JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

ecuador
P A C I F I C O C E A N
COLOMBIA
E C U A D O R
Guayaquil
Quito
Ambato
Riobamba
Cuenca
Major Jewish communities in Ecuador.
P E R U
Major Jewish Concentration
Located near the Pacific coast, it had a tropical climate. The
vast majority, however, preferred the capital, Quito, situated
in the Andes at an altitude of 9,200 ft. (2,800 m.). Few settled
in small towns like Ambato (100), Banos, Cuenca (30), and
Riobamba, or in the jungle around Puyo.
In Quito as in Guayaquil they were concentrated in several
streets in the city center or not far from it. Quito with
150,000 inhabitants had no industry and only one multi-story
building. Compared to middle-class European standards the
living conditions were cramped and primitive, with no infrastructure
and with infectious diseases and a lack of hygiene
threatening their health. Many of the immigrants had only
meager financial means, though many of them had brought
their household goods and other possessions. Since the authorities
returned the deposits that the immigrants had made
to receive their visas (a few hundred dollars each), most of
them had money to invest. Many had to earn their livings
in unfamiliar occupations. But wherever it was possible they
tried to continue in their former professions or similar ones.
Despite the regulations restricting immigration to industrial
or agricultural laborers, only a minority worked in
agriculture. Because of the difficult living and working conditions
and their lack of knowledge such onerous attempts
were given up. The project of HICEM and the Joint in 1937 to
settle 60 families in the area of Ambato for chicken farming
was among those failed attempts. A considerable number of
the immigrants were active in trade, as peddlers, in retail and
wholesale, and in the import and export trade. While the majority
of the enterprises in the first years required hard work
by all family members to reach a subsistence level, some of
the enterprises reached a considerable size by 1942 and exist
until today. The most successful were those that found a
niche in the market, offering services and goods unknown in
the country or absent from the market because of the war. In
the field of food and textile production, in the metallurgical
(El Arco, Ideal, Siderúrgica SA.) and pharmaceutical indus-
tries, in services and the hotel trade, they played an important
role and brought a dynamic element into business life. Names
like Rothschild, Seligmann, Neustätter, Di Capua, and Ottolenghi
stand out.
The fact that the authorities as a rule did not enforce
industrial or agricultural employment made it easier for the
immigrants to integrate into the economic process but soon
led to anti-Jewish pressure on the part of the local population.
While the presidents José Maria Velasco Ibarra (1934–35,
1944–47) and Carlos Arroyo del Rio (1940–44) approved the
immigration of Jews, some circles espoused an antisemitic
line with recourse to the German-based press and deep-seated
Christian prejudices. Also textile merchants of Arab origin, especially
from Lebanon, who had lived in Ecuador for decades,
considered the Jews undesirable competitors. In August 1944
Velasco Ibarra rescinded the regulations that restricted immigration
to industrial or agricultural employment, but already
at the end of the 1940s the authorities stepped up the control
of Jewish enterprises and in 1952 another law was passed requiring
proof that a foreigner was engaged in the occupation
stipulated in his entry visa. This legislation was counteracted
by the intervention of the World Jewish Congress. Within
these limited political and social limitations the immigrants
were free to do whatever they wished. There was no bar to
practicing their religion or founding associations.
The biggest group among the refugees was in Quito. Its
nucleus was the above-mentioned HICEM Committee founded
in 1938. In the same year the Asociación de Beneficencia Israelita
was founded, reaching its peak with over 540 members
(heads of families) in 1945. Unlike most Latin American
countries, where Jewish communities already existed and the
newcomers founded their own separate organizations according
to their countries of origin, the “Beneficencia” united Jews
from Germany, Austria, Italy, Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia,
Romania, the Soviet Union, and the Baltic states.
Though there was some religiously motivated separation
this was of minor significance. While in Guayaquil differences
of opinion about Zionism were a greater potential cause of discord
than in Quito, in religious matters the situation was quite
the opposite. In Guayaquil the strongest organization, Comunidad
de Culto, with more than 140 members, combined the
Sociedad de Beneficencia, founded in 1939–40, and the Centro
Israelita, which had split off in 1944, both competing for
cultural primacy. Under the impression of the foundation of
the State of Israel all organizations in Quito united under the
umbrella of the “Beneficencia” while in Guayaquil it took almost
20 years more to reach such unity.
The “Beneficencia” did a great deal to create a center of
religious, social, and cultural life for its members. A bulletin
called Informaciones para los Inmigrantes Israelitas, in the first
period mainly written in German, informed readers about
the community, the host country, and international affairs.
Based on the model of their European countries a court of
arbitration, a ḥevra kaddisha, a women’s association, a cooperative
bank, Maccabi, and B’nai B’rith were established. In
140 ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 6