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Wednesday, November 7, 2018

Small Jewish Immigration to Honduras Throughout History and Now Large Immigration of Hondurans to USA

Nadene Goldfoot                                                 
A caravan of Honduran migrants began forming Saturday and reached Guatemala's border on Monday. CNN photo
Hondurans Saying USA will have to receive them 
Aid from USA: $65.8 million
What does Honduras have to offer them?
Honduras is known for its rich natural resources, including mineralscoffeetropical fruit, and sugar cane, as well as for its growing textiles industry, which serves the international market.
Businesses there are few.  There are a few airlines providing jobs; and the state owns the electricity and telecommunications.  They have a food and beverage company and a toy company on their list.  

Honduras " has been inhabited by a number of indigenous peoples, the most powerful of which, until the ninth century CE, were the Maya."

"There have been Jews in Honduras since Hernando Cortes conquered the Aztecs, accompanied by several Conversos. Later, Jews arrived there to escape the Spanish Inquisition of 1492.  Cortes then traveled to Honduras to firmly establish his government in the city of Trujillo before returning to Mexico in 1526.

After all, Columbus had sailed in 1492 with some sailors who were either Conversos already or Jews trying to leave Spain due to the edict of Jews having to convert to Catholicism or leave the country.  It's thought that Columbus himself was a Converso as he wrote letters to his son in Hebrew.  "In 1502, Christopher Columbus landed in Trujillo. He called the territory Honduras ("depths") after the deep water off the Caribbean coast." 
                                                                         
At the end of the 1800's Honduras experienced an influx of Jews. The majority emigrated from the Central European regions of RussiaPolandGermanyRomania, and Hungary, while a few were of Sephardic origin, and came from GreeceTurkey and North Africa.  This is the period of much antiSemitism going on in Europe, especially Russia which caused Aliyah  to Palestine starting in 1880. Jews who could were also opting to go to the USA as well, so large groups started to immigrate there. 
                                                            

Due to the power of the Catholic Church in Honduras, few Jews migrated there during the Spanish Colonial Period. In the 1920s, a few German Jews settled in Honduras as a result of invitations from the government. Anti-Semitism was very powerful at this time. "The Honduran government announced its willingness to welcome numerous Jewish educators and professionals from Europe. It was at this time that the two distinctive Jewish communities of Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula, which still exist today, were established, and Judaism began to make an imprint on Honduran history and culture.

More Jews didn't arrive in Honduras until 1930 when they moved there from Eastern Europe which was in the beginnings of World War II.  From 1939 to 1940 there was a plan to establish Jewish refugees in British Honduras, but it was aborted. "  Beginning in the 1940s some Ashkenazic Jews fleeing World War II came to Honduras thanks to the influence of local Jewry.."  "During the years leading up to the Second World War, and in the early stages of the war, Honduran consuls were prohibited from giving visas to European Jews. Nevertheless, roughly 20 Jewish doctors and farmers, predominately German Jews, managed to obtain special permits to enter and work in Honduras.


The Honduran government was tough on Jews before and during WWII.  "The Honduran government, then headed by President Carias, allowed the entry of these Jews only after receiving requests from local influential Jews. Salvador Schacher of Tegucigalpa and Jose Brandel and Boris Goldstein of San Pedro Sula convinced the President to order that visas be permitted to those who were seeking haven from the atrocities. The majority of those who were granted admittance were youths who had escaped the war via Hollandor Switzerland, and already had relatives living in Honduras.

"By 1947, fewer then 140 Jews resided in the whole nation. Throughout the 1950's there were an estimated 30 Jewish families living in the city of Tegucigalpa. That community was led by Salomon Schacher whose wife, Jenny, started a chapter of the Women's International Zionist Organization (WIZO), which was geared toward helping young Jewish women involved in the agricultural business. The Tegucigalpa Jewish community assisted in the development of the tourist industry by building hotels, offering better services to visitors, and helping the city to prosper."

                                           Israel's Initiative
"Throughout the 1970's, and into the 1980's, the nation absorbed a large number of Israeli immigrants who came to work with the Jewish community, and help them to expand their knowledge in such areas as engineering, agriculture, and security. This once again invigorated the Honduran Jewish community. During this period, the Honduras Israel Cultural Institute was also established by a number of Hondurans who had spent some time in Israel and brought back what they had learned about their Jewish heritage to share with the community."

 British Honduras was renamed "Belize" in June 1973.  It had been a British Crown Colony from 1862 to 1964.  
                                                       

By 1990, there were only 150 Jews living in Honduras mostly settling in the capital Teguciglpa.  "On 3 August 1997, the community in San Pedro Sula dedicated the Maguen David Synagogue to serve as a community centre for future generations." "In 1998, Honduras was devastated by Hurricane Mitch. The storm damaged the only synagogue in Tegucigalpa. Afterward, Jewish communities that learned of the destruction contributed money to restore the temple."

"Today, only one Jewish family remains in La Ceiba out of 8 families that had lived there.  Those who had lived there " prospered by working with the American companies involved in the cultivation and sale of bananas."

"The Republic of Honduras today is home to 6.7 million people. It is predominantly Roman Catholic; nevertheless, the 40-50 Jewish families that live in the country have experienced little anti-Semitism. One exception was a comment made by Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga in 2002 suggesting that American Jews manipulated the media to exploit the scandal concerning sexual abuse by Catholic priests as a means of diverting attention from the crisis concerning the Palestinian-Israeli conflict."

October 5, 2009 and I see I wrote an article about Obama backing Zelaya, who was very anti-Semitic and was a man who had been thrown out of office.  José Manuel Zelaya Rosales was a Honduran politician who was President of Honduras from 27 January 2006 until 28 June 2009. He is the eldest son of a wealthy businessman, and inherited his father's nickname "Mel". Before entering politics he was involved in his family's logging and timber businesses.  He was ousted in their army coup.  "Mr. Zelaya, a leftist aligned with President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, angrily denounced the coup as illegal. “I am the president of Honduras,” he insisted at the airport in San José, Costa Rica, still wearing his pajamas."
Over 7,000 Hondurans now on their way to the USA border
This is called a Caravan.
This is more than the ancient Roman legion of 4,800.
A standard post-Marian Roman legion contained 4800 regular soldiers, divided into 10 cohorts of 480 soldiers. Each cohort was divided into 8 centuries of 80 soldiers which was further divided into 10 tents of 8 soldiers each. Additionally, the army would have auxiliary troops, scouts, generals bodyguards, a huge baggage train, etc....
 How are they traveling?  



"MEXICO CITY — Thousands of Central American migrants traveling in a caravan arrived in the Mexican capital Monday and began to fill up a sports stadium, still hundreds of miles from their goal of reaching the U.S. a day before midterm elections in which President Donald Trump has made their journey a central campaign issue.  They are under the impression that they have to be allowed to enter the USA and to live there.  Many Americans see this as an invasion coming wanting entrance and demanding it without going through procedures.  
By afternoon 2,000 or more had arrived at the Jesus Martinez stadium, which has a capacity of about three times that, and eagerly began sifting through donations of clothes, gave themselves sponge baths, lunched on chicken and rice under the shade of tents and picked up thin mattresses to hunker down for the night."
Hondurans clashing with Mexican police at Guatemala-Mexico border
Ethnic make up of Hondurans are 90% Mestizo(mixed Amerindian & Europeans); 7% Amerindians;  2% Blacks; 1% White
Religion is 97% Roman Catholic, 3% Protestant. 


A new UN agreement, which almost all member states plan to sign in December, propagates the radical idea that migration -- for any reason -- is something that needs to be promoted, enabled and protected. Thousands of migrants, who plan to enter the United States, walked near Ciudad Hidalgo, Mexico on October 21, 2018, after having illegally crossed into Mexico from Guatemala. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)  This above is a similar
picture.  


And then at the UN there was a pair of allies closer to home — Guatemala and Honduras, the only two countries in Latin America to support the U.S. move of moving the US embassy to Jerusalem.  The Trump administration is still considering whether to deport some 57,000 Hondurans living with temporary immigration status in the United States. Honduras has also received military aid from Israel that has worried its neighbors and raised human rights concerns.
                                                                       
In Honduran waters is the island of Roatan.
The question is, why are 7,000 out of 6.7 million Hondurans fleeing Honduras and marching through Mexico to the USA claiming they need help?  What's going on?  Drug lords, for one.  

                                                   

Cities such as San Pedro Sula and the Tegucigalpa have registered homicide rates among the highest in the world. The violence is associated with drug trafficking as Honduras is often a transit point, and with a number of urban gangs, mainly the MS-13 and the 18th Street gang.  

"Honduras continues to be one of the poorest and most unequal countries in Latin America, with nearly 69% of Hondurans living below the poverty line. It also remains one of the most violent countries in the world and continues to suffer from persistent human rights abuses and widespread impunity. Moreover, the country’s tentative progress in combating corruption has generated a fierce backlash, calling into question the sustainability of those efforts."
                                                  
 "2 Congress has not accepted the majority of the Trump Administration’s proposed cuts thus far. It has appropriated nearly $2.1 billion for Central America since FY2016, including at least $431 million for Honduras."  Evidently that money is not helping to create jobs in Honduras.  Trump has wondered what has been done with it, especially now with this large group on their way to the USA borders.  

                                                 
The Irony.  A few Jews only were able to find shelter in Honduras throughout history, and now Hondurans think the USA will HAVE To GIVE THEM THEIR RIGHT TO ENTER THE USA.  How people and times do change.  They have by-passsed their Honduran embassy where you arrange such matters.  It is :Embajada de Estados Unidos Tegucigalpa at Avenida La Paz, M.D.C., Tegucigalpa, Honduras


The U.S. Embassy is located at the following address:
Avenida La Paz
Tegucigalpa M.D.C.
Honduras
Telephone +(504) 2236-9320
Fax:+ (504) 2236-9037
Website: https://hn.usembassy.gov/
Updated about Romans at 1:00pm Pacific time.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/244385
Resource: The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Honduras
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/honduras-virtual-jewish-history-tour
https://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2009/10/obama-backing-ousted-honduran-zelaya.html  from 2009 and Obama
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manuel_Zelaya
https://explorer.usaid.gov/cd/HND
https://fas.org/sgp/crs/row/RL34027.pdf
https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/18/politics/caravan-foreign-aid/index.html
https://www.cnn.com/specials/live-video-3?adkey=bn
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Honduras
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_companies_of_Honduras
https://www.quora.com/If-an-entire-Roman-Legion-were-to-march-past-you-how-long-would-it-take-for-them-to-do-so
Update: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/guatemala-and-honduras-sided-with-trump-on-jerusalem-heres-why/2017/12/28/7c4dfeee-eb1e-11e7-956e-baea358f9725_story.html?utm_term=.500d49a14889

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