Sosúa Settlement

Definition

Sosúa was a short-term Jewish settlement in the Dominican Republic during World War II and the Holocaust that harbored Jewish refugees.

Introduction

During World War II (WWII), 757 Jewish refugees from the Holocaust in Europe found respite in the Sosúa settlement in the Dominican Republic. While it was a short-lived project and very few of the settlers remained on the island after the war, the long-term legacy and impact of the community make it a relevant area of research and understanding in the field of Latin American Jewish studies.

The Jewish Community in the Dominican Republic

The first Jews to reach the Dominican Republic came to the Spanish colonial settlement of “Hispaniola” in the fifteenth century. These were largely Sephardic Jews exiled from the Iberian Peninsula following the “reconquista” and enforcement of Catholic Spanish identity in the late fifteenth century and early sixteenth century. There were spurts of immigration later in the 1700s and during and...