German speaking Jewish community in Bolivia

Records of the German-Jewish community in Cochabamba, Bolivia, consisting of newspaper clippings, correspondence, manuscripts of articles, photographs of the synagogue inaugurated in 1947, and other documents from several different Jewish assotiations and institutions, including the Landesverband der Jüdischen Gemeinden Boliviens, Federación Sionista Unida en Bolivia, Comunidad Israelita Cochabamba, and Asociación Israelita Cochabamba. The origins of Jewish settlement in Bolivia can be traced back to the colonial period, when Marranos from Spain arrived in the country, which at the time was part of the Viceroyalty of Peru. Substantial Jewish settlement took place in Bolivia in 1900s. In 1905, a group of Russian Jews settled in Bolivia and were followed by another group from Argentina, and later by several Sephardi families from Turkey and the Near East. The Jewish community nonetheless remained minuscule. It was estimated that in 1917 only 20 to 25 Jews lived in the country, and by 1933, at the beginning of the Nazi era in Germany, there were only 30 Jewish families. The first tide of Jewish immigration came in the early 1930s, with an estimated 7,000 new immigrants by the end of 1942. Approximately 2,200 emigrated, however, from Bolivia by the end of the 1940s. Those who remained settled in La Paz, and by 1940 communities had arisen in outlying cities such as Cochabamba, Oruro, Sucre, Tarija, and Potosi. After World War II a small wave of Polish Jews who had fled to the Far East after 1939, but abandoned Shanghai in the wake of the communist takeover, arrived in Bolivia. The major part of the group remained in La Paz, and was incorporated into the existing community. These years in the Jewish community were marked by difficult economic conditions, especially for those who did not own businesses. Between January 1939 and December 1942, $160,000 was disbursed for relief by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, and by the Sociedad de Proteccion de los Inmigrantes Israelitas. By the fall of 1939, when immigration had reached its peak, organized Jewish communities gained greater stability in Bolivia. The first organization to be founded was the Circulo Israelita (1935) by East European Jews, followed by the German Comunidad Israelita. Under the auspices of the Comite Central Judio de Bolivia, various communal services were established: the Hevra Kaddisha, the Cementerio Israelita, Bikkur Holim, the house for the aged, WIZO, and Macabi. The La Paz community started and maintained the Colegio Israelita, a comprehensive school with kindergarten, primary, and secondary grades. Its student body became mixed because the high level of the school attracted non-Jewish students. In the 1950's and 1960's there was a mass emmigration by Jews from Bolivia due to political upheaveal, and Jewish education was one of the prime victims of the emigration trend; Jewish student enrollment, especially in the lower grades, declined drastically. Outside of La Paz, the community of Cochabamba, which had a Jewish population of about 600 in the mid-1900's, was, and is, the second largest in the country. Its history is inextricably linked with its founder, an Alexandrian Jew named Isaac Antaki, who arrived in the 1920s. He established a large textile factory and also built a synagogue to serve the Ashkenazi and Sephardi community. The Jewish population of the city reached its peak after World War II, but large numbers emigrated in the 1950's. The community never managed to establish a Jewish school, only a kindergarten exists. [Source: Bolivia Virtual Jewish History Tour: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/bolivia-virtual-jewish-history-tour] Copyright Holder: Arkhiyon ha-merkazi le-toldot ha-ʻam ha-Yehudi