah (Illustration), movement that had its birth in Germany in the 18th century. Through this movement Jewish education became secular: instead of studying the Bible, Jews were supposed to study secular subjects in Hebrew and thus plunge into universal literature.

Some examples of works of universal culture translated into Yiddish are:

a) Karl Marx, The Capital, published in New York for the Literary Kropotkin Organization in 1917, translated from German to Yiddish by Dr. I. A. Merison.

The translator of this work expressed the difficulty of translating political economics into Yiddish, but in spite of that, he felt that it was very important to translate The Capital, because for him it was the Bible of socialism. Dr. Merison’s translation is based on Kautsky’s text which was the fifth translation of the book into German. The translator used a series of Germanic words to enable him to express Marxist terminology, because he was convinced that there should be a large Jewish socialist movement in the United States instead of the “Yiddish speaking” small socialist groups. Dr. Merison considered that the translation of The Capital to Yiddish was very timely because he could envision a very ample field for Jewish culture in Russia, as well as socialist activities.

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b) Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quijote de la Mancha, edited in Buenos Aires by IKUF press, in 1950 and translated into Yiddish by P. Katz.

Thanks are due to the Muzikansky family for the advent of this work. It influenced the creation of Jewish institutions, the building of the House of Culture and the I.L. Peretz Synagogue, as well as the creation of the IKUF press in Argentina. By financing the first volume of Don Quijote de la Mancha, the Muzikansky brothers gave life to universal literature translated into Yiddish.

The IKUF press considered the arrival of Don Quijote in Yiddish quite an accomplishment for the participants of the spiritual movement in that language in Argentina and the whole world, because it reminded them of the translations that had been made in the great cultural Jewish centers of Eastern Europe, extinguished during the Holocaust. The press also felt that the translation of El Quijote into Yiddish was very important at a moment when Jewish youth were abandoning Yiddish and losing interest in translations since they considered them only a means of relating to “the others”, while the press considered that universal literature is not alien, it is our own, it belongs to everybody.

Pasternak’s literary works had ceased being published in the USSR in the 30s. During the terrible years for Jewish writers in Russia he devoted himself solely to translating books of universal literature into Russian. But, during the war years some of Pasternak’s poetry began to be published. In 1956, Moscow radio announced that the book Dr. Zhivago would be published in that city and that the original had already been sent for its publication to a magazine. In the meanwhile, the manuscript of this work was smuggled out of the USSR and was published in several languages, including Yiddish.

When Pasternak was granted the Nobel literature award, Moscow responded that the author was not authorized to go to Sweden to receive it because it had not been published in the USSR. The appearance in Yiddish of this masterwork of universal literature was a social and literary event.

d) The New Testament in its second edition was translated into Yiddish in 1959 by Dr. Chaim Einspruch, sponsored by the Leibush Fonds un Chaye Lederer, located in Baltimore.

It was first edited in 1941 and the author’s rights are valid in Great Britain, Canada and all the countries that belong to the International Copyright Union and those with agreements with the Copyright Conventions of Montevideo, Mexico, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires and Havana.

The fourth edition of this book was printed in Israel in 1962.

4) INCORPORATED LIBRARIES

The Documentation Center receives donations of private books and libraries. The most important, because of their contents or rarity, are under Incorporated Libraries. Among the best are the following:

a) BORIS ROSEN

He was born in Kippel, Ukraine on January 22, 1917. and he arrived in Mexico in 1928.

He studied law at the UNAM. In 1935 he interrupted his studies to travel to New York and study to become a teacher and later on he entered the Workers’ University. This university was very influential towards his leftist leanings.

In 1930 he participated in the foundation of the Yugnt Club (Youth Club) where he became General Secretary. The goal of this club was to attract children and youngsters to take part in after-school activities that were held in Yiddish.

He edited a magazine in Spanish called Gama.

In 1937 he became a member of Guezbir which was a leftist Jewish organization that tried to help Jews to form their own state in Birobidjan in the USSR. They also studied Mexican and Soviet politics.

He was a member of the Folks Ligue (Society to Help the Soviet Union) founded in 1942.

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He had relations with various politicians among whom was Lombardo Toledano. He edited the Fraiwelt (Free World) Magazine and was secretary of Politics magazine.

He participated in a work of three volumes called Mexico in Peace and worked for the position of Mexico in the matter of peace.

Boris Rosen was a very important intellectual in Mexican society as a researcher of liberalism in the 19th century.

BOOKS OF THE BORIS ROSEN COLLECTION

We believe the books that were edited in the USSR or in Poland after the Second World War and that are part of this Fonds are extremely important because they are unique in Mexico, since few Jews had any interest in getting them because of their distaste towards the politics of the USSR.

In 1946 there were pogroms in Poland against the few Jews who survived the Holocaust. In 1948, when the State of Israel was created, most of the 80 thousand survivors managed to get to Israel and served as narrators of the meaning of living in Poland. On the other hand, Jews living in Mexico were increasingly disappointed with Stalin’s policy, considering him an infamous leftist dictator. The books published in the USSR and its satellite countries were controlled by censors about their contents so as to benefit the image of the state it desired to present to the world. The Yiddish in which they are written is Soviet Yiddish that by government order could include no word written in Hebrew.

The most important are the following:

The book Dos Shtetl (The Village) by Zinovi Tolkatshov was printed in 1946 by the Dos Naye Lebn (New Life) press in Warsaw and Lodz.

The contents of this book are scenes inspired in the writer Shalom Aleichem’s characters. In fact, the twenty paintings in this book were painted before the Second World War. What is important in this case is that they were painted anew by the Jewish-Soviet painter Tolkatshov, who apparently confronted the work already done with the national catastrophe. The painter was one of those who marched with the Red Army, so he was obviously an artist identified with the Soviet State.

According to M. Mirski “Dos Shtetl by Tolkatshov is the first important artistic attention call to our national catastrophe”.

This book was a gift from the great poet Wainper to Boris Rosen. Unique sample in Mexico.

The book Baricht fun land tsuzamenfor fun der Idisher Kultur Guezelshaft in Poiln (Report of the National Meeting of the Jewish Cultural Society in Poland) that took place in Bratslav in October 14-16, 1949, printed in Warsaw by the Yiddish Buch Editorial.

A report said that 300 delegates and representatives of the previously mentioned institution arrived. There were cultural commissions from cooperatives and factories, social institutions and cultural activists, artists, writers, etc. Representatives from various countries such as Rumania, the United States, Canada, etc. were present. Leo Katz went from Mexico; he devoted himself to criticizing anti-Semitism in capitalist countries.

At the conclusion of this activity, the representative of the Jewish Central Committee in Poland, Mr. Stoller said: “The Leninist-Stalinist idea will lead us to victory”. Unique sample in Mexico.

The Boris Rosen Library includes a collection of the Sovetish Heimland (Soviet Fatherland) magazine, organ of the Writers Council of the Soviet Union, written in Yiddish and edited by Sovetsky Pisatel in Moscow. The first number appeared in July-August of 1961. An article titled Di Lichtike Tzukunft fun der Mentchhait (The Luminous Future of Humanity), taken from the programmed project of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union that promotes the construction of communist society as an important and basic project of the Soviet people, introduced the first number.

In the article dedicated to the reader it says: “We place the first number of Sovetish Heimland in your hands. Here you will feel the breath of our time, you may receive greetings from literary life

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and listen to the voice of Soviet national literature. Because we are part of that literature, we think just as you do, that our magazine will proudly carry the name that is inscribed in the cover”.

The collection holds magazines that go from 1961 to 1991, thus becoming the most complete collection in Mexico. In the magazine edited in October of 1981, the photographs made by Itzik Fefer and Sh. Michoels in 1943 in which they appear with then ambassador of the USSR in Mexico, Constantin Umansky, were published. They are considered rare archival photographs. Michoels and Fefer were murdered by Stalin’s order.

b) ALICIA AND ISAAC BACKAL LIBRARY

This collection deals with very varied aspects such as life in the Mexican Jewish Community, Jews in the world, Mexican history, education in Mexico, history of the United States, Jewish religion and mysticism, and others.

Among the most important of that collection is the Polish Black Book, edited in that country in 1941, as well as the books by Marte R. Gómez, written during the 30s.

c) BERTHA MOSS LIBRARY

Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, she studied drama in the Nacional Conservatory of her native city.

Her work in Argentinean theater was outstanding. Her restlessness found an opening in Argentinean movies and television. She worked side by side with the most renowned actors of her country and Mexico. The actress Dolores del Río invited her to come to Mexico. Her first role in our country was in 1959 in the play “Quite a Lady”. She was a tireless theater actress, notably in “Fiddler on the Roof”.

Her library includes books of art, theater and Judaism.

d) JOSÉ AND EVA GOJMAN LIBRARY

Eva G. de Gojman was born in Minsk, Russia in 1921. She arrived in Mexico in 1928. Later she became a tireless activist of the WIZO organization (1940); she was president of the Yardenia group during 18 years and through her constant participation in WIZO’s Council she became an exceptional woman.

José Gojman was born in Pogrevische, Ukraine (1913). He immigrated to Mexico where his participation in community life through conferences in the Jewish Youth Club, his actions as representative in the Council of the Ashkenazi Kehillah, in the OIRIM organization and in the creation of Temple Bet-Itzhak made José Gojman a basic part of the Ashkenazi community in Mexico.

The CDICA has the complete works of Jules Verne in twelve volumes translated into Yiddish. It was published by the Hebrew Publishing Company in New York in 1922. This collection also has three private files of Jewish institutions in Mexico such as WIZO, the Bet-Itzhak synagogue and 56 handwritten letters in Yiddish that go from 1903 to 1929 sent from the Ukraine to Mexico and the United States.

II PERIODICAL LIBRARY .

NAME OF THE FONDS ORCOLLECTION

FIRST AND LASTDATES

NUMBER OF UNITS

1. Yearbooks

a) Der Weg

b) Nuestra Escuela (Our School)

1939

1937-1986

3 samples

78 samples

2. Newspapers

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a) Der Weg (The Road)

b) Di Tzait (The Time)

c) Di Shtime (The Voice)

d) Prensa Israelita (Jewish Press)

1931-1977

1936-1937

1939-1992

1953-1981

70 volumes

3 volumes

80 volumes

25 volumes

3. Magazines

a) Meksikaner Shriftn (MexicanCompositions)

b) Foroys (Forward)

c) Tribuna Israelita (Jewish Forum)

d) Sovietish Heimland (SovietFatherland)

e) Tzukunft (The Future)

1936-1937

1943-1984

1945-1983

1961-1991

1913-1980

2 volumes

316 volumes

180 volumes

180 volumes

340 volumes

The periodical library specializes in Jewish subjects. It is made up of yearbooks, bulletins, pamphlets, magazines and all kinds of miscellaneous newspapers. The material was created in: Mexico, the United States, Israel, the USSR, Poland, etc. Various languages such as Hebrew, Yiddish, German, Spanish, English, Russian and Polish can be found there.

1) YEARBOOKS

a) DER WEG (THE ROAD). SPECIAL NUMBER TO CELEBRATE THE TENTH ANNIVERSARY (JANUARY 1930-1940)

This publication celebrated ten years of existence of Der Weg newspaper. M. Rosenberg, its editor, commented that the anniversary of this publication also recalled twenty years of Jewish immigration from Eastern Europe into Mexico. The Center of Documentation and Investigation today has 6 specimens of that yearbook.

b) COLEGIO ISRAELITA DE MÉXICO

The first community school opened its doors on December 28, 1924 under the name of Colegio Israelita de México, which is still in operation. The yearbooks published by the school are a source of information for the history of the institution. The Center of Documentation and Investigation has the yearbooks published from 1937 to 1994.

2) NEWSPAPERS

The CDICA has the following newspapers:

Centro Deportivo Israelita (Jewish Sports Center), Der Weg (The Road), Der Yid (The Jew), Di Idishe Welt (The Jewish World), Di Shtime (The Voice), Di Tzait (The Time) , Kesher (Contact), La Voz de la Kehilá (The Voice of the Kehillah), La Voz Sionista (The Zionist Voice), The Day, The Jerusalem Post and Tu Mundo (Your World).

a) DER WEG (The Road)

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The first number of the Der Weg newspaper appeared on January 1, 1930. It was the pioneer of the Jewish press in Mexico. Der Weg very soon became the voice if the Jewish community in Mexico, promoting its intellectuals, writers and Yiddish theater.

Der Weg was published thrice weekly during ten consecutive years. From its beginning it had national and international news.

On September 18, 1939 the Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year) edition appeared with five pages in Yiddish, two in Spanish and nine pages of publicity. The Spanish pages were aimed at the Sephardic and Syrian and Lebanese communities that did not speak Yiddish.

This library has 40 bound volumes edited between August 12, 1931 and December 14, 1977. The newspaper contains reports of the Jewish Chamber of Industry and Commerce, life cycles, theater publicity, business publicity, in a word, the daily life of the Community. Unique collection in Mexico. We have the whole newspaper in microfilm.

b) DI TZAIT (The Time)

“Di Tzait” became a weekly on April 4, 1936 under the leadership of Sh. Zfas and M. Rubinstein. It began life as an independent community newspaper. A total of 198 numbers appeared and after some interruptions it ceased to exist on September, 1938.

Some of the writers who collaborated in “Di Tzait” were M. Rubinstein, I. Abrams, Salomón Kahan, Jacobo Glantz, I. Berliner, M. Dujovich. The editors contacted the JTA (Jewish Telegraphic Agency), so they received Jewish world news, besides press material. During the three years it was published it had articles against anti-Semitism in Mexico.

Our library has 4 specimens of the volumes corresponding to 1936-1937.

c) DI SHTIME (The Voice)

Di Shtime initiated in April, 1939, under the administration of M. Rubinstein. In the first number, it had the figure “No. 199”, which meant that it would be an extension of “Di Tzait”. “Di Shtime” appeared as private business and as a weekly.

The periodical library has 61 volumes of Di Shtime that include the period 1937 to 1979. Unique collection in Mexico.

d) PRENSA ISRAELITA (Jewish Press)

This daily was created by Sergio Nudelstejer in 1945; it was a newspaper in Spanish, later led by Max and Sara Krongold; Zionist newspaper that broadcast news about Israel and the Jewish world.

The library has 25 volumes from 1953 to 1981.

3) MAGAZINES

The Center has publications coming from Mexico, Argentina, Israel and the United States, among which the most important are: Agencia Judía (Jewish Agency), Aliyat Hanoar (Youth Aliya), Di Goldene Keit (The Golden Chain), Dos Yiddishe Folk. (The Jewish People), Dos Yiddishe Vort (The Jewish Word), Folk un Zion (People and Zion), Foroys (Forward), The Future, Mexikaner Shriftn (Mexican Compositions), Tu Mundo (Your World), Sovietish Heimland (Soviet Home), Undzer Tzait, (Our Time), Yiddisher Kempfer (Jewish Fighter), Yivo Bleter (Notes from Yivo) and Tribuna Israelita (Jewish Forum).

a) MEXICANER SHRIFTN (Mexican Compositions)

The first number of Mexicaner Shriftn appeared in February, 1936 as a monthly magazine of literature, science and cultural affairs under the leadership of Moisés Glicowsky. His aim was to “Build a forum for the most representative literary figures in Mexico”.

Local writers who participated were: Jacobo Glantz with essays and poetry; Itzjak Berliner with poetry; Diego Rivera, who wrote about his paintings; Salomón Kahan, M. Rubinstein, A. Jinich, H. Lisker, E. Abrams, A. Yezior, L. Sosnowitz, and Sh. Zfas.

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Mexicaner Shriftn came out regularly during four months. The number of pages varied between 24 and 30.

The Center of Documentation only has two samples from 1936 and 1937, which are unique samples.

b) FOROYS (Forward)

It was edited by the Society for Culture and Assistance, institution founded by a group of people arriving in Mexico from Poland of “Bundist” ideology (Jewish socialism). It was edited beginning in 1942 as a monthly magazine. Its editor and manager was N. Zfas.

The CDICA has 95 volumes that go from January 1943 to February 1983.

c) TRIBUNA ISRAELITA (Jewish Forum)

At the beginning it was an organ of the B´nei Brith Lodge (1944) and later on of the Anti-defamation Committee. This publication became the representative of the Central Committee and it published articles by its usual collaborators and by distinguished Mexican and foreign writers.

In the library we have a volume that goes from June, 1945 to October, 1947 and 174 magazines that embrace the period of January, 1947 to December, 1986.

III. HISTORIC ARCHIVE.

NAME OF FONDS OR COLLECTION FIRST AND LASTDATES

NUMBER OF UNITS

1. Ashkenazi Kehillah 1928-1985 75 boxes

2. Central Committee 1938-1996 222 boxes

3. Jewish Chamber of Industry andCommerce

1931-1957 74 boxes

4. Mexican Council of Jewish Women 1942-1979 39 boxes

5. Zionist Organizations 1940-1971 153 boxes

6. Incorporated Fonds

a) Dunia Wasserstrom

b) Benjamín Kowalsky

c) Nahum Wengrovsky

d) Jacobo Glantz

e) Tuvie Maizel

f) Buzia Kostov

g) Jane Fishbein

1938-1980

1931-1992

1942-1973

1935-1981

1968-1979

1960-1967

1960-1990

74 boxes

24 boxes

9 boxes

33 boxes

1 box

1 box

2 boxes

The Center of Documentation safeguards files of various community institutions. 1) ASHKENAZI KEHILLAH FONDS(1928-1985)

Ashkenazi Kehillah in Mexico On the second day of Passover in 1922, 28 Ashkenazi Jews gathered to create a congregation. The proposed name of the institution would be Nidjei Israel (Outcast from Israel), because they felt somewhat rejected. The community would be based on orthodoxy and thus it should fulfill the 613 mitzvot (good actions) that every Jew must perform according to the Torah. Finally,

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Rabbi Samuel Eliezer Dan said that his father’s name was Israel and this way he remembered his name. The proposal was accepted by everybody. One of Nidjei Israel’s first tasks was to organize a house of prayer (Bet Medresh) where they could pray daily, but especially on the Sabbath and holidays. The anxiety about having their own cemetery came up, because somebody had died and was going to be buried in a Christian cemetery. At that moment, Mr. Adler came up with the news that Mr. Mentzer would donate a piece of land for the cemetery if a benevolent institution were to be created. When permit for the foundation was granted, Mr. Mentzer donated one thousand meters of land to the Nidjei Israel Benefit. The Nidjei Israel Alliance was formed on August 19, 1924 and the document was protocolized on November 13, 1925. The benevolent society continued renting a place on the 5 de Mayo 38 Alley until 1931 but membership was growing and there was not enough room and finally they decided to rent a house on Jesus María 3. In 1933 Aarón Kletzel changed the name to Benevolent Alliance Nidjei Israel. On January 27, 1937 they decided to buy land on Justo Sierra 71 and 73 and erect a synagogue. It was inaugurated on September 14, 1941. From the very first years of Nidjei Israel’s creation several voices came up from the Ashkenazi Community in Mexico about the need to form a Kehillah, in the manner of European Kehillot (the idea had surfaced in 1926). The Kehillah began its formal operations on January 1, 1957. It first board was made up of fifty four members, plus eleven collaborators from its subsidized organizations. Its first president was Simón Feldman. The board’s plans, once its financial base was consolidated were: To ensure the material existence of the Jewish school of the country. To reduce school fees. To buy new buses for the schools. To edit a special publication about the Kehillah. To obtain basic books for education. To publish a children’s magazine. To organize a youth excursion to Israel To create a press to publish the work of Jewish writers in the country. The 1988 elections renewed the board of the Ashkenazi Kehillah in Mexico. The winning list was headed by Jaime Bernstein and Israel Feldman; the latter was named president with vice-presidents Jaime Bernstein and Mendl Engelmayer.

After 1996 one of the president’s priorities was to approach all Ashkenazi institutions to try to bring them into the community fold. It tried to learn the problems in the schools, synagogues and other congregations to promote unity, because it felt that together much more could be done and there would be a much stronger Council.

There were new challenges and a solution had to be found as soon as possible. By petition of the Board and Ramat Shalom (an Ashkenazi synagogue) a decision was taken: to name a group of people from Ramat Shalom as well as from the Kehillah to perform a deep study of the Ashkenazi problems to present a new structure. Ramat Shalom’s position about its adherence to the Kehillah was clear and definite. This union could benefit both and in time reduce expenses and efforts. In 1997, the Ashkenazi Community Board was created.

The fonds is divided into six sections: I) Record of Proceedings; II) Cultural Department; III) Eshel (Old People’s Home); IV) Religious Department; V) Administration; y VI) Department of Education (Vaad Hachinuch). The documents belonging to this fondsallow us to reconstruct the history of the Kehillah. There is information about its presidents, of the meetings of its board, of the purchase of several pieces of land, building of its synagogues, various rulings, the change of name it has gone through in institutional life, etc.

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2) FONDSOF THE MEXICAN JEWISH CENTRAL COMMITTEE (1938-1992). The proposal to create a Jewish representation in the city occurred in 1927. The project took place partially in 1932 through the formation of the Federation of Jewish Societies, made up by the presidents of twenty societies that existed at the time in the capital city that were supposedly the authorized representatives of the Ashkenazi group. The Federation remained for two years. Then a Committee For Refugees arose that eventually became the Mexican Jewish Central Committee on November 9, 1938 in Mexico City. The goals of the institution were to form an organic group of the whole Jewish Community in Mexico. The Central Committee began to work in a very difficult environment since its main activity was to support the refugees arriving in Mexican ports from Hitler’s Europe as well as the task of anti-defamation. The Central Committee Fondshas twenty books of proceedings that tell the story of the work of the Central Committee between 1938 and 1992. In them we find the formation of the institution, the community composition in the Committee, money collections for Mexico such as Red Cross or the help granted after hurricanes or earthquakes suffered in the country, community leaders and help offered to refugees. The Documentation Center has 5,000 files in 178 archive boxes AGN12. This archive is unique and irreplaceable because it was donated by the Mexican Jewish Central Committee itself and there are no copies of its documents. The most important sections are the administrative that holds the record of proceedings, accounting, reports from the board, assistance committee and membership; the Jewish Hospital that tells about the project of construction of a hospital to attend Jewish members; refugees divided into the Committee For Refugees, Assistance to Refugees and protection to Jews and Second World War with its branches: Allied Work of War, Anti Nazi Propaganda and protection to Jews.

3) JEWISH CHAMBER OF INDUSTRY AND COMMERCE (1931-1957). Since the very first years of Jewish immigration into Mexico, commerce and small industry were the occupations of most of the new arrivals. The environment for merchants was very auspicious because intermediaries between large industry and the consumer mass were few. This situation benefited many of the immigrants so they could devote themselves to sales on the installment plan and later on to get a small capital for a store or workshop. From the outset, the community required an organization able to protect and assist Jewish merchants. Men of this type together with small newly arrived producers needed juridical protection, advice and representatives who could intervene before the government authorities. Having its own Chamber of Commerce became a question of prestige for the community because other smaller groups had their own chamber by then. The Chamber of Small Jewish Businesses was founded on June 27, 1929 not just to coordinate among themselves but for the need of having representative organs before Mexican society. The first problem it had to face was the regulation of the Federal District authorities that their stands had to be taken away during lunchtime. However, that institution existed during only seven months. It dissolved on January 27, 1930. In the protocols of the constitutive assembly of the Jewish Chamber of Industry and Commerce that took place in Tacuba 15, on March 24, 1931, it was stipulated that Mr. Barrou would be the president and Jacobo Landau the secretary. The Chamber desired to have better relations with the Federal District and the state governments so that they could make a joint effort to strengthen and develop national industry and commerce. Its creation had two main reasons: a) to be an instrument of defense of the interests of its members and b) to be united against anti-Semitic campaigns. The Jewish Chamber backed its members through advice, information about matters such as imports, exports, contract signatures, etc. During its existence, the Chamber was devoted to: 1) Offering commercial, industrial and agricultural information both inside the country and abroad. 2) Obtaining the residence and legal entrance of members’ families and to hire juridical counsel. 3) Representing the community before the State.

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4) Helping obtain licenses for small merchants, for peddlers and for manufacturers. 6) Creating a no-interest loan society. For its operation it was divided into ten departments: commercial, industrial, judicial, public relations, technical advice, publicity, statistics, administration, finance and membership. The Chamber’s main function was to serve as a link with similar non-Jewish institutions. It took part in the National Committee’s publicity campaign against illiteracy (1942), it cooperated during the Second World War with the Civil Defense Committee of the Federal District. The fonds is made up of 79 catalogued boxes which were generated during the administration between 1931 and 1957. The most important are the series: Records of the Board; Refugees; Institutional Relations; Hardware Owners; Shoe Wholesalers; Jacobo Landau and Brothers; Jewish Committee for National Redemption and Defense Committee. Among the most important in the fonds is the file: Proceedings of the meeting of the Board on March 24, 1931, that established an association under the name of Jewish Chamber of Industry and Commerce in Mexico. The record shows the faculties and obligations of the Chamber. 4) FONDS OF THE MEXICAN COUNCIL OF JEWISH WOMEN. The Council was formed in 1938 as part of the Mexican Jewish Central Committee under the name of Women’s Section. The women were in charge of assisting the immigrants who arrived as refugees. In 1962 this organization became independent and took the name of Mexican Council of Jewish Women (linked to the International Council of Jewish Women). Their slogan was “From Jewish women to Mexican women”. This organization has contributed since 1943 to the building, maintenance and attention of nurseries, elementary schools and middle schools. In general, their line of work has stressed education, health and attention to the poor. The Mexican Council of Jewish Women has the peculiarity that their welfare work is devoted exclusively to Mexican society. The Second World War took them to participate in support of women and children suffering from the consequences of the European war. The Mexican Council of Jewish Women decided to align itself with the International Red Cross to enable them to get assistance into combat areas. The link with the Mexican Red Cross exists till today and represents another important part of this organization’s activities: in financial help, in cooperating with campaigns for that institution and in the attention granted to various hospitals in Mexico, such as the Cardiology Hospital, Women’s Hospital, Psychiatric Hospital, Huipulco Hospital and General Hospital. The Fonds is composed of 39 boxes divided into five sections: Administration; Board of Directors, Accounting, Community relations and Welfare.

5) FUND: ZIONIST ORGANIZATIONS. Zionism is a movement created so as to perform the millenary dream of the Jewish people, to return to Eretz Israel and build a State. In Theodor Herzl’s (founder of Zionism) time, Zionist congresses gathered every year and elected an Action Committee (or executive). The delegates were named by Zionist societies. In time, the mechanism of the Zionist Organization strengthened and grew. The Zionist Organization has federations or societies in almost every country in the world. The Fonds is made up of sub-funds: United Zionist Organization Zionist Federation. Aliyat Hanoar. Institution in charge of helping children. Mizrahi organization. Organization of religious Zionists. It works to strengthen religious feelings among Mexican Jews. The Fonds is integrated by 153 boxes and 59 files. The most important sections are the Jewish Agency, Aliyat Hanoar and Zionist Federation. 6) INCORPORATED FONDS:

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People who have played an important role in the history of the Mexican Jewish Community have often donated their files to the center, among the most important are: a) DUNIA WASSERSTROM COLLECTION. Dunia was a survivor of the Holocaust from the concentration camp of Auschwitz; she founded the Association of Members of Resistance and Deported Victims of the Second World War and wrote the book Nunca Jamás (Never Again) and her collection has documents of various types (photographs, diaries, manuscripts, documents, etc.) b) BENJAMÍN KOVALSKY COLLECTION. Benjamín Kovalsky was born in Lithuania and immigrated into Mexico. He worked as teacher during 40 years at the Colegio Israelita de México. His files contain documents and photographs. c) NAHUM WENGROWSKY COLLECTION Activist, promoter and tireless fighter for Keren Kayemet* in the Jewish Community of Monterrey, he arrived in Mexico on June 11, 1937. He played two important roles: that of firm Zionist and the fact that he was a pillar in religious community life. He was active in Keren Kayemet Leisrael, where he carefully registered every account and the proceedings of the organization. His meticulousness and hard work allowed us to keep this important documentary fonds. It is composed of 8 file boxes. It includes correspondence from Keren Kayemet and the Zionist Federation, Protocols, Hatikvah Club, Cemetery Accounting Books, loose receipts, Nahum Wengrowsky personal papers and those of the Monterrey Community.

d) JACOBO GLANTZ COLLECTION. Jacobo was born in the Ukraine and immigrated to Mexico due to the bad economic situation and anti-Semitism unleashed in Russia. He lived through the ascent of Leninist communism, but he left the USSR when Stalin took power (1924). He performed a number of activities from selling bread to being a dentist. The Glantz family had various businesses, such as a bag and glove boutique called Lisette, located on 16 de Septiembre Street, where he was attacked on January 1939 by a group of Golden Shirts who wanted to kill him. He managed to flee assisted by Siqueiros’ brother. The business he owned for several years was the Carmel restaurant that functioned “kosher style”. It was also one of the most important cultural centers in Mexico of that time. As a Jewish Mexican intellectual he met a large number of personalities. Among the Mexican ones were Mariano Azuela, David Alfaro Siqueiros, José Clemente Orozco and Diego Rivera. Among the Jewish ones, Jacobo Glantz came together with Marc Chagal, Isaac Bashevis Singer and Sholem Asch whenever he had a chance to visit the literary circles in New York. In his own publications Mexicaner Yiddish Lebn (Mexican Jewish Life) is the most remarkable. e) TUVIE MAIZEL COLLECTION He was born in Yekaterinoslav, Russia in 1897 and died in Mexico in 1984. He arrived in Mexico in 1924 and was a great community activist from the onset of the formation of the Ashkenazi Kehillah; he headed the Cultural Department, was dean of the Teacher’s Seminar, defender of Yiddish and founder of the Festival of Jewish Music that carries his name. His Collection is composed by one file box. f) BUSIA KOSTOV COLLECTION Busia Kostov was an important activist of the Mexican Council of Jewish Women. She was born in Russia in 1910 and immigrated to Mexico in 1925, where she studied Chemistry at the National University. She participated constantly in various organizations such as the Committee for Refugees, the Committee for Human Rights of the Jews in the USSR and the Cultural Institute Mexico-Israel. Her file contains a box of personal documents, postulations and conferences for the Mexican Council of Jewish Women, their reports, diplomas and magazines. g) JANE FISHBEIN COLLECTION.

* Organization charged with helping Israel plant trees. His Fonds is composed of 24 boxes divided by sections of correspondence with Yivo Gallery, Correspondence with the Joint, Letters copied in Yiddish, Yiddish articles and Poetry.

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She was born in 1912. In 1953 she participated as secretary of the Women’s Committee at the Jewish Sports Center. Later she was President of the Press Committee of the same institution. She published several articles on Jewish tradition and religion. She was secretary of Aliyat Hanoar and president of Yom Hayeled (Children’s Day). She participated with the Plugah (defense) during the Six Day War. She proposed creating the Women’s Group of Karen Hayesod and was its president until 1969, as well as of Cavi, group dedicated to assist handicapped children. Her great community activity led her to have a relationship with Golda Meir and Eleanor Roosevelt. She worked in the Association of Jewish Journalists in Mexico, as well as in Zionist organizations.

In her files we find mainly documents about Aliyat Hanoar, Yom Hayeled, Cavi and Keren Hayesod.

IV. GRAPHIC ARCHIVES:

NAME OF FONDS ORCOLLECTION

FIRST AND LAST DATES NUMBER OF UNITS

1. Photographs 1904-2005 8000

2. Posters 1932-1945 40

3. Slides 1928-1976 52

4. Cards 1940-1998 250

This corpus is integrated by 32 fonds and collections*. It is divided into photographs that add up to 7,000 and posters, slides and one thousand New Year’s cards called Leshanot Tovot for the Jewish New Year.

1) ASHKENAZI KEHILLAH FONDS (NIDJEI ISRAEL)

It was the first Ashkenazi community institution, founded in 1922, made up of 30 people, coming from Eastern Europe. They desired to copy the model of institutions that they had left behind in their original towns. On November 13, 1925, the Benevolent Alliance Nidjei Israel was founded. Its rulings show the spirit of solidarity among the members of the Community. In 1957 it changed its name for that of Ashkenazi Kehillah.

Mr. Mentzer, a Hungarian Jew, donated a one thousand meter piece of land located outside the city, on the road to Toluca to the Benevolent Alliance Nidjei Israel to create the first Ashkenazi cemetery, on May 26, 1927. On November 4 of that same year, the cornerstone was placed. Nidjei Israel inaugurated the cemetery in 1928. That same year the Chevrah Kadishah (Care of the Dead) was formed.

The fonds is divided into sections: Eshel (Old People’s Home), Education, Events, Culture, Religion, Board of Directors, Administration and Center of Documentation and Investigation of the Ashkenazi Community of Mexico. It includes photographs of inaugurations, parties, celebrations, synagogues, events, the Jewish Music Festival, cemetery, artistic groups and rabbis.

2) MEXICAN COUNCIL OF JEWISH WOMEN FONDS.

It was formed in 1938 as part of the Mexican Jewish Central Committee under the name of Women’s Section. In 1962 it became independent and took the name of Mexican Council of Jewish Women (linked to the International Council of Jewish Women). Its activities carried the slogan

* The documental fonds correspond to documents from some institution and the collections of documents taken up for some reason or from somebody.

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“From Jewish women to Mexican women”. From 1943, it has contributed to the building, maintenance and attention of nurseries, schools and hospitals.

It is separated by sections: Jewish women, Institutions, Ana Frank Kindergarten, Cultural Circle, Welfare, Friendship Tea, International Council of Jewish Women, Visits and World Jewish Organizations. There are photographs of farewells, inaugurations, donations, Mexican Red Cross, UNAM scholarships, hospital visits, school lunches, workshops, International meetings, Boards of Directors, etc.

3) JEWISH CHAMBER OF INDUSTRY AND COMMERCE FONDS.

It contains the sections Board of Directors, Accounting, National Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Mexico City, Relations with Government and Partners. It has photographs of standing guard at the Angel of Independence, anti-Semitic pamphlets, allegoric carriages and personal cards.

It began its activities on March 24, 1931. Its main goal was to be united to confront the anti-Semitic campaigns, as well as to have a voice to watch over merchants’ interests. It mediated between the associates. It had relations with international Jewish institutions and founded a no interest Loan Society. In 1957 it ceased operating and its functions were integrated into other institutions.

4) MEXICAN JEWISH CENTRAL COMMITTEE FONDS.

The Mexican Jewish Central Committee began functioning in November 9, 1938 so as to form an organization of the whole Jewish Community in Mexico that would serve as official representative before the country’s authorities. At the beginning, its activities were dedicated to aid European refugees, as well as the task of anti-defamation. The Tribuna Israelita (Jewish Forum) was founded in 1944 as a branch of the Central Committee.

We have the sections Board of Directors, Jewish Forum, Visits, Intercommunity Relations and Second World War. Among the photographs there are Boards of Directors, Nidjei Israel Library, Conventions of Jewish Communities of Mexico, Visitors (Nahum Goldman, Victor Harel, Aaron Hans), ambulatory kitchens donated during the Second World War and Donations.

5) COLLECTION OF COMMUNITIES

The Jewish Community in Mexico is divided into several sectors: Ashkenazi Community, Sephardic Community, Monte Sinai and Maguen David.

It contains the Bet-El, Maguen David, Sephardic and Monte Sinai (Sectors of the Jewish Community in Mexico) series.

6) COLLECTION OF CRYPTO JEWS IN MEXICO.

Crypto Jews are those Jews who were forced to convert to Christianity but who continued with their Jewish rites in secret.

Venta Prieta is located at the entrance of the city of Pachuca, inhabited by descendants of crypto Jews, coming from Zamora, Michoacán. Temixco is also a community of crypto Jews in the State of Morelos.

Sections Venta Prieta and Temixco. Of the latter there is a series of photographs of a native Jewish community, where we can appreciate the cultural fusion by observing the rites and attire.

7) COLLECTION OF COMMUNITIES IN THE PROVINCES.

Jewish immigrants arrived in Monterrey between 1920 and 1930, coming from Eastern Europe. Institutionalization allowed them to keep their Jewish identity. Its characteristic is to be made up of Ashkenazi Jews, with an orthodox religious practice.

The Tijuana community began to gather in the second decade of the 20th century. In the 40s some Holocaust survivors arrived together with Sephardim and Ashkenazim coming from the Federal District, Guadalajara and Monterrey. Some Judaizers, descendants of crypto Jews from the Colonial era, arrived as well.

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Sections Monterrey, Jewish Community Center of Monterrey and Tijuana: We find photographs of Nahum Wengrovsky, women’s groups, Polish army, Board of Directors of Keren Kayemet, prayers, Mezuzah collection, excursions, students, etc.

8) COLLECTION JEWS IN THE WORLD.

It contains photographs of Cuba, the United States and Tanzania.

9) COLLECTION PLACE OF ORIGIN.

Ashkenazi Section: These photographs were brought by European immigrants. We have copies of study certificates, synagogues, religious schools, the Wyzskow market, the Worms community, etc.

10) COLLECTION IMMIGRATION

Sections: Travel Documents, Arrival of immigrants, Refugees and Policies. It contains passports, letters, certificates of physical and mental health, ships, trains, lists of refugees, camps for refugees, naturalization letters and personal documents.

11) COLLECTION EDUCATION.

The Ashkenazi Community in Mexico has had five schools, each one representing a different educational ideology. The first one was founded in 1924. They are all coordinated by the Vaad Hachinuch (Education Council) that began operating in 1952. In 1946, the Teachers’ Seminar was formed to provide Jewish teachers for the schools. In 1992 it was replaced by the Hebraic University, affiliated to the Ministry of Public Education.

Sections: Teachers’ Seminar: Yavneh School, Colegio Israelita de México, Tarbut School, Vaad Hachinuch (Education Council), Hebraic University, Monte Sinai Hebrew School, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Chidon Hatanach (Torah Competition), anniversaries, graduations, awards, exhibitions, conferences, teachers, sponsors.

12) MEXICAN JEWISH SPORTS CENTER FONDS.

The Jewish Sports Center was inaugurated on October 15, 1950 in the land of the former Sotelo ranch as an apolitical institution dedicated to organize youth in the social and sports aspects, which functions till today.

It contains the sections Board of Directors, Installations, Events and Personalities. There are photographs of the Boards of Directors, of the Women’s Committee, of the Youth Council, the building project of the Center, openings, awards, etc.

13) YOUNG MEN’S HEBREW ASSOCIATION∗ FONDS.

In 1920, Sam Wishniak founded the association called Young Men’s Hebrew Association, whose initials are YMHA, known as “The Club” and composed mainly by young Jews coming from the United States. This association was finally established in Tacuba 15. It was the meeting place for all Ashkenazi Jews, because its members spoke both Yiddish and English. This place had a library, plays were performed as well as dances, parties and prayers in the High Holidays.

*Institution created by immigrants arriving from the United Status during the First World War.

Sections Board of Directors and Maccabee: There are photographs of the YMHA Board of Directors, parade of Athlete’s day, teams and Maccabean games.

14) COLLECTION LIFE CYCLE.

A baby boy’s birth is marked by the Brith Milah that symbolizes the pact between God and the people of Israel. Puberty is marked by the Bar Mitzvah for boys at thirteen and Bat Mitzvah for girls at twelve. Marriage is the basis and origin of family life. Divorce is performed by a Bet Din. Death is typified by respect for the deceased and mourning is expressed by Shivah and the Kadish.

∗ Institución creada por inmigrantes que llegaron de los Estados Unidos durante la Primera Guerra Mundial.

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Sections Brith Milah (circumcision), Bar Mitzvah (thirteen year olds), weddings and festivities: It contains photographs of circumcisions, synagogues of the Jewish community in Mexico, weddings and Passover.

15) COLLECTION WORK.

Section Merchants. There are photographs of peddlers and of established shops.

16) COLLECTION CULTURE

The cultural activity of Ashkenazi Jews started at the same time as did immigration. From their arrival they had a vivid interest in literary and artistic activity. The Ashkenazi Jewish culture in Mexico developed keeping and transmitting the one brought over from their places of origin while at the same time adapting and taking new elements from Mexican culture.

Section Activities and Events: It contains photographs of choirs, dances, theater, press, exhibitions, books, Jewish intellectuals in Mexico, music, conferences and libraries.

17) COLLECTION LEON AND CELIA ZUCKERBERG.

The actors Celia and Leon Zuckerberg, together with other actors such as Rosa and Morris Brown, Genia and Morris Gelber, energized the Yiddish theater in Mexico. The Zuckerbergs arrived in Mexico in 1934 and set up “The Dibbuk” by Ansky in Yiddish. Some of their plays were staged in the Arbeu and Hidalgo Theaters, among others.

Section Theater: This collection has photographs of León and Celia Zuckerberg as well as publicity.

18) COLLECTION ILLUSTRATIONS.

The CDICA has posters whose content is anti-Semitic and others created during the Second World War as protest against Nazi anti-Semitism. Some of them are propaganda for solidarity meetings for the Jewish people and others as protests against what had happened in the Warsaw Ghetto. In these posters we can read the speeches supporting the Jewish people that were read by famous intellectuals such as Felix F. Palavicini, Isidro Fabela, Vicente Lombardo Toledano, among others.

Sections: New Year, invitations and programs, diplomas and acknowledgements, reproductions and tickets. There are New Year’s cards of various themes (Jerusalem, Jewish traditions, flowers and nature elements, the Star of David, the Wailing Wall, doves, family, etc.), invitations to events of social, cultural and religious character, programs, anti-Semitic posters, diplomas, diptychs and triptychs, etc.

19) COLLECTION WOMEN’S ORGANIZATIONS

The Mexican section of the WIZO organization (Women’s International Zionist Organization) was formed on March 26, 1938. They support nurseries and furnish schools in the Federal District, among other things.

Froien Farein, (Women’s Union) began in 1932. It helps the sick, widows and orphans, granting financial and medical assistance.

Na’amat (Pioneer Women) was founded in 1935. It helps prevent intra family violence and participates in the Red Cross Campaign as well as in supporting Mexican institutions.

Sections: Na´Amat, WIZO and Froien Farein. There are photos of IDs, visit of Abba Eban to WIZO, boards of directors, cards, etc.

20) COLLECTION IMPORTANT WOMEN.

Section: Sephardic Community. It has photographs of Doreta Babani, Sophie Bejarano, Amelia Ezquenazi, Amira Klip, Esther Mondlak, Elena Nahmad, Rosa Nissan, etc.

21) COLLECTION ORGANIZATIONS OF MUTUAL ASSISTANCE.

The Jewish Benevolent Society of Mexico was founded in 1930 (Hilfs Farein) which from the beginning was set up as an assistance, not a charity and alms, institution.

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The OSE Mexican Society was founded in November of 1941. It is devoted to giving medical help in its clinic.

Ars Medici is a medical forum. It established relations with OSE and with scientific and professional societies abroad.

ORT stands for initials of Russian words that mean Society for Jewish Manual Work. In Mexico it has been in charge of coordinating workshop teaching in Jewish schools.

There was an initiative to form a society for a Jewish Hospital in Mexico in 1927, but in spite of the efforts made by the community for its erection, by 1962 the project had folded.

Sections: ORT, OSE, Ars Medici, Jewish Hospital in Mexico and Hilfs Farein. There are photographs of awards, activities, members, for the Building of the Jewish Hospital and executives.

22) COLLECTION YOUTH ORGANIZATIONS.

The young people who arrived in Mexico from Eastern Europe and those born in Mexico created their own centers and youth organizations of various ideologies. Some of them were religious such as Bnei Akiva. It was formed in 1947 as an autonomous and intercommunity group. Noam was created in May, 1949. It received pupils from all the schools that taught religious Zionism.

Sections Bnei Akiva and Noam: Photographs of activities and camps in Mexico.

23) COLLECTION POLITICAL ORGANIZATIONS.

The Jews who arrived in Mexico were imbued by a series of ideologies that had been forged in Europe, both at international level, like communism, and nationalist like the Bund and Zionism. In Mexico, the first Zionist organization was created in 1922. The Bundist organization began in 1936, of socialist tendency.

Sections Zionist Organizations and Bundist Organizations: Images of activities, reception in Mexico of Zionist leaders, congresses, displays, campaigns, activities in favor of Israel, Eleanor Roosevelt’s visit, Zionist leaders visiting, etc.

24) COLLECTION ISRAEL.

Sections: Aliyat Hanoar, education, visits, army, society and State. It contains images of events, Hanoar Hatzioni, Yamin, order, sportsmen; kibbutz, distinguished visitors, arrival of immigrants, educational institutions, civil activities, military activities, Associations of Friends, etc.

25) COLLECTION RELATIONS WITHIN MEXICO.

Sections Distinctions and acknowledgements: Committee for the Defense of the Federal District, meetings with authorities and presidents. There are photographs of Mexican presidents, acknowledgements, contributions and granting of recognitions.

26) COLLECTION SECOND WORLD WAR.

Section Nazism/Holocaust: Photographs of Nazi soldiers, the Warsaw Ghetto, objects and representations, memorial anniversaries, visits and mass tombs.

27) COLLECTION ANTI SEMITISM.

Section Propaganda: Images of graffiti at the Jewish cemetery and anti-Semitic publicity.

28) COLLECTION SAMUEL SHERE.

Section Immigrants: Photos of immigrants arriving in the United States.

29) COLLECTION MEXICO.

Section general views: Photos of buildings.

30) COLLECTION PERSONALITIES.

Simón Feldman was born in Skvira, in the Ukraine region, in 1909. He arrived in Mexico in 1924. He was one of the developers of the Jewish community in Mexico. Since 1938 he got interested in

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community work and in 1940 he was elected president of Nidjei Israel, position that he occupied until 1988 and as honorary president till his death, in 1992.

The Jewish League for Help to the USSR or Di Ligue, as it was known throughout the Jewish community, was founded in August, 1942. In January, 1945 Di Ligue changed its name to that of Jewish Popular League in Mexico (Folks Ligue) and remained as a non affiliated group where Jews of various tendencies and parties could participate and be active, as long as they were antifascist and friends of the Soviet Union. Boris Rosen was representative of the Folks Ligue before the Central Committee and the last editor of Fraiwelt, newspaper published by that group.

Sections Golda Meir and important people: Photos of Golda Meir, Boris Rosen and Simón Feldman, gatherings, activities of the Jewish Popular League, commemorative and cultural acts, community activities, festivals, parties, meetings and reunions, homages and acknowledgements, etc.

31) COLLECTION DUNIA WASSERSTROM.

Dunia was survivor of the Holocaust, of Auschwitz concentration camp. She founded the Association of Members of Resistance and Deported Victims of the Second World War and wrote the book Nunca Jamás (Never Again).

Sections Personal life, activities and functions: the Problem of the Jewish Minority in the USSR. It is a very rich fonds because it has photographs of Dunia and Ariel in Europe, Polish families, Polish parks, social events, the passport of Dunia Severin Wasserstrom, of the Association of Members of the Resistance and Deported Victims of the Second World War, the Mexican Council of Jewish Women, etc.

32) COLLECTION JANE FISHBEIN.

This collection is part of Jane Fishbein’s file. She was a community activist in several institutions particularly in the matter of supporting and helping women and children. Her photographic file has more than 200 photographs.

This collection has very important photographs of her community work in Aliyat Hanoar, Plugah, Keren Hayesod and Cavi.

33) COLLECTION BERTHA MOSS.

Originally from Buenos Aires, Argentina, she studied drama in her native city. Her work in Argentinean theater was remarkable. She worked side by side with the greatest actors and actresses of her country and Mexico. The actress Dolores del Río invited her to come to Mexico. She was a tireless dramatic actress, especially in “Fiddler on the Roof”.

Her photographic file is made up of photos that show various passages of the personal life of the actress during her artistic career in Mexico, mainly in the theater. Among the celebrities who worked with her and with whom she had great friendship we find her best friend Dolores del Río as well as the film director Luis Buñuel, Marga López, Ignacio López Tarso and Manolo Fábregas with whom she worked on many occasions in several plays during her stay in Mexico. Finally, we find some photos that show special moments accompanied by her husband José Pichel.

Photo of Bertha Moss with a series of Mexican artists among which are Pedro Vargas, Miguel Aceves Mejía, Raúl Astor, Marga López and Chela Castro.

V. DATABASES.

NAME OF FONDS OR COLLECTION FIRST AND LASTDATES

NUMBER OF UNITS

1. Jewish Immigrants into Mexico 1876-1950 13,100 registries

2. Jewish Businesses in Mexico 1900-1950 348 registries

3. Census of the Jewish Community in 1949 1548 registries

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Mexico

4. Proceedings of the Mexican JewishCommittee

1938-1992 8438 registries

Our databases have been developed by means of some unique documental series. This has allowed us to expedite researcher’s work since searching for some information through certain key words saves lots of time.

1) JEWISH IMMIGRANTS INTO MEXICO.

The database is the result of an investigation by the Center of Documentation and Investigation of the Ashkenazi Community in Mexico. The Immigrant Registry of the Ministry of the Interior is kept in Gallery 2 of the National General Archives. These registries contain information from the end of the 19th to the middle of the 20th century.

Form F4 could be obtained in various manners: in first place upon arrival in the country. Those under age at that moment got it at 16. It could also be obtained at a Consulate (Marseilles, for instance) and they would come in with that document in hand. Every time that somebody came back into the country, a new registry was opened; that is the reason for some people to have several entries.

The registries contain detailed information of every person, such as date, place of birth, date of entry into the country, place of entry, religion, place of residence in Mexico, country of origin, nationality, languages, etc. On the other side, the physical and racial characteristics of the person were inscribed like height, weight, racial group and sub racial in some cases. The document includes a photograph of the immigrant.

Obtaining the information was a difficult process because, in the first place, we were searching for nationalities that are considered Ashkenazi, among which the most important were Poland, Russia, Germany and Lithuania. Later we processed the data of the Sephardic and Arabic speaking communities to fill out the pattern, but we realized it was necessary to have the registry of the Jews coming from the United Status, Cuba and Spain, because it was a large number besides presenting a different migratory current.

The database contains registries from the National Registry of Foreigners of the National General Archives, which is divided into 23 nationalities with information generated between 1876 and 1950. The information allows us to find out who arrived, from where, when, via what place, their skills, the number of languages spoken, etc. It has 13,100 registries. It presents immigrants of the various community sectors, divided into 23 nationalities: Polish, Russian, French, American, Syrian, German, Lithuanian, Cuban, Spanish, Lebanese, Austrian, Bulgarian, Egyptian, Dutch, Iraqi, Swiss, Turk, Rumanian, Palestinian, Hungarian, Greek, Czech and Belgian.

Today this database has turned out to be extremely important. The 13,100 registries found in the National General Archives have become a very valuable tool because it helps students prepare a report called “Roots” and children of immigrants present it as proof to request another nationality as well.

2) JEWISH BUSINESSES IN MEXICO.

The origin of the relatively recent establishment of Sephardic Jews came about after 1860 when President Benito Juárez sanctioned religious tolerance in Mexico. This process continued favorably by the concessions granted to foreign investors by Porfirio Díaz. However, it was only in the 20th century when Mexican newspapers broadcast the advantages of this land in Turkey, that some Jews began to consider the possibility of immigrating to Mexico.

Mexico had developed various economic activities that embraced a huge list of trades such as diamond cutters, film producers, exporting agents, physicians, lawyers, chemists, cabinetmakers,

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mechanics, sales agents, textile designers, furriers, diamond manufacturers, mechanical engineers, economists, pharmacists, painters, alcohol producers, musicians, dentists, financial agents; dealers in automotive parts, in steel, in attire, in electrical articles; sweater manufacturers, of stockings, overcoats, beds and mattresses and milliners; canned goods manufacturers, etc.

The problem lay in getting a job. In the old towns most Jews had been artisans, small merchants or agricultural workers. Because there were very few ways of earning a living, they realized that the professions and trades brought over from Europe were not practical in Mexico. There was no need for tailors, butchers, shoemakers or carpenters so they were forced to open a shop or become peddlers.

The best economic option for immigrants was in commerce. Fortunately, most manufactured products were imported so their price and distribution was concentrated in the most important urban areas. They revolutionized commerce which benefited the Mexican people because through competition the essential articles that were out of reach of workers could now be purchased because prices had greatly gone down.

Between 1926 and 1930 the financial position of the Jewish population improved, so Jewish peddlers began to disappear to be replaced by workshops or stores of their own. A few small Jewish owned factories also began producing.

Once the Jewish community began to consolidate financially, they decided to live in Mexico. In the industrial census of 1945 we may observe the importance Jewish manufacture had acquired (knitted lingerie, artificial silk, shirts and stockings). Jewish firms produced 35.66% of the total output of stockings in the country, but in silk stockings the percentage rose to 64.63%.

The database was made based on an economic census of the time and by searching for advertisements in community newspapers. It includes statistical information of the years 1948, 1949 and 1950, integrated by ads and publications of that era that contain information such as business, owner, partners, address, foundation dates and line of business.

3) CENSUS OF THE JEWISH COMMUNITY IN MEXICO.

The census was prepared by the Mexican Jewish Central Committee in 1949 so as to find out the social and demographic characteristics of the community, because elections had to be made and they desired to know the number of representatives from each community sector. The survey began the first days of 1949.

On August 2, 1949, Mr. Shimanovich reported that the census gave the figure of 3949 families of which 471 were Sephardic, 800 Arabic speaking and the rest Ashkenazi and that the electoral lists had started being prepared.

The survey was made by family in large sheets where each member of the family was listed, beginning with both private and business addresses. First came the father and the rest of the family was listed from oldest to youngest.

The information required the name beginning with the father’s surname, mother’s surname and given name, then sex and age. Further on civil state was annotated, as well as country of origin. The answers ranged very widely, whether somebody had been born in Mexico or abroad, in the case of the foreign born, the most common options were Poland, Russia, Lithuania, Syria, Turkey, Greece, Lebanon, Arabia, Brazil, Persia, etc.

The nationality was written down, although by that time some half of the community members had been born in Mexico and fifty percent of the rest had been naturalized, so that the greater part of the Jewish Community living in Mexico was Mexican.

The survey desired to know the date of entry and occupation as some of the most important questions. The results divided the activities among merchants, industrialists, professionals, employees, artisans, etc.

The database is formed by 7310 registries of Jews living in Mexico in 1949 and that belonged to some of the institutions that made up the Jewish Community in Mexico.

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4) PROCEEDING OF THE MEXICAN JEWISH CENTRAL COMMITTEE

The Mexican Jewish Central Committee is the central institution of the Jewish Community in Mexico; it has representation before the Mexican government and it embraces the various sectors that are part of it.

The database was made on the basis of 20 volumes of proceedings of the Central Committee; we checked book by book and case by case to prepare a product that would facilitate investigating the history of the Jewish Community of Mexico.

It holds 8421 registries that have all the information contained in the proceedings of the Mexican Jewish Central Committee between 1938 and 1992. The registries were made by case, which allowed us to obtain all the information contained in the 20 books of proceedings. It was done in Micro CD-Isis, so as to make good use of the Database: to allow us to use a large amount of characters per registry and 2) to perform adequate reports so as to index the information effectively. Besides annotating the names of people, we made descriptors, so the searches can be made by subject or by word. The base includes the following fields: book, number of proceeding, date, folio, matter, assistants and descriptors. The base has the virtue of allowing us to make speedy searches about any existing subject in the proceedings of the Central Committee. That is why the search is made digitally.

VI. ORAL HISTORY ARCHIVE

NAME OF FONDS ORCOLLECTION

FIRST AND LASTDATES

NUMBER OF UNITS

1. Immigrants 1905-1982 157 interviews

2. Holocaust 1939-1945 20 interviews

3. Community leaders 1940-2006 28 interviews

4. Venta Prieta 1980-1990 5 interviews

5. Education 1928-1950 10 interviews

Oral documentation dates from the dawn of historic science; Herodotus and Thucydides used it in their time.

Oral documentation did not arrive at its culmination in the technical stage by adopting the electronic recorder and magnetic tape but through this technology verbal testimony has been amply recorded.

A great part of the historic development of the Jewish people in modern life has been made by individuals: some of them had leadership thrust upon them and they were conscious of the role they were playing and others did it without imagining that their particular activities were in any way transcendental. Emigration is one of the most remarkable examples of this historic activity.

The Center has 220 interviews of oral history performed to important members of the Jewish Community in Mexico: immigrants, intellectuals, activists and Holocaust survivors. This material is being digitalized to allow more efficient access for researchers. However, transcriptions of the interviews may be consulted.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Altshuler, Mordechai, Soviet Jewry on the Eve of the Holocaust: A Social and Demographic Profile, Jerusalem, Center for Research of East European Jewry, 1998.

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Anhalt Diana, A Gathering of Fugitives. American Political Expatriates in Mexico, 1948-1965, Canada, Archer Books, 2001. Apenszlak, Jacob, ed. The Black Book of Polish Jewry: An account of the Martyrdom of Polish Jewry Under the Nazi Occupation, New York, American Federation of Polish Jewry, 1943. Auschwitz, Una Memoria para México, Cuaderno de Investigación No.12, México Comunidad Ashkenazí de México, 2005. Bokser Liwerant, Judit y Alicia Gojman de Backal, (coord), Encuentro y Alteridad. Vida y Cultura Judía en América Latina, México, Fondo de Cultura Económica 1999. Braham, R.L. The destruction of Hungarian Jewry, New York, 1963 Caro Baroja,Julio, Los Judíos en la España Moderna y Contemporánea, 3 vols. Madrid, Editorial Arión, 1961. Carreño, Gloria y Celia Zack de Zukerman, El Convenio Ilusorio, Los refugiados polacos en Santa Rosa Guanajuato, México, CONACYT, Comunidad Ashkenazí de México, 1995. Carreño, Gloria y Blanca Estela López Gómez, “Marco legal de la inmigración judía a México 1900-1950”, Cuaderno de Investigación No.5, México, Comunidad Ashkenazí de México, 1996. Carreño, Gloria y Ethel Gerbilsky de Glusman, “El Estado de Israel en la opinión de la prensa mexicana, abril, mayo y junio de 1948, Cuaderno de Investigación No.3, México, Comunidad Ashkenazí de México, 1995. Cimet, Gluskman, Adina, European jewish immigration to México City 1921-1947, with a special emphasis on the 1920´s and 1930´s. Boston, Brandesi University, 1992.(P.HD) Cohen. J.X., Jewish life in South America, New York, 1941. Corrales, Maritza, The Chosen Island, Jews in Cuba, Chicago, Saucedo Press, 2005. Judaica Latinoamericana, Estudios Históricos, Sociales y Literarios, Jerusalém, Editado por Amilat y Editorial Magnes Press, Universidad Hebrea, 2005. Davidowicz, l. S., The War Against the Jews 1933-1945, New York, London, 1975. Hilberg R.. The Destruction of the European Jews, Chicago, 1967. Davies, Norman, God´s Playground, A History of Poland, 2 vols, New York, Columbia University Press, 1984. Dobroszycki Lucjan, “Re-Emergence and Decline of a Community: The Numerical Size of the Jewish Population in Poland, 1944- 47” YIVO Annual 21, 1993 pp. 3-33 Donat, Alexander, The Holocaust Kingdom, New York, Holt, Rinehardt and Winston, 1963. Dorenbaum, Jaime, De Polonia a Vcajeme. Memorias de Jaime Dorenbaum, (traducción del idish) México, Comunidad Ashkenazí de México, 1998. Fernández, Díaz González, Belém, Dunia Wasserstrom, Un Testimonio del Holocausto. Finkelman de Sommer, Maty, y Rosa Losowsky, La Educación como factor de arraigo judío en México, Cuaderno de Investigación No.8, 1998. Finkelstein, Louis, ed. The Jews: Their History, Culture and Religion, Philadelphia, Jewish Publication Society, 1960.

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Fishman, A. Joshua, Yidish; Turning to Life, Amsterdam, John Benjamins, 1991. Abramowicz, Hirsz, Profiles of a lost World, Memories of East European Jewish Life before World War II, Detroit, Wayne University, Press, 1999. Frankl, Viktor, Man´s Search for Meaning, New York, Washington Square Press, 1963. Gleizer, Daniela, México frente a los refugiados judíos 1934-1940, México, Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Fundación Eduardo Cohen, 2000. Gojman de Backal, Alicia, (coord), Generaciones Judías en México, La Kehilá Ashkenazí 1922-1992, 7 vols. México, Comunidad Ashkenazí de México, 1993. Testimonios de Historia Oral. Judíos en México, Universidad Hebrea de Jerusalén y Asociación de Amigos de la Universidad Hebrea de Jerusalén, 1990. Camisas, Escudos y Desfiles Militares. Los Dorados y el antisemitismo en México, 1934-1940, México, Fondo de Cultura Económica, 2000. Gellately, Robert, No solo Hitler, La Alemania nazi entre la coacción y el consenso, Barcelona, Editorial Crítica, 2001. Gojman de Backal, Alicia et al. Instituciones de la Comunidad Judía de México, Cuaderno de Investigación No.11, México, Comunidad Ashkenazí, 2000. González Navarro, Moisés, Los extranjeros en México y los mexicanos en el extranjero, 1821-1970, México, El Colegio de México, Centro de Estudios Históricos, 3 vols., 1994. Hanono, Ashkenazí, Linda, Linaje y vida empresarial: El caso de una familia judeomexicana. México Escuela Nacional de Antropolgía e Historia, 2000 (tesis). Hersch, L .”Jewish Population Trend in Europe” in The Jewish People . Past and Present, vol. I, New York, 1946, pp. 407-430. Krause, Corine, Los Judíos en México. Una Historia con énfasis especial en el período 1857-1930, México Universidad Iberoamericana, 1987. Laqueur, Walter, La Europa de Nuestro Tiempo. Desde el final de la Segunda Guerra Mundial hasta la década de los 90, Argentina, Javier Vergara Editor, 1994. Leander, Birgitta, (coord.), Europa, Asia y Africa en América Latina y el Caribe, Mario Margulis y Omar Martínez Legorreta, (relatores), México, Siglo XXI, UNESCO, 1989. Lepkowski, Tadeusz, La inmigración polaca en México, México, Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social, 1991. Malgesini, Graciela y Carlos Jiménez, Guía de conceptos sobre migraciones, racismo e interculturalidad, Madrid, Editorial Catarata, 2000. Mentz, Brigida von et al, Fascismo y antifascismo en América Latina y México, México, Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social, Cuadernos de la Casa Chata 104, 1984. Meyer Eugenia y Eva Salgado, Un refugio en la memoria. La experiencia de los exilios latinoamericanos en México, México, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Océano, 2002.

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Moore, Debora Dash, ed. East European Jews in Two World Wars, Evanston, III, Northwestern University Press, 1990. Nudelman, Ricardo, Diccionario de política Latinoamericana del siglo XX, México, Océano, 2001. Ravel, Aviva, Faithful Unto Death: The Story of Arthur Sygielblum, Montreal, Workmen´s Circle, 1980. Reitlinger, G., The Final Solution: The Attempt to Exterminate the Jews of Europe, 1929.45, London, 1969. Salazar, Delia, Xenofobia y Xenofilia en la historia de México, Siglos XIX y XX, México, Instituto Nacional de Migración,.2006. Seligson, Silvia, Los Judíos en México. Un estudio preliminar, México, Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, 1973. Serrano, Migallón, Fernando, El asilo político en México, México, Editorial Porrúa, 1998. Sherwin L. Byron, Sparks Amidst the Ashes. The Spiritual Legacy of Polish Jewry, New York, Oxford University Press, 1997. Skidmore, Thomas E. y Peter H. Smith, Historia Contemporánea de América Latina América Latina en el Siglo XX, Barcelona, Editorial Crítica, 1996 Slezkine, Yuri, The Jewish Century, Princeton, Princeton University Press,2004. Sourasky, León, Historia de la Comunidad Israelita de México, 1917-1942, México, Imprenta Moderna Pintel, 1965. Tobias, Henry J, The Jewish Bund in Russia: From its Origins to 1905, Stanford, Stanford University Press, 1972. Weisel, Elie, Souls on Fire, New York, Random House, 1972. Wexler, Paul, The Ashkenazi Jews: A Slavo- Turkic People in Search of a Jewish Identity, Columbus, Ohio, Slavica, 1993. Wischnitzer, M. To Dwell in Safety: The Story of Jewish Migration since 1800, Philadelphia, 1948. Yankelevich, Pablo, (coord.), México entre exilios. Una experiencia sudamericana, México, Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores, Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo, Plaza y Valdés, 1998. Zaga, Mograbi, Sharon, y Emily Cohen Cohen, El Rostro de la verdad: Testimonios de Sobrevivientes del Holocausto, México, Editorial Memoria y Tolerancia, 2000. Zack de Zukerman, Celia, El Pueblo Judío y la Comunidad Internacional en el siglo XX, Cuaderno de Investigación No.1, México, Comunidad Ashkenazí de México, 1994. Zárate, Guadalupe, México y la Diáspora Judía, México, Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, 1986.

4. JUSTIFICATION OF THE PROPOSAL AND/OR EVALUATION ACCORDING TO SELECTION CRITERIA

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4.1 Has the authenticity been demonstrated? The Center of Documentation and Investigation of the Ashkenazi Community in Mexico has books printed in various parts of the world: Russia, Poland, Argentina, Czechoslovakia, the Baltic countries, Hungary, Mexico, Israel, Greece, etc. from the 16th century to our time. They are books written in several languages such as Yiddish, Hebrew, German, Polish, French, English, Aramaic, Lithuanian and Spanish. The authenticity of our books can be demonstrated by the seals that tell of their voyage from Europe to Mexico. The old and new, national and international bibliographical references show how authentic the safeguarded documents are. These documents are unique because they were generated by the Ashkenazi community institutions in Mexico. They are manuscripts in the Yiddish language. 4.2 Has their importance, singularity and impossibility of their being replaced elsewhere

in the world been demonstrated? Most of the books that form part of the Antique Hebrew Fonds were edited in the four centers of Polish Judaism of that time: Krakow and Lvov (Lemberg) in the Austro-Hungarian Empire where Hebrew typography had its start, Warsaw and Vilnius in the Tsarist Empire. The collection deserves interest for two reasons: the first because it is the only one of its kind in Mexico and the second, because of the extraordinary historic saga that brought it here. Although there may be some samples in other parts of the world, as a collection it is unique. The rescue of the Ashkenazi culture that barely escaped vanishing in Europe is the basis of the formation of these collections. The Mexico Fonds constitutes an authentic contribution to the study of the Jewish presence in Mexico because of the subjects it contains as well as the deep message of the printed books in Hebrew and Yiddish as transmitters of their own culture. The student or reader will be able to reconstruct the formation of the Jewish Community in Mexico and also to become aware of the historic moment when Spanish took over the position to convey Judaism in our country. It was the encounter of culture and history of a non national minority with the receiving society, where the book served as an instrument of communication for the enrichment of both. The Fonds of Translations to Yiddish and Hebrew is unique and cannot be duplicated. The creation of the Bund (Union) tried to enrich the great financial penury generated in Poland through the availability of culture. There were courses for workers and hundreds of classes for the Jewish working population were organized. These classes were imparted in Yiddish, considered the language of the people, of ordinary men and women, but at the same time Yiddish had created a very rich literature and press. It helped Jews approach universal culture and awakened their interest in the non Jewish world. Translations into Hebrew were influenced by the Haskalah (Illustration), movement that originated in Germany in the 18th century. This movement caused Jewish education to become secular. The Bible was studied from a historic point of view. Jews began studying secular subjects in Hebrew and plunged into universal culture so they are very important as vestiges of a universal culture absorbed by Judaism. The Library of Periodicals has great historic documentary value because it holds most of the periodical publications edited in Mexico in Yiddish and the magazines edited by Jewish Community institutions. There are collections such as the one of Foroys that is unique just like Fraiwelt. We also have publications from the United States, Israel and Argentina, which makes our corpus very rich and important. The archive has Institutional Fonds of the organizations formed in Mexico, such as the Ashkenazi Kehillah in Mexico, the Mexican Jewish Central Committee, the Jewish Chamber of Industry and Commerce, the Mexican Council of Jewish Women and the Zionist Organizations. These documents are unique and irreplaceable. The CDICA is the only institution that safeguards the historic documents of the above named institutions. 4.3 Are one or more of the criteria of a) time, b) place, c) persons, d) matter and subject, e)

form and style satisfied?

a) Time.

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Our bibliographic collections were edited in Europe beginning in the 16th century in several languages, mostly in Yiddish and Hebrew. Some publications are the only ones in Mexico because they survived the Holocaust and anti-Semitic persecutions as well as the elimination of European libraries. The books edited in Mexico form a singular collection: the CDICA library has the first books printed in our country that refer to the formation and consolidation of the Jewish Community in Mexico during the last years of the 20s as well as the vision that early immigrants had of Mexico. In the archives we can find proceedings that bear witness to the history of the Community. One of the documents we have that refer to the formation of the Community are the Constitutive Proceedings of the Mexican Jewish Central Committee and the Jewish Chamber of Industry and Commerce.

b) Place. The Jewish people have lived in various countries in the course of time, and so, the CDICA Library has books edited in several parts of the world such as Poland, Germany, Russia, Czechoslovakia, the United States, Mexico, Israel, etc. The CDICA is located in Mexico City. The collections containing these books were mostly brought over by immigrants and written in the language of their countries of origin. This is eloquent proof of the need to keep and safeguard the Ashkenazi culture.

c) Persons:

The Center of Documentation has works by Jewish-Mexican intellectuals such as Jacobo Glantz, Isaac Berliner, Moisés Glikovsky, David Zabludovsky, Salomón Kahan and Moisés Rubinstein. There are illustrations by Diego Rivera in works of Jewish authors that were incorporated with love and passion for Mexico. There are also well known international Jewish authors like Nobel Prize winners Isaac Bashevis Singer and Samuel Josef Agnon. In the files we have the names of the movers of the Jewish Community of Mexico: Simón Feldman, Isaac Rosovsky, León Behar, León Sourasky, Jacobo Landau, Gregorio Shapiro, Max Shein, Isidoro Zbulun Berebiches, Rabbi Jacobo Goldberg, Rabbi Avigdor, Runia Lasky, Esther Comarofsky, etc. The rescue of the work of great intellectuals, philosophers and writers is a must, particularly because of the disappearance of so many of them during the Nazi regime.

d) Matter and subject.

The bibliographic corpus has material about Judaism, divided into sections: history, literature, philosophy, Mexico Fund, Yiddish theater, political science, religion, Holocaust, Israel, Jewish art, exile and the Antique Hebrew Fonds. The documentary corpus contains information from several institutions of the Jewish Community in Mexico like the Ashkenazi Community in Mexico, the Mexican Jewish Central Committee, the Jewish Chamber of Industry and Commerce, the Zionist Federation, the Zionist Organization, Keren Kayemet Leisrael of Monterrey, etc. We can affirm that these collections are a reflection of the safekeeping, custody and dissemination of two basic matters:

1) The Ashkenazi culture created in Eastern and Central Europe. 2) The history of the Ashkenazi Community in Mexico.

e) Form and style:

The books of our collection were printed in Europe, Argentina, Israel and Mexico; the first Yiddish printing type arrived from the United States. The printing of a Hebrew book in the 16th century is a typographic rarity. The best Jewish presses from places such as Poland, Russia, Hungary, Germany, Czechoslovakia, etc. as well as its editors are present in this library.

4.4 What are the conditions related to the rarity, integrity, threat and plan of action

related to this inscription proposal?

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Related to rarity: The proceedings of the Ashkenazi Community are unique; in the first place, those of the 30s are handwritten in Yiddish, which makes them singular documents and besides, those of the following decades are also rare because they were typewritten in Yiddish, in almost impossible to find typewriters nowadays, just like all the files of institutions that were created in the midst of the Ashkenazi Community that contain institutional information that is non existent in any other place. 80 % of the photographs belong to no institution or person, only to the Center of Documentation. The most important are some like the placing of the cornerstone of the Jewish Cemetery (1927) because of their oldness and rarity. There are 7,000 photographs of one hundred years of Jewish presence in Mexico. The CDICA has some unique photos in the world, of native Jews in Temixco, Morelos in which we can appreciate images of the cultural syncretism of a Jewish community that lives in a Christian environment but that shows itself by building its temple. The database of the proceedings of the Central Committee is a unique document because a search can be made by any descriptor that will show ample results. From it, one can get the history of the Jewish community in all its sectors. As far as integrity, 95% of our documents, newspapers, magazines, photographs and books are in good conditions; the other 5% is made up of some newspaper collections that require some restoration to prevent their falling apart from dryness. The site of the Center of Documentation was built expressly for documentary safekeeping, so it has areas of artificial light with adequate levels of temperature and humidity. The plan of action includes mechanisms to obtain more income that will allow us to include a series of technical aspects that are necessary for the operation of CDICA (as described in paragraph 6 (Plan of Action) 5. JURIDICAL INFORMATION 5.1 Owner of the documentary patrimony (name and description).

Comunidad Ashkenazí de México A. C. The CDICA forms part of the community that is a benevolent and assistance as well as non profit cultural institution.

5.2 Custodian of the element of documentary patrimony Dr. Alicia Gojman de Backal as Director of the Center of Documentation and Investigation of the Ashkenazi Community in Mexico. Dr. Alicia Gojman is national investigator as well as professor of history at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. 5.3 Juridical situation

a) Regime of the property: The Center of Documentation and Investigation was created in 1993. It belongs to the Ashkenazi Community in Mexico. It offers service to the national and international public interested in investigating Jewish culture. It is part of the departments of the Ashkenazi Community in Mexico and is considered a non profit institution of investigation and culture.

b) Conditions for access.

The Center of Documentation and Investigation of the Ashkenazi Community offers access to information by direct consultation both in the catalogues as well as through the use of computers to access the databases. We are about to finish cataloguing the library on-line so it may be consulted through the Internet. We have a copier and a microfilm reader. Consultations may be made by Internet or in situ.

c) Situation on authors’ copyrights: The publications of our library present no problem about authors’ copyrights. However, we request the corresponding credit in case of being reproduced. The copyright of our publications is juridically backed.

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d) Responsible administration: The administration and operation is on the account of the Ashkenazi Community in Mexico and collections depend on its budget and organization according to the legal rulings that regulate its patrimony and the support of financial assistance from its fellow members.

6. PLAN OF ACTION 6.1 Is there a plan of action of this element of the documentary patrimony? . The documentary corpus safeguarded by the Center of Documentation represents part of the cultural patrimony of the Ashkenazi Community of Mexico; and so it tries to provide the greatest amount of resources for its operation, but being a private benevolent society, the fonds are usually insufficient, so there is a plan of action to solve the problem:

1. To form a Guardianship, an Academic Committee and a Society of Friends of the Center. 2. To have the Center of Documentation become a non-profit Civil Association or an

Institution of Private Assistance, so that the donations may be tax exempt and thus to create a Trust, to extend consultation services and to be able to digitalize the collection to be available on-line. And so, to hire specialized investigators and archivists to develop and preserve the collections.

3. To evaluate library automatization software that will allow us to use cutting edge technology, so that Center information may be consulted and requested by any person interested anywhere in the world.

Information about present day preservation and custody of material The premises of the Center of Documentation have been made on purpose to safeguard the documents so the collections dwell at a temperature lower than 24 degrees Celsius, with relative humidity close to 50%. The Photographic Fonds and the Antique Hebrew Fonds use cold artificial light to prevent any damage caused by physical reactions that may alter the stability of the photographs. The stands are metallic painted in acrylic. We have made a General Guide of Fonds and four catalogues to facilitate investigators’ work but we are at work preparing three more catalogues. The Photographic Fonds was stabilized using polypropylene covers and boxes and we also keep strict standards on public service to prevent any damage to its integrity. 7. CONSULTATIONS 7.1 Details of the consultations Consultations or access are conditioned to any investigator interested in the history of the Jews in Mexico or about Ashkenazi culture in general. We require presenting a written project or work plan that will justify consulting the collections, presenting I.D. in force and to give CDICA credit when publishing. We also require one sample of the CDICA investigation. We have a section for consulting dictionaries and encyclopedias on Jewish themes in Spanish, Yiddish and Hebrew. The present proposal was prepared by the Center of Documentation and Investigation of the Ashkenazi Community in Mexico, according to the Summons for proposal in the Registry of Memory of the World of Latin America and the Caribbean. It is based on selection criteria described in the Guidebook for Safekeeping of Documentary Material (2002) point 4, that stipulates that the most important criteria to inscribe a document in this Registry is its significance for national patrimony and culture. PART B. COMPLEMENTARY INFORMATION 8. RISK ASSESSMENT 8.1. Type and extent of threat: There is no severe risk to the preservation of the various Fonds and Collection integrating the Center of Documentation. 9. ASSESSMENT OF STATE OF PRESERVATION 9.1 Context of preservation

To preserve our collections we have guides and catalogues that ensure access to the information.

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The conditions of the sites where they are kept, as far as temperature, humidity, illumination and security have been especially adapted to ensure their preservation; however, we are constantly searching for improvement. Conservation and integrity of the original works are a priority for the CDICA. In the near future we foresee the transfer of the contents of the volumes to another format by microfilm and digitalization. Thus we have microfilmed the newspapers Der Weg (The Road), Di Shtime (The Voice) and Foroys (Forward). Among our short term plans we desire to have a greater number of professionals specializing in Jewish culture and specialized professionals to support the job of registering, disseminating, safekeeping and restoring the corpus of the Center of Documentation.

PART C. PRESENTING THE PROPOSAL Formulary of proposal presented by: Dr. Alicia Gojman de Backal Director of the Center of Documentation and Investigation of the Ashkenazi Community in Mexico. Backed by: Dr. Iliana Chmelnik President of the Ashkenazi Community in Mexico