Page 8-The Canadian Jewish News, Thursday, December 2. 1993
World
M-T
common
By DAVID LAZARUS
MEXICO CITY - Perhaps the best way for Canadian Jews to gain some insight into Jewish Mexico's unique religious life is to poke their heads around their own backyards.
The two countries' communities are so culturally distinct that it's tempting to think the two nations have little in common, religiously speaking.
. The reality, however, is that Jewish communities everywhere, with their common heritage and valueis, share at least some ftindamental similarities.
Both Canada and Mexico, for example, have very vibrant Sephardi and Ashkenazi communities and enjoy low intermarriage rates.
They also place a great emphasis on the family. Both communities are often described as "strongly identifying." even though, in Mexico as in Canada, that means families joining .synagogues but otherwise living . secularly.
Parallels diverge, however, once the two countries' religious structures are compared.
Canada has over 300,OOO.Jews, but the communities tend to have monolithic insitutions controlling their religious affairs.
Jews in Mexico, who by comparison number a rnere 50,000, have by necessity managed to strike a unique, albeit delicate, balance that has permitted several distinct, self-supporting religious communities to co-exist and flourish autonomously, with their own rabbinical courts, religious schools, buriaJ. societies, •kashrut certification bodies and newspapers.
In Montreal, to take one Canadian-example, this is still Unimaginable. There exists but onie "officially recognized'' kashrut oi-ganization. This body has been plagued from within by disputes between the lay and religious' leadership, and from without, following the establishment last year by Rabbi David Sabbah of an alternative kashrut certification body for the Sephardi commuriity^
Rabbi Sabbah, Montreal's self-described Sephardi chief rabbi, is accepted as such by some in his community, but not by the Communaute Sepharade du Quebec, the community ' s offic ial representative body.
Rabbi Sabbah sparked another furor recently by setting up separate shechita services.
Distinct ions
How, then, has Mexico managed to keep several distinct religious communities thriving, each with its own "chief rabbi" whose respective authority is unchallenged, while this practice simply is not tolerated here?
According to Mexican community and religious leaders, the secret lies in invoking principles of mutual tolerance, if not mutual admira:tion,^ among the disparate groups.
Despite their relative small number. Mexican Jews-originate from so many diverse backgrounds and countries — including Syria, the Balkans. Spain, North Africa and eastern Europe — that it would simply be incon- ; ceivable for them to conduct their affairs under one "umbrella" religious body.
There is not one. not two. but seven representative religious bodies for the Sephardi and Ashkenazi com- = munities. The population ratio is 55 and 45 percent respectively.
To whatever'extent the religious communities interact, it occurs for the most part at meetings of Mexican Jewry's centralinstituional body, the ComiteCentrale Isaelita de Mexico,
The interior of the NidjevVisrael synagogue in 'old' Mexico City.
or at the Centro Deportivo Isrelita, Mexico City's extravagant version of the Y. It is there that Mexican Jews swim, eat and exercise together as a cohesive whole.
Here's how it all breaks down;
Mexico's Ashkenazi Orthodox community identifies under one name, and is presided oVer by president Israel Feldman, with about 10 Orthodox synagogues — ranging from "very" to "modern" — spread over the Mexico City area.
Two other congregations are Conservative: the 50^year-old Beth Israel, founded by Jews of English-speaking origin, and the 40-year-old Bet-El, with a Spanish-speaking membership and ah Argentinian rabbi;
The Sephardi community is much more diverse and difficult to describe accurately. :
The Communidiad Sefaradi consists mostly of Sephardi Jews from the Balkans, North Africa and Spanish extraction.
there are also devoutly religious. Jews — the Maguen David and Monte Sinai conimunities, respectively of Aleppo and Damascus in Syria — which are communities unto themselves and considered Sephardi since Syrian Jews originally came from; Spain, They are among.Mexico's oldest Jewish commlinities.
However, these two groiips prefer to call themselves the"Ai-ab" Jews and see themselves as having little in common with non-Syrian Jews.
So why the need for each commu-' nity to be separate?
"Itis hot that die [Jewish] laws are different," observed one rabbi, meeting with a group of visiting journalists. "We are separated from each other by traditions." " '
The Maguen David community is so devout that it forbids marriage to converts. The reason? "We would rather sacrifice o^e person than the . whole community," its rabbi said. . Fifteen per cent of Mexican Jews • mariy Jews from odier communities, even though pne rabbi said to verify the Jewish boria fides of a prospective couple — especially Conservative ones— takes an "FBI "level of scrutiny. .
Despite their differences, there does not appear to be a sense of rival-ty between the communities. Once fairly open ideological rifts have mostly been patched oyer and differ^ ences that do exist tend to reyolve around issues like shechita and the wording of a get (Jewish divorce decree). That's why each community works best oh its own. '
If there is genuine friction to be found among the religious communities in Mexico, it is not between the Ashkenazini and Sephardim or the Maguen David iand Monte Sinai Syrian Jews, but between the Conservatives apd the Orthodox.
Rabbi Shmuel Lehrer of the Beth
Israel Conservative synagogue, for example, said Mexican Jewry's Orthodox community treats Conservative Jews like "goyim,"
Sodid Rabbi MarceloRittner of die Conservative Congregation Bet-El.
He said the Mexican Jewish community identifieis more dian the community he oversaw as a rabbi in San Paulo, Argentina, and he is pleased to see that.
Increase
in
But in die last five or six years, Rabb|i Rittner has perceived an increase in religious "radicalism" within Mexico, which has increased die rift between Conservatives and Qr-diodox arid created "one of :he most strongly-divided yishuvs in the world." It has come to the point where Orthodox and Conservative rabbis meet "only at funerials," he said. ■ ■,■
When a member of Rabbi Rittner's synagogue wants to marry a member of the. Maguen David coriimUnity, for example, "I have to give a letter attesting to his Jewishness."
Similarly, an Orthodox rabbi is never seen inside a Conservative synagogue, and both Conservative synagogues, Rabbi Lehrer said, have had to fight to achieve "community" status at the Comite Centrale.
Conservatives seeking a respite from such frictions in Mexico City need look no further than Guadailajara, where the tiny community of 150 Jewish families work and live cohesively.
The reason.is simple. Guadalajara;. with a Jewish; commuriity almost 80-years-old,"has very few Orthodox adherents .The only synagogue, the Beth Shalom, is Coiiservative and its rabbi, Jorge Szteinhendler, is the. community's only paid rabbi.
Still, Rabbi Szteinhandler said his synagogue made a special effort.to accommodate the small number of.; Orthodox Jews who live in Guadalajara. Even the synagogue's mikyah (ritual bath) i si 00 percent "kosher," he said.
Wherever Mexican Jews reside, there seems little question that the overall affluence of the community extends into the religious .sphere.
Each community supports its_own religious institutions. In Mexico City . they are supported faiUif\illy and yer>' _ generously. " T
-At every turn, synagogues are being renovated, expanded, redesigned. Automat«lbimahs descend magically
beneath floors, Workmen hammer and saw, carefully positioning elaborate mouldings along ceilings.
One Ashkenazi synagogue, perhaps only 40-years-old, is undergoing a massive renovation, an apparent effort by the community; to find ways to spend its donations. And from the looks of other Jewish sites getting rebuilt, it seemed that outdoing anodier community is a pretty popii-.lar pastime in Jewish Mexico. .
Thisbeing said, funds also go to preserve a rich, historical legacy. According to Rabbi Abrahaim Bartfeld, an Ashkenazi rabbi in Mexico City, a generous amount of money is also spent on a growing number of religious schools and kehillahs, with many ba'al tshuvahs coming into the fold each year. Mexican schools, religious or odierwise, receive no fiind-ing from the Mexican govemrnent.
As well, Mexico's Jewish community works hard to maintain its venerable; religious institutions. Mexico's oldest Ashkenazi synagogue, die Nid-jey Yisrael in the centre of downtown
MexicoCity, for example, has been fully restored and is now operating again under a spirit of true renaissance. Rabbi Bartfeld said, its splendid, ornamental flourishes in striking relief against a background of dark, burnished wood. The city's oldest Sephardi synagogue is right next door and is also fully operational.
There are also other Jews in Mexico. ..
For many years. Mexicans of European and Indian ancestry — who call themselves Mestizo Jews --have sought recognition as Jews by the official community with no success, A visiting delegation of journalists heard no meritioh of them.
But according to a tour guide, the. Mestizos, who number less than 100 and live in the village of Vcnta Prie-ta, north Of Mexico City, are sincere in their conviction that they are "Is-raelitas," descendants of the 12 tribes. However, their claims have never been substantiated. The Mestizos continue to practice Jewish rites; ; What seems in far less doubt is the vitality of Mexico's religious community.
; the lines between church and state have been sharply distinct since the Mexican revolution, to the point : where synagogues and adjacent community centres could not share a common entrance way and the property on which they were located belonged to the state.
But this may change.
Just days after a visiting delegation departed Mexico, the country "officially*' recognized Judaism as part of a recent effort by the government to protect the rights of religious organizations.
According to die Jewish Telegraphic -Agency, the new law was passed as part of an effort to ease hostility against religious bodies (the Catholic Church at the time of die 1910 Mexican revolution was considered a reactionary force).
Besides the Jewish community, 30 other "religious bodies" registered under the new law;tO acquire actual ''legal status,'' along with the rights diat go along widi it, such as owning and traiisferring religious institutional property.
Rabbi Abraham Bartfeld