the jewish colony of sosua

7/28/2019 The Jewish Colony of Sosua

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THE JEWISH COLONY OF SOSlJA*RICHARD SYMANSKI AND NANCY BURLEY

ABSTRACT. In the early 1940s approximately ,000 Jewish efugees rom u-rope established colony on the north oast of the Dominican Republic and be-came successful airyfarmers. symbiotic elationshipetween he Jews and theDominicanswas mutually eneficial, ut the former rosperedwhile thelatter e-mainedpoor. The presentJewish opulation s small and aged, tourism s makingnoticeable nroads, nd wealthy ominicans re settlingn thearea; most signsofthe original olonywilldisappearwithin fewdecades.KEY WORDS: Colonization,Dominican Republic, Jews,Poverty,Tourism.

MUCH has beenwrittenbout heconcep-tion,characteristics,nd typesofcoloni-zation projectsin Latin America, why somehave failed but others have succeeded.' TheDominican Republic has been notable amongLatin countries n attempts o colonize newlands,both n the past and inthe present.2 neof these efforts, hich was initiatedust overthirty ears ago, was a Jewishrefugee ettle-Accepted for publication 13 March 1973.Dr. Symanski is Assistant Professor of Geography atthe University of Texas in Austin, TX 78712; Ms.Burley has completed doctoral degree requirementsat the University of Cincinnati in Cincinnati, OH45221.*Field workfor this tudywas carried ut duringthe ummer f1972.We wish o acknowledgeinancialsupport rom he ResearchCouncil of the Universityof Cincinnati,nd to thank hemanyJews nd nativeDominicanswho gave so generouslyf their ime, s-peciallyJosef ichen and Felix Koch.

1 See, for example, W. L. G. Joerg, ed., PioneerSettlement:Cooperative Studies byTwenty-sixA uthors(New York: American Geographical Society, 1932);J. V. Fifer, "Bolivia's Pioneer Fringe," Geographical.Review, Vol. 57 (1967), pp. 1-23; and N. R. Stewart,Japanese Colonization in Eastern Paraguay (Washing-ton, D.C.: National Academy of Sciences, NationalResearch Council, 1967).2 John P. Augelli, "AgriculturalColonization in theDominican Republic," Economic Geography, Vol. 38(1962), pp. 15-27. Data in the Department of Coloni-zation and the Dominican Agrarian Institute,SantoDomingo, show that the country had more than sixtycolonies in 1962, but in 1972 there were approximately130. These figures re somewhatmisleading, however,since all lands previously described as colonial havebeen included in the 1962 agrarian reformprogram,and virtuallyno distinction s now made between thesettlement f new lands and the parceling out of landthathas been in use for some time.

ment n theRepublic'snorth oast. This colonydeserves ttention ot because it is representa-tive,which tmayormay notbe,but becauseitis a fascinatingxampleofgeographical hangeamong people, land, and town,and a strikingcase of juxtaposition nd symbiosisbetweensuccessfulEuropean capitalistsand long ex-ploitednationals.Our purpose s todescribe hehistory nd thegeographyf thiscolony,howa smallnumber f Jews ame to an alien envi-ronment, uicklymade adjustments o theirnatural and culturalsetting, rew both as agroup nd individually,nd dispersed nd died,the atter rocessesbeginning arly, ontinuingto the present, nd intowhatwe believeto be apredictable uture.

LOCATION AND SIGNIFICANCESosu'a s twenty-fiveilometersastof PuertoPlata, verynearthe site of whatwill be the Do-minicanRepublic'ssecond nternationalirport(Fig. 1) .3 Today the governments movingvigorouslyo develop ts muchneglectedouristindustry.4he north oast, whichencompasses3 Presently all international carriers must land in

Santo Domingo. The new international irport,whichis less than ten kilometersfrom Sosuia, is under con-struction nd has a projected completion date of 1975.4 In 1971 the Dominican Republic received a totalof 106,000 tourists, an increase of 39,000 over theprevious year, Direccion Nacional de Turismo, Repub-lica Dominicana, "Personas Procedentes del Extran-jero Que Han Entrado a la Republica," Santo Do-mingo, Dominican Republic, 1972 (mimeographed).The number of tourists nnually enteringPuerto Rico,Jamaica, the Virgin Islands and the Bahamas rangesfrom five to ten times these figures. n order to im-prove its relative position in the Caribbean, the Do-minican government has commissioned a number offeasibility and development studies, such as H. Zin-ANNALS OF THE ASSOCIATION OF AMERICAN GEOGRAPHERS Vol. 63, No. 3, September 1973( 1973 by the Association of American Geographers. Printed n U.S.A.366

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1973 JEWISH SOSUA 367PuertoPlata and Sosuia,has been designated sthe first rea in the country o be developedafter he Santo Domingo region.5At present,Sosu'a s a tourist ttraction f littlemorethannational enown, specially owealthy omini-cans from antiagoand the capital, nd to for-eign entrepreneursnd theirfamilies uch asthe largeFalconbridge ontingent.ts drawingpower s based on an impressive alf-moonayand beach with erticalimestone erraces. othbay andbeach are clean, ightly opulated, ndideal for skindiving, et virtuallynknown ntheCaribbean ourist ircuit."When originallyfounded,Sosuia occupiedboththe northernnd southern ides of SosuiaBay, using the formerEl Batey) as a settle-ment nd the latter todayknown s San An-tonioorCharamico) as pasture ands (Fig. 1).El Bateywas simply osuia to the Jews, heirtown and thelocationof theirbusinesses, ndCharamicodeveloped nto relativelympover-ishedDominican own.These two eparate artsof what s to the outsideworlda single townare so physically nd culturally ifferenthatthey ould be treated lone, and yet n signifi-cant ways the Dominicansector s as much apart fthecolony'shistorynd present onfigu-ration s are the Jews hemselves.

INCEPTION AND THE EARLY YEARSSosuiawas theoutgrowthf the ntergovern-mentalCommitteeConferenceheld in Evian,France nJuly, 938. The conference as calledby President oosevelt, nd its purposewas tofind homes forthe thousandsof people whowere oppressed nd beingforced o leave theirhomelands. Representativesf thirty-twoa-tionscame to the conference, utthe only one

which ctually ffered home,citizenship,ndder and Associates, Inc., The Outlook for Tourism inthe Dominican Republic (Washington,D.C.: H. Zin-der and Associates, Inc., 1968); and Edes-Mendar,Estudio de Desarrollo Turistico de la Republica Do-ininicana (Santo Domingo: Edes-Mendar, 1971).5 Five touristdevelopment poles have been desig-nated by the government, nd ranked both in termsof importance and the order in which they are to bedeveloped; Angel Miolan, "We Must Sell the Domini-can Republic," Bohio Donfinicano, No. 17 (1971),pp. 29-34.6 In March, 1972, a cruise ship based in Miami be-gan makinga weekly stop at nearby Puerto Plata, andfor the first ime the area was subjected to a regularnumberof tourists, ut only a small proportion of the400-500 who disembark weekly go to the beach atSosuia.

0 10 20km

PuertoPlata o~

mbert

To Santiago

Sosu'a 0 80km

Santiago

Snto(I ~~~~~~Domingo

C ~~~~~~~~~~NFIG. 1. Location fSosuia.full iberty o therefugeeswas the DominicanRepublic.7When the offerwas extendedbyPresidentRafael Trujillo,the DominicanRe-public Settlement ssociation (DORSA) wasformed, special arm of theAmericanJewishJointDistribution orporation JDC) whichagreedto providefunds o initiate heproject.8Beforethecovenantwas signedbetweenJDC(or the"Joint" s it was known o the colonists)and the Dominican government, numberofspecialists, nder he direction fthenotedge-ographersaiah Bowman,carriedout a survey

7 The Brookings Institution,Refugee Settlement nthe Dominican Republic (Washington, D.C.: TheBrookings Institution,1942), p. 281.8 DORSA was conceived as a voluntarynonprofitorganizationof American citizenswho wanted to findasylum for refugees, nd thoughnonsectarianin aim,it mainly sought to assist German Jews; DominicanRepublic SettlementAssociation, Sosu'a: Haven in theCaribbean (New York: Dominican Republic Settle-ment Association, 1941); and Dominican RepublicSettlementAssociation, Report, December 15, 1948,p. 7.



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368 RICHARD SYMANSKI AND NANCY BURLEY September

id ~- AS1WEIN~~I

FIG.2. The Jewish ynagogue, hich s seldomused today, s half of one of the barrackswhichhousedtheoriginal olonists pontheir rrival rom urope.in theRepublic o evaluate ossible olonizationsites.9The Sosutareawas not irstna list f reasrecommendedor olonization.twas describedas an areaof lowrainfall,hallow oils,androckyerrain,ontainingizable reas f wamp,and was estimatedo have no more han500hectares fplowableand.'0 t was eventuallychosenfor Jewish olonization, owever, e-cause of its accessibilityo the city f PuertoPlata, ndbecause f he mprovementslreadyon the property.he 8,000 hectare statearound osuta adbeen banana lantationn-til 1916, and contained number f usablebuildings, iles f fencing,nd a water eser-voir." Thus, n 1940 when rujillo fferedhisestate o DORSA, itwas accepted y theJDCon the conditionhatTrujillowould receive$100,000 n stock nDORSA.The firstettlersrrivedn March f 1940.From hen ntil heend of WorldWar I the

9 The Brookingsnstitution,p. cit.,footnote .10The Brookingsnstitution,p. cit.,footnote , p.85.11The Brookingsnstitution,p. cit.,footnote , p.285.

colonistsontinuedocome, rom ustria ndGermany rincipally,ut also fromPoland,Switzerland,ndCzechoslovakia,ia concentra-tion amps nd uch orts ndcountriess Lis-bon andCasablanca, ngland, rance, nd theNetherlands.12fter heWar omefamiliesr-rived rom ussia, hina, taly, nd srael.Therefugeesame ngroupsromsfew s six thevery irstettlers)o 150.Theywerepredomi-nantly oung, ith varietyfprofessionalndnonprofessionalkills, and were weightedtoward nmarried ales. y Christmasf 1940the olony umberedbout 00. A year nd ahalfater he otal eached 13, with 64men,109women,nd40 children.y the arly artof1942 there ere pproximately00 refugeesinSosuta. lthough rujillo ad visions f re-ceiving 00,000Jewishefugeesntohis coun-

12 In the 1950 census, he firstn which fficial ig-ures were available on theJews nd their ountry forigin, he two most important ource regions forJewswere Germany 93) and Austria 59) respec-tively;DireccionGeneralde Estadistica, ficinaNa-cional del Censo, TercerCenso Nacional de Pobla-cion, 1950 (Ciudad Trujillo,1958).



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1973 JEWISH SOSUTA 369try, he settlement evergrewto more thanathousand.'3Upon arrival hecolonistswere odged nbar-racks in El Batey,where up to 100 of themslept ndwerefed (Fig. 2). Theyweredividedinto workteams or ."groups," ach of whichwas headed by a leader, nd they ecame denti-fied y hisname,their redominant ationality,or the location of theircommunal ubcolony.Thus,therewas theDrucker, heFreundlich,rthe Katz group,or theSwiss ones,or those nBombita,Laguna Ferrocarril, ardenCity,orBella Vista. These groupswere assignedtasksfor hecommunitys a whole.Theycleared helandof forest nd overgrownrush, heymadecharcoal,fences, nd plankboards for houses,andthey lanned ndbuilt oads,bridges,watersystems,nd homes. Thispartof a larger om-munal ffort as a success.Althoughnly hirteenercent f thesettlerswho arrived ymid-1941had beenengaged re-viously n agriculture, he refugeeswere ex-pectedto growcropsand to work theland incommunalunits, haring heworkand profitsequally.14Dairying nd poultry aisingwere tobe secondary or complementary ursuits.15DORSA was responsible orrecommendinghecropstobe grown nd formarketinghem.Some work and livinggroupswere initiatedbymen or womenwho had known ach otherin concentrationamps,others ottogether e-cause of their ommonpredicament: heywerebachelors.The groupsvariedfrom ouror fiveunmarriedmales to one of tenor twelvefami-lies, includinghildren nd a bacheloror two.Each groupwas given and proportional o itssize and the qualityof the land. The averageamountwas approximately0 hectares or achfamily r unmarriedmalewithin group.Each family eceived wohectares f and tobe personally ared for, a horse and mule,anumberof dairy cattle, othersmall livestock,farm quipment, small cash allowancebasedon family ize and age of the children, ndcreditat the cooperative tore.DORSA had

13 The Brookings Institution, p. cit., footnote 7, p.281. Much of our information s based upon personalobservation, interviews with Jews and Dominicans,and the Sosu'a Bulletin, a colony newsletterprinted nSpanish and German between 1940 and 1946.14 The Brookings Institution, p. cit., footnote 7, p.87.15 Chicken raising apparently never prospered,andwas eventually bandoned by most of the Jews becauseof widespread thieveryby the Dominicans.

agreedto pay thecostofpassageand to main-tain therefugees or short ime, ut thecolo-nistswere expectedto reimburse ORSA forall other tems.16The homesteadwas to provideforthe mini-malneedsof ndividual amilies,uteach house-hold was toworkwith roups n theneighboringarea. These groupshad built homes in smallclusterswhichapproximatedheworkgroups.They tendedto be self-containedocial unitsthatwould intermixnlywhentheymet n ElBateyforweeklymeetingsr larger ommunityplanning fforts. he largest f the communalgroups,called Bombita, was about six milesfromEl Batey,whichwas littlemore than ahalf-dozenargebarracks nd some old UnitedFruitCompanybuildings sed primarily y ar-riving amilies nd bachelors.Bothbecause ofsize in relation o theother roups nddistancefromEl Batey, Bombitastarted ts own storeand a small school,and was the initial ite ofa dairy actory hichwas laterrelocated n thefringefEl Batey.Attemptst a profitablerop-based conomyfailedalmostfrom he beginning. he twentyor so groups ach had two hectares er house-holdon which hey ried o grow uchcropsas

castorbeans, spinach, orn, ettuce, eets,egg-plant, and other vegetables, ut a numberofproblemshindered heir fforts.n general, hesoilswerepoor,and in most seasons therewasa lack of rainfall.On more than one occasiontherewas overproduction elative o local de-mand and accessibilityo markets.As a result,althoughhe ettlers erecompensatedor heiroutput y DORSA, muchoftheproduceduringthese timeswas thrown nto the sea. Not onlydidthepoorly eveloped ransportetworkre-clude getting hefreshproduce to urban mar-kets, utthe ocalDominicans laced ittle alueon suchtraditionaluropeancrops as spinach.The settlersealized arly hat oth ite ndsitu-ationdemandedthat they hift heir conomicfocus.Originally,DORSA's agriculturalexpertshad recommended hatdairying e confinedosupplying nly hesettler's eeds,andthat achfamily hould are for tsowncows,butas cropsbecame impractical he coloniststurnedtheirentire ttention o raisingdairy cattle, t firstimported olsteins nd then trainsmixedwith

16 The Brookings Institution, p. cit., footnote 7, p.289.



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FIG. 3. The Sos_ dairy plant.S_

FIG. 3. The Sosiia dairyplant.Brahmans. ilk, heese, nd butter,hey eal-ized,were etteruited othe conomy.ytheend oftheWarall ofthe ettlers ere endingtheir arm roductso theirwhollywned ndcollectivizedairy perationFig. 3), or to ameatfactory hich roduced ams, ausages,and bacon,and Sosua becamenationallye-nowned or airyndmeat roducts.Cropping asnot heonly bortiveffortnthe nitial ears fthe olony. he dea ofcom-munal armsnwhich ach householdnit beit family ith hree hildrenr bachelor)re-ceived n equal share fthe farm rofits asadmirable,utunworkable.hosewith wifeand children esentedhefactthatbachelorsreceivedn equalshare ftheearnings.omefelt heywere oing disproportionatehare ftheworkwhile thers ere oafingrwere oofrequentlyick.Stillothers imply ad no in-terestn farming-theyere octorsr electri-ciansormen f commerce,ndwanted o pur-suetheir rofessions.Theseproblemsed to an agreementn 1945that achbachelor r familyhould e giventsown ndividualarm. farmwould onsist fapproximatelyhirtyectares,ndeach familywouldhave tsownhome, arns, ndwhateverelsewasrequired.Withinust fewyears fterarrival he capitalistmode of operation,nwhichndividualnitiativendfrugalityountedmost, ecame hemodel. o this ay, heonly

exception s the singlevote whicheach Jewishfamily as in how the dairy nd meatfactoriesare run.Profits redivided ccording o invest-ment, nd thisvaries greatlywithin heJewishpopulation.One remaining ommunaladvan-tage s that heJews akeall oftheirmilk o thedairy plant,and are givencertainpreferencesover Dominicansuppliers.The shiftfromanessentially ocialisticmode of ownership o acapitalistic ne has, in littlemorethantwenty-fiveyears, roducednequalitieswithin he Jew-ishcommunityf Sosutawhich are as greatasthosebetweenthe Jews of El Batey and theDominicans fCharamico.Since DORSA financedhepurchase f andsandnecessaryoansuntil he olonists ouldpayfor heir roperties,t had considerable ontrol.It stipulated hatbecause thecommunal ffortwas abandoned, herewas little mploymentnEl Batey, and mostof thecolonists tillowedDORSA, theJewish amilieswouldhaveto liveon the farms.The onlyexceptionswere a fewmerchantsnd thosewhoworkedforthe dairyand meat factories, ho werepermittedo livein El Batey. n theearlyyearsthe townwas anoccasionalrather han regular enter or ocialcontacts; t was a servicecenter n the literalsense oftheword.Even before the first colonists arrived,DORSA solicitedfor Dominican laborerstobuild barracksand othersheltersn El Batey



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1973 JEWISH SOSU"A 371.

NU&M~ ~ ~ ~ ~ U

A I -~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~A- I -~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

- -#r~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Q4L ~ -

FIG. 4. Dominican hildren ailybringmilkfrom othJewishndDominican arms o thedairyplant.

and to beginclearing omeof the and of scrubforest.This labor demandincreasedconsider-ably after he Jews arrived, ecause althoughDORSA wantedto avoid hiringDominicans,the Jews needed assistanceboth in clearingfields nd in the factories.A fewDominicanslived in Charamico prior to 1940, but mostlived at greater istanceson small parcelas orin nearby villages. Slowly, and then morequickly s timepassed,the Dominicansdecidedto be nearer ources femployment.Dominicans ouldnot squator purchase andin El Batey, because DORSA had reserved llthe and forrefugees, ut on the south side ofSosutaBay werepasture andsthathad succes-sively belongedto Cubans, the United FruitCompany, Trujillo, and thenDORSA. Theselands were part of the packagepurchased romTrujillo, nd were to have been utilizedby thecolonists.Reportsvary onsiderably n this s-pect of the colony's history, ut the chain ofevents eems to have been as follows. nitiallya few Dominicans ivedon or near the pasturelands, nd morebegan to squaton them s jobs

became available n building hebarracks,lear-ing scrub forest or pasture, r workingn thedairy actoryFig. 4). Anattempto evict hemwas unsuccessful,nd officialitle o the andswas returned o the governmenty the Jews.None of this and was ever sold to those ivingin Charamico; nstead, twas leased on a yearlybasis.17Dominican employment eeds exceeded thejob opportunities vailable from Jews by theearly1950s. The two factories nd theslaugh-terhouse, hich oday mploy nly140 Domini-cans, and the fincas r dairyfarms,whichem-ploy nother 00 to 300, are theonlymajor andsteady sources of employmentn the Sosutaarea.'8 With a high birth rate, Charamico("place of little sticks") soon found itselftrapped n the familiar ycle of poverty-highunemployment nd underemployment, oor17Although he annual lease or rental charge svery mall,mostDominicanshave neverpaid it and,strictlypeaking,re illegally n the and.18Each factory mployssixty workers nd theslaughterhouseccounts oranother wenty.



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I',~~~~~~~~~~~~~I

Rit 4A.

FIG. 5. Bohlios made frompalm fronds,havingdirtfloors, nCharamico.health and housing conditions, nd numerousunprofitableetty usinesses Fig. 5). 5'By 1946 the War was over,Jewshad nearlystopped comingto Sosuia,and many began toleave. They returned oremembered omes andthefewremainingelatives n Europe,or wentto the UnitedStates forbetter pportunitiesrdistant elatives. ome wentto the arger itiesof the Republic, particularlyanto Domingo.In spiteof thisexodus,the colony reached tszenith rom bout 1943 to 1948. The greatma-jority f the settlerswerestillyoung,many ntheir30s, and socially quite active. Weekendswere timesto go to El Batey on horsebackorby horse-drawn uggy o see a movie, go to adance, sponsoran occasional Dominican con-cert,or dinewithfriends. rom 1941 to 1946,thecolonyeven had itsownnewspaper,whichwas printed nderseveral flags, mong whichwereTheBulletin, heSosua Bulletin, nd TheVoice of Sosua. It was in both German andSpanish,featuringocal events nd accomplish-

19The 1950 population f Sosu'a, which ncludesCharamico,was 1,790; DireccionGeneralde Estadis-tica, op. cit., footnote 2. This wouldplace theDo-minican opulation n excess of 1,400.

ments, nternational ews, and Germanpoetryalongside panishvocabulary.ndeed,thepost-War years werea time of optimism. he con-flict n Europehad ended,therewas the remotepossibilityhat olonistsmight e reunitedwiththeirfamilies n Europe, and the visible signsof successcould be juxtaposedwiththeirpos-sessionless rrival n winter vercoatsittlemorethanhalf dozen yearsbefore.MATURITY AND AGING

The middleyears of the colony,from ap-proximately 948 to 1960, were a period ofslow growth or the factories, lowlydecliningfarm ccupancy, ittlegrowthwithin l Batey,and a slow butgradual dissipation f theJew-ish population.Growthof the factorieswassteady,but not as spectacular s it had been.New jobs werecreated, houghnot as many asthe rapidly xpanding opulation f Charamicocould have used. And the demand for capitalwas not such that ssistance utside he Jewishcommunity as sought.n theseyears herewasneither he obvious growthof the precedingperiod,nor the inevitabledecline of the suc-ceeding.



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1973 JEWISH SOSUJA 373The income ap between heJews fEl Bateyand the Dominicans of Charamico ncreased.The Jewish sense of saving and investmentcombinedwith hard workimprintedhe local

Dominicans withan image of themas "hardworkers" nd "people who watch heirmoney."Social exclusiveness as apparent.Jewish ath-eringswere only forJews nd forthe Domini-can wivesthatmanyJewish achelorshad mar-ried,but not forothers. n theentire istoryfthecolony nly ne Jewishwoman vermarrieda Dominicanman.The Jewish iew oftheDo-minicanwas that he was lazy,had little enseof investmentr hard work, and multipliedmuch too quickly.Automobiles r small ruckswerebeyond hemeans of mostJews, nd mostofthemwantedto move toEl Batey.Wives on individual arm-steadswereunhappybecause of their solationand lack of contactwithotherJews, nd in atleast one instance herewas a divorce ver ustthis ssue.Friends eftnearby arms,which ev-ered close ties and createda need forothers.Because of poor transport acilitiest was diffi-cult to move from farmsto the factory, heschool, nd theother ervices n El Batey.The area hadonly primarychool, nd chil-dren had to go away to school whentheybe-came teenagers. ome went nearbyto PuertoPlata, others o Santiagoor to SantoDomingo,and some went o college n theUnitedStates.Manyneverreturned,venforthe nducementof receivingheparental arm, ecause oppor-tunitieslsewhere ere etter nd ife n the reawas not appealing.The patternwas neverre-versed.Today itis rareto see Jewish eenagersin Sosua, and it is not quite the oke it seemswhena sixtyyear old man says thathe is theyoungestJew n Sosua. The few married ou-ples in their hirtiesomplain hat here re nootheryoungpeoplewithwhomto socialize.

THE LATTER YEARSAfter bout 1955 Jewish amiliesgraduallybegan to move ntoEl Batey,maintainingheirfarmsbut staying here nfrequentlyr not atall. Manyhad repaid DORSA for heir assagefromEurope and their and, and were suffi-ciently ffluento build a home in town. In1961 movement romthe farmsto El Bateyincreasednoticeably fterTrujillo was assassi-nated. Although the Jews had been largelyapolitical, hey adbeenopenly ratefulo Tru-jillo, and were uncertain ow anti-Trujillo le-

ments would react. They felt theywould besafer n El Batey.Thefive riginal arracks hathadhoused herefugeeswhenthey rrived, he old core of thetown,had been turnednto a Dominicangov-ernmentbuilding,a factoryoffice, moviehouse, "apartment" ental units,and a syna-gogue. Scattered hroughout hat was now aresidential ather hana commercial ownwerea supermercado, tienda r smallstore, mili-taryheadquarters,nd one or twoother om-mercial tructuresFig. 6). The relativelyargeresidential ots, the well-keptand sizeablewooden and concretehomes, nd thevery owdensitygave the town the appearance of amiddle-incomeillage n the midwestern nitedStates Fig. 7).Families till eft osuiawhen heopportunityarose. Furthermore,he original ettlersweregetting ld; some weredying.Those leftwhohad definitekills hat ould be easilymarketedand professionswerenow entirelyacking.Atone timeSosua had six Jewish octors,but in1972 therewere none and thetownspeoplereservedby a Dominican.Estimates yresidentsgavetheJewish opulationn 1960 at nomorethan ixty amilies.

Since 1965 theJewishpopulationhas con-tinued odecline, s has theJewish haracter fthetown.Estimates fthe 1972 Jewish opula-tionrangedbetweenthirtynd forty amilies.Themajorityived n El Batey.One indicatorfthe hangingelationshipfJews o Dominicansis thatthelatternow supply hedairy factorywithnearly s much milkas do the Jews.Partofthis s growth fthefactory,utpart s alsoa result fthedeclining ewish opulation.An-other hange s reflectednthestructure f theschool n El Batey.At onetime twasprimarilypopulatedby Jewish hildren nd classes weretaught n Spanish, English,and, for a while,Hebrew.20 oday, about ninety ercent f thechildren re Dominican,and there s neitherdemand nor pressure for foreign anguageteaching.Richer DominicansfromPuertoPlata, San-tiago,and thecapital, have movedinto town,purchasingnd building ummer nd weekendhomes. Other Dominicans have come fromnearby Sabaneta since 1968 when a floodnearlywashedawaythetown.Theyhave built

20 Harry Klemfuss,Jr.,The Open Door (New York:Caribbean Library, 1956), p. 15.



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t : F.. 6. The supermercado in El Batey.

FIG.~~~~~~~gi.Te6arecaoi dBty

attractiveewhomes nEl Batey ndenjoy et-ter ervices,ncludinghe ocal andstill ewish-runprivatechoolwhichsmainly orDomini-can children.Wealthy ominicans ave alsopurchased ewish arms r DORSA lands hathad never een sold. The remainingews ackenough apital r interesto preventhis ul-tural nd spatial ilution. herehas also beenconsolidationf farm ands. Dominicans uyadjacent arms rom epartingews, elativesofthedeceased r DORSA, anda few emain-ingJews o the ame.A few f themore ner-geticJews have purchased dditional andsoutside he riginalolonial and rea andhaveinvestednexpensiverrigationquipmentndSwiss brown ows, the atter highriskbe-causeofpoorveterinaryervicesnthe rea.

AN INEVITABLE FUTUREEl Bateynow eems s much town or a-cationing ominicans s a once flourishingJewish olony. he predominantkin olor sstill n unmixed hite, nd onewill stillhearGerman, ussian, iddish,talian, rPolishn

addition o Spanish nd English, hichmakesSosua the most inguisticallyiverse lace intheRepublic.The mood s notyouthful.n one two-weekperiodweheard hat wo lderly ews addied,that nother ad committeduicide, nd thatonefarmndone business ere or ale. Therewasalso talk fbringingominicanapital ntothedairy ndmeatfactorieso they ould beexpanded. en years go theJewish-ownedes-taurants ffered uch dishes as gefilte ish,stuffederma,matzoball oup, and Fridatten-suppe, ut oday he estaurantsre Dominicanowned, nda goodJewish inners only o behad by privatenvitation.ven synagogueer-vices,which ere natural ndregularvent nSosuia ntil ecently,renowheld rregularly.21Perhapsmore ignificants the sense of fateheld bytheremainingews.Theytalkabouttheir ge and oncoming eath, heir hildrenwhohavegone broad ndwillnotreturn,nd

21 Klemfuss,p. cit.,footnote0.



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1973 JEWISH SOSUA 375

In_

FIG.7. High qualityhousing nd the presence f automobiles ndpickup rucks re visibleindications f contemporaryrosperityn El Batey.their ominicanwives nd childrenwho will n-herit heir ropertiesn Sosuia.Charamicostoday s differentrom l Bateyas are mostotherDominicantowns (Fig. 8).The streets re unpavedand narrow n contrastto those in El Batey, and the populationandsmallbusinessdensities re veryhighas com-pared to its bayside neighbor.Little childrenare often are, and showsignsofundernourish-ment nd worms.The population n 1970 wasover 4,000, more than double the 1960 fig-ure.22A singledoctoroccasionally omes fromPuerto Plata, whereas a doctoris resident nEl Batey, wherethe population s not muchmore than 200. Fortunately, ome Charamicoresidents vail themselves f the misallocatedmedical ervices y making he ongwalkacrossthebeach front.Business nand aroundCharamico sdifficult.Unemployedmen of many ages standon the

22The 1970 population f Sosu'a, which ncludesboth Charamico nd El Batey,was 4,204; Secretari-ado Tecnico de la Presidencia, epublicaDominicanaen Citras, 970, Vol. 5 (Santo Domingo: OficinaNa-cional de Estadistica, 970).

dustymain street, nd talk away the day forlack of more productivework.Outside of thetwoJewish actories,laughterhouse,nd farms,a few obs are available at a nearby ngenioorsugar factoryn Monte Llano, driving ublicosorpublic taxisand, forwomen, s maids n thehomes of El Batey. Charamicoseems to haveenoughbusinesses o support towntwice tssize, but a centrallyocated storewill sell nomore thana fewplantains rmangos n a day.Prostitution as once a good sourceof incomefor he urbanpeasantmotherwith hildren ndno husband, utthishasbeencurtailedeverelysince fundamentalist rotestantsmoved intotown.Interaction etween heJews nd Dominicansis minimal.Jews re never een in Charamico,exceptforone Jewish ntrepreneurhonightlytends o his movie heater, he onlyJewish usi-ness on that side of town. The Dominicansgoto theJewish omesorfarms o workat $25 amonth f a woman,or $2 a day if a man, toclean or cook in the house or garden, o clearnewpasture ands,to weed pastures, r to de-



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FIG. 8. Children are numerous in Charamico, where the population has more than doubledin a decade.livermilk o thedairy actory.23iftyo seventy-fivefamilies re housed in shacks and paid anequallysmallsalary owatch overthe farms fownerswho live in town, nd to milk he Hol-steins,Criollas, and Swiss Brownstwice daily.Each day some come to El Bateyon foot,bybicycle,or by horse to sell avocados, mangos,vegetables, read, or fresh ggs houseto house.The twogroupsdo meet at thebeach on Sun-day,whentheJews ome to sun bathe andrest,the Dominicans o skin divefor hellsor to sellcookedfish nd largepieces of coral.A neweast-west ighway f superior ualitynow connectsmuchof the north oast, and forthe first ime n thememory fone of the fac-torymanagers, here s a surplus f milk t thedairyplant.Rains and a flooded oad or bridgewerepreviouslyimitingactors nthegrowthfthe two local industries.24oday the problemsare capital,and the question of how long the

23 The manager f thedairyfactory eportedhattherawmilkdelivered o the plantmustbe carefullyinspected,ince someDominicans resentmilk madefrom powderedmilkbase received s foreign id.24The Brookingsnstitution,p. cit.,footnote , p.87.

Jewswillbe able to forestall he entry f Do-minicansnto their usinesses.The constructionfthe country'secondin-ternationalirport,cheduledfor ompletionnabouttwo orthreeyears, swellunderway,andthereare plans to get loans from the WorldBank and other rganizationso developmuchof the northcoast for tourism.Recent yearshave witnessed, s a result, ising and pricesand speculation, ndthe constructionf uxuri-ous Dominicanhomes n thehillsback ofSosutaBay. Evensome ofthe till nergetic ews ecog-nize this kind of change,and theyhave builtsmallroomsorcottageswhich, longwith heironly occasionally used farmhouses,will berented o tourists.In recenttimesDominicanshave made themore significanthanges, and they will con-tinue odo so in thefuture. he most mportantchangemaywell be the eventualpurchaseofland and lease rights n Charamico (Fig. 9),whichfaces El Batey across the bay from heedge of a spectacularwall of volcanic rock.This premiumand is near one of theRepub-lic's most beautiful eaches. The richand thegovernmentre cognizant frisingand values



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1973 JEWISH SOSU6A 377

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FI. . WeltyDoincnsfrmth mjr ite hv relae sm ofChraicbohis wih plasan sum er hmes

and thepotential or ourism.t is virtuallym-possible o buy andin Charamico odayunlessone has influencend position.The poor wholive there upposedlyrent" heirand, buttheycannot nd do notpay anyrent.Already fewhouseshave been built n Charamicoby well-to-doDominicans.25 ot morethana fewhun-dredyards waystandDominicanbohios,palmthatch shacks with dirt floorswhose valuecannotbe morethan$50 to $100. Undersuchconditions nyonewill sell his house and hisright o lease a givenpiece of land for ittle rnothing.What todayremainsformostJewsare thethings hat manyold and relatively rosperouspeople enjoy.Cool tropicalmorningsnd eve-ningsare forrelaxation, eriodsto chat withneighborsr to playcards.Saturday vening sa weekly reat t the ocal theater o see an oldFrench or American movie, or an outdated

25The two major competing umfamilies n theDominicanRepublic re the Bermudez nd theBru-gals. Both appreciate nd have takenadvantageofSosia, and each has claimed its"territory.he Bru-gal familys settlingl Batey,whereas heBermudezfamilys moreprominentn Charamico.

Rolling toneproduction. nce or twice yearthere s a tripabroad to theUnitedStatestovisit prosperingon or daughter. he newestmajorchange in the lives of Sosuta'sresidentsis the nstallationftelephones.SUMMARY

The changes f Jewswith espect o their o-lonial ands, heir own, ndthewealthy omin-icans can be summarizedbriefly. he initialperiod astedfor vera yearofcommunal ivingand eating, learing fbrush ndscrub, ivisionofthe and nto arge ommunal nits, ndworkon roads, bridges,waterand electric ystems,and other own ervices. he secondperiod ov-eredfiveyears,from bout 1941 to just aftertheendofthe War. Clustered armhouses erebuilton thecommunal arms, airying ecamethe majorpursuit,hedairyand meat process-ing factories egan,and thecolonyreached tsheight. l Bateydevelopedslowly s a servicecenter ndplace ofresidence or hoseworkingin thefactories.The longest eriod f stability as from 946to 1960. The colonistsmoved to individual



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378 RICHARD SYMANSKI AND NANCY BURLEY Septemberfarmsteads,l Batey grew lowly, number fJewsreturned o Europe or went o the UnitedStates,sons and daughters egan to leave forbetter pportunitieslsewhere,nd a slowmove-ment o El Batey began toward he end of theperiod. By the early1960s farmvacancies be-came more noticeable, he proportionf Jewsliving n El Batey increased significantly,ndtheagingofthe populationwas moreapparent.The finalperiod witnessed further ecline nthenumber fJewsremaining,hesale of for-

mercolonial farm and to wealthy ominicans,a consolidation hrough urchase f the formercolonial ands by bothgroups, nd a dilution fthe Jewishpopulationof El Batey by wealthyDominicans n search of summer nd weekendhomes. We forecast he eventual isappearanceof theoriginal ewish olony, ncreasing omin-icanization f the farm ands andEl Batey, d-ditional onsolidationf thefarmands, nd sig-nificant ouristdevelopment round El Bateyand extendingnto heformer olonial ands.

the jewish colony of sosua

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