The Virtual Jewish History Tour

The arrival of Jews to Costa Rica came in three very separate waves. It is believed that the first Jews came in the sixteenth and seventeenth century from Spain and Portugal and were conversos. The second group of Jewish settlers in Costa Rica was comprised mostly of Sephardim, many of them merchants, who came from Curacao, Jamaica, Panama and the Caribbean in the 19th century. Most of these Jews mixed with the local population and settled in Cartago, San Jose, and Puerto Limon. Although most no longer practice Judaism, some families still recognize their Jewish origins. The third group established the new Jewish community in 1930. A small number of Jews of Turkish and East European origin reached Costa Rica during the post-World War I period, but the bulk of the modern Jewish community were refugees from Hitler who immigrated after 1933. It was these Jews who founded the present-day community. Interestingly today, most Costa Ricans trace their family back to a single Polish village, Zelechow. Although one of the most enlightened of the Central American republics, Costa Rica has traditionally looked askance at its foreign population, and its restrictive immigrant legislation affected Jewish settlement in the country. Upon first reaching Costa Rica in the 1930’s, Ashkenazi Jews were often referred to as “Polacos.” While this term was derogatory, it was preferable to being called “Judeos” or “Israelitas.” Jews were also called “Klappers” because many were door-to-door salesmen who transported their goods on ox carts that made noise as they moved.

The newly arrived Ashkenazi Jews founded the first synagogue in Costa Rica, the Orthodox Shaarei Zion, in 1933 in San Jose. In 1937, when the Refugee Economic Corporation acquired land around the area of Guanacate for the purpose of settling Jews from Central Europe, a court ruling decreed that the purchase of land by a foreign company for settlement purposes was illegal. Jewish economic security was also endangered in 1941 in the wake of the official nationalization of all foreign-held commercial establishments, but the legislation was not enforced. In 1944, an attempt was made to prohibit peddling, which would have been a blow to the economic position of many Jews, but this endeavor was not successful. Due to the growth of nationalism, Jews experienced growing anti-Semitism in the 1930’s and 1940’s. Still, they were able to coexist with the Catholic majority with relatively few problems.

Anti-Semitism intensified after the April 1948 political revolution and culminated in the federal investigation of Jewish legal status and immigration permits, despite the Constitution of 1949, which guaranteed freedom of speech, assembly, and protection of citizens and residents of Costa Rica. In 1952, nationalist activists tried to pass a law restricting commercial activities only to native Costa Ricans, and Jewish homes and institutions in San Jose were attacked. The situation began to improve in 1953 with the presidency of Jose Figueres, who publicly affirmed the principle of equal rights for all Costa Rican citizens from the constitution.

Jewish life in Costa Rica today is very vibrant and caters to the 2,500-3,000 Jews in the country. The majority of Jews live in San Jose and its suburbs and identify themselves as Orthodox. All denominations of the community revolve around the Centro Israelita Sionista founded in 1930, which includes a WIZO, B'nai B'rith, La Sociedad de Damas Israelitas de Beneficencia, several Zionist and youth groups, and a social and sports club. The Centro publishes a monthly newsletter called Hayom that includes a bulletin devoted to improving Jewish-Christian relations. New buildings for the Shaarei Zion Synagogue and the Community Center were inaugurated in September 2004 on a 17,000 square meter plot. The new buildings house the new Shaarei Zion synagogue, the Hanoar HaTzioni youth organization's headquarters, a community museum and library, two kosher restaurants, one dairy and one meat, and three mikvahs, one for women, men, and khelim. These buildings also house administrative offices for all active Jewish organizations in Costa Rica, including the Asociacion Ciudadano de Oro House, the Golden Citizen Association for the elderly.

The main synagogue in San Jose is the Orthodox Shaare Zion congregation. Shaare Zion oversees and upkeeps the Jewish cemetery in San Juan, which has a Holocaust memorial to Jewish victims.

There is a Chabad House in San Jose that houses a synagogue and Hebrew day school. Chabad also offers adult-education classes and supervises a kosher bed and breakfast in Rohrmoser called Oneg Shabbath. The Chabad rabbi, Hersh Spalter, has been successful at increasing the availability of kosher food since he arrived in 1987.

B'nai Israel, a Reform synagogue, was opened in 1989, following the influx of American Jews into Costa Rica. The Reform and Orthodox community have little interaction, but they joined together in April 2006 to participate in an interfaith event with the Episcopal Conference of Costa Rica. B’nai Israel holds services every Friday night at 7:30. This community also has a youth group, cultural events such as lectures and movies, and a bulletin called Koleinu on synagogue activities.

The Haim Weizmann Comprehensive School is an Orthodox day school located in San Jose and has more than 200 pupils in kindergarten, primary, and secondary grades; the languages of instruction are Spanish and Hebrew. Most Jewish children attend the Haim Weizmann primary and secondary school.

The Hebrew Cultural Center in Rohrmoser, run by the Lookstein Center of Bar-Ilan University, offers classes on Jewish culture and traditions, Hebrew language and philosophy and the study of Kabbalah.

Kosher food is readily available in San Jose, which has a kosher butcher shop, and a delicatessen run by Orthodox Jews that carries kosher products. The chain supermarket, Automercado, in San Jose has a selection of frozen kosher meats and dry goods. There are also two kosher hotels in Costa Rica, one in San Jose, and another in Camino Real.

In February 2006, two members of Costa Rica’s small Jewish community, Clara Zomer and Masha Ofelia Taitelbaum, won seats in the country’s Legislative Assembly and will begin serving four-year terms when the new legislature takes office in May. Their party will have the largest bloc in the legislature and both are expected to have leadership roles within the bloc. Costa Rica has also had two Jewish vice presidents, Rebecca Greenspan and Luis Frishman.

Catholic and Jewish relations in Costa Rica took a large step forward in November 2005 on the anniversary of the Nostra Aetate, a 1965 Vatican document aimed at improving relations between Catholics and other religions, which rejected the idea that Jews were a deicidal people. The hierarchy of the Catholic Church made their first visit to a synagogue in the country’s history.

Diplomatic relations between Costa Rica and Israel are friendly, and the former was among the first nations to recognize the State in 1948. The Costa Rican embassy is one of only two embassies (El Salvador is the other) that has remained in Jerusalem; the rest are in Tel Aviv.

An estimated 300 Israelis live permanently in Costa Rica. These include Israelis who married Costa Rican Jewish girls to enter the family business or to establish one. Other Israelis simply found Costa Rica a pleasant and beautiful place to make a living and settle down.

The Centro Israelita houses many sites of interest to Jewish travelers. The Museo de la Communidad Judeo de Costa Rica, a museum dedicated to Jewish history in Costa Rica, opened in the Centro Israelita in 2005. Alongside a retaining wall at the Centro is the Yad Vashem Memorial. A Magen David holding an eternal flame is located at the center of the memorial and on each side are the names of the concentration camps written in German, Polish, and Hebrew on black slabs.

Visitors may view works by Jewish Costa Rican artists – Jacquie Boruchowitz, Ana Wien, and Israel Zonzinski – throughout the Centro Israelita. Their artwork focuses on Jewish, spiritual, biblical, secular, and Latin American themes.

The building that housed the original Shaare Zion, the first synagogue in Costa Rica, now houses a church at Avenida 5a, Calle 648.

There are a growing number of organized trips geared towards the Jewish traveler. Jewish siblings Stephen and Lisa Brooks founded Costa Rican Adventures, which runs ecotourism and adventure trips for Jewish singles and teens. Kosher Expeditions organizes adventure tours that offer kosher meals and an optional lecture series on Costa Rican Jews as well as Passover vacation programs. Chabad works with Inward Bound to coordinate kosher adventure tours and a Costa Rica for Couples tour. Rabbi Nachum Shifren, “the Surfing Rabbi,” runs a camp with five start kosher food and activities including hiking, surfing lessons, and Jewish text study. There is also a separate women’s camp.

Centro Israelita Sionista de Costa Rica
off the Carretera a Pavos, San Jose
506-520-1013
Centro Israelista website

Congregation B'nei Israel
Carretera vieja a Escazu
506-231-5243
www.bnei-israel.org

Chabad of Costa Rica
Del Banco Cuscatlan Carretera a Pavas, San Jose
506-296-6565
www.chabadcostarica.com

Haim Weizmann Comprehensive School
011-506-231-5566
e-mail: weizmann@amnet.co.cr

Perman, Stacy. "The Jewish Traveler: Costa Rica." Hadassah Magazine, December 2006.

The Virtual Jewish History Tour

Costa Rica

By Jacqueline Shields

The Haim Weizman School

Shaare Zion Synagogue

B'nai Israel Synagogue

Chabad House in San Jose