Mexico City: Jewish Presence in Mexico, Conquistadors to WW2 – Greater Mexico City, Mexico

EXPERIENCE

You’ll learn of the founding of Mexico next to the Great Aztec Temple, just 2 blocks from the first Shul, the first Catholic cathedral & the first Protestant church; you will hear of the arrival of the community along the conquistadors, 500 years ago, and the fateful ending of some at the stake. History will unravel as we share how Mexico became a pole of attraction as the economic capital of the Spanish Empire, ruling from Montana to Costa Rica & from Puerto Rico to the Philippines.
We will see the Palace of the Inquisition and discover hidden messages which persecuted heresy for 300 years. We’ll talk about the Laws of Reformation that made Mexico a secular state & of the anti-Fascist resistance that got the first anti-Semitic convention, cancelled. We will go to the park around which the second wave of migration got established, at the end of the 19th & the turn of the 20th centuries, coming mainly from Eastern Europe & the Ottoman Empire. We will see the oldest temples standing in front of churches which used to spy on suspected non-Catholics.
We will learn of the advancement of newcomers, from tailors & seamstresses to the textile & jewelry industries which led to the establishing of Mexico’s financial system, developed mainly with their capital. We end by learning of the abandonment of the temples and the moving to better areas of town.

HIGHLIGHTS

Discover the Jewish arrivals and survival during the Spanish Inquisition.
Follow the Jewish arrivals in a then a modern secular country, see their shuls.
Learn about the flourishing of the Jewish community in the 20th century.

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