SANCHEZ Origin of surname

Mexico

Estados Unidos Mexicanos

A federal republic in southern North America.

21st Century

Estimated Jewish population in 2018: 40,000 out of 130,000,000 (0.03%).  Most Jews live in Mexico City greater area. Much smaller communities exist in Guadalajara, Monterrey, Tijuana, Cancun and San Miguel de Allende.  The Jews of Mexico belong to six main communities: Sociedad de Beneficencia  - Orthodox, founded by Jewish immigrants from Damascus and Lebanon; Comunidad Ashkenazi  - Orthodox, founded by Jewish immigrants from Central and Eastern Europe; Comunidad Maguen David - Orthodox, founded by Jews from Aleppo, Syria; Comunidad Sefaradi - founded by Jews from Turkey, Greece, and the Balkans; Beth Israel Community Center - Conservative, founded by English speaking Jews, mainly American Jews who retired to Mexico; and Comunidad Bet El  - Conservative, founded by native Mexican Jews. The Comité Central de la Comunidad Judía de México (CCCJM) serves as an umbrella organization for all Jewish communities in the country.  

Comité Central de la Comunidad Judía de México (CCCJM)
Phone: 52 55 5520-9393
Email: comitecentral@cccjm.mx
Website: www.tribuna.org.mx

History

A number of crypto-Jews known as New Christians (i.e. nominal Catholics of Jewish birth or extraction) went to Mexico with Hernan Cortes, who conquered the country in 1521. In 1523, when Mexico was closed to all but those who could show Catholic ancestry for four generations and thus qualify for a certificate of "limpieza de sangre", some Spanish and Portuguese crypto-Jews managed to procure these certificates through corruption. The immigration of others, who came from other European countries posing as "old" Christians, continued to some extent throughout the colonial period.

Veracruz and Campeche were the port of entry for settlers coming from Europe, and Acapulco for those coming from Brazil, Chile, and Peru. Although the first auto-da-fe at which crypto-Jews were burned at the stake was held in Mexico city as early as 1528, comparatively few crypto-Jews were seized prior to the formal establishment of an independent tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition in Mexico City in 1571. Soon thereafter the instances of persecution against crypto-Jews increased both in frequency and intensity. It has been said that by 1550 there were more Spanish crypto-Jews than Spanish Catholics in Mexico city.

The years 1642 to 1649 were the worst period of inquisitional persecution. The great auto-da-fe of April 11, 1649, included 109 victims of whom all except 13 were executed; these were "reconciled" with the Church and, although they were to be sent back to Spain, many of them never left Mexico.

In spite of these persecutions, crypto-Jews continued to settle and prosper in Mexico. The development of trade and commerce there was largely due to their enterprise.

Although the inquisition's pursuit of them is attributed to fear of a rumored Portuguese attempt to capture Mexico with the help of the Portuguese (mostly crypto-Jews) already there, it may also have been due to economic jealousy of crypto-Jewish merchants and the venality of the three inquisitors of that era, who confiscated entire fortunes. The crypto-Jews engaged in every aspect of colonial life and ran the gamut of occupations. Many held official positions for the crown and even in the church itself. Although crypto-Jews lived in every part of new Spain, their principal centers were in Mexico City, Veracruz, and Guadalajara. According to the records of the Mexican inquisition, communal prayers were held regularly in private homes.

From the middle of the 17th century, inquisitional activity against Mexican crypto-Jews showed a marked decrease. In the auto-da-fe of 1659 only four crypto-Jews figured among the 32 victims, and in succeeding years the proportion was even lower. Crypto-Jewish immigration into Mexico in the 18th century decreased considerably as a result of changing conditions and increasing tolerance in other countries. Throughout the colonial period approximately 1,500 persons were convicted of being judaizers, observing the Law of Moses, or following Jewish practices. The number actually burned at the stake was less than 100, but almost an equal number died in the inquisition cells.

The abolition of the Inquisition during the first third of the 19th century did not remove the stigma of "judio", because the Church continued to charge the Jews with deicide and holy week remained the occasion to burn effigies of Judas. The original cry "death to Judas" often became "death to the Jews", a custom which still exists in small Mexican villages. At the beginning of Mexican independence in 1821, the number of Jews greatly diminished and the remainder were small merchants and traders whose primary foreign contact was with Jews in the west indies and Caracas. Mexico secured its first international loan in 1821 from the Jewish banking firm Goldschmidt of London.

From 1825 to 1835 there was some Jewish immigration from Germany but there is no record of any communal life until 1862. Maximilian, Emperor of Mexico from 1864 to 1867, had brought with him many Belgian, French, Austrian, and Alsatian Jews, and his personal physician was Samuel Basch, an avowed Jew. The overthrow of Maximillian by Benito Juarez did not harm the Jews since Juarez was a devout believer in freedom of religion.

The Jewish population grew slowly, and by 1885 the first organized congregation had come into existence.

Assimilation and intermarriage were prevalent. During the late 19th century there was immigration of east European Jews from Russia and Galicia. In 1899, when the first Jewish immigrants from syria arrived in Mexico, Francisco Rivas Puigcervez began the publication of a literary weekly, "El sabado secreto", later "La luz del sabado", dedicated to Sephardi history and language.

The Mexican revolution, together with the riots and insecurity which came in its wake between 1913 and 1917, brought about a noticeable decrease in the Jewish population; but the extreme liberal constitution enacted in 1917, which gave Mexico the image of being a wholly secular state, strengthened the legal basis for Jewish existence in the country. After World War I, Jewish immigration from eastern Europe began again and at an increased rate. But during the first years most of the immigrants used Mexico only as a stopping place on their way to the United States.

As of 1924, however, most immigrants were barred from continuing on to the USA by that country's restrictive immigration legislation and were compelled to remain in Mexico under difficult conditions. The new immigrants settled in every part of the country, and prospered as peddlers and proprietors of small stalls in public markets.

They introduced into Mexico the system of buying on credit which helped to raise the standard of living for the Mexican peon and servant class by allowing them to buy shoes, socks, stockings, ties, thread, and other commodities on the installment plan.

Anti-Semitism eventually forced the Jewish peddlers and stall operators to leave the public market and to open private stores, which ultimately raised their economic status. Banco Mercantil, a Jewish bank founded in 1929, has provided Jews with ready financing for the purchase of machinery, especially in every branch of the clothing and soft-goods industry.

The number of obstacles to Jewish immigration increased during the 1930s and culminated in the 1937 constitution which established the principle of immigration by quota.

Within this framework, Poland and Romania, for example, countries where Jewish emigration was high, were restricted to 100 entry visas a year. Thus only a limited number of Jews persecuted in Europe succeeded in entering Mexico.

During the Holocaust years 1943-44, Mexico agreed to take in several hundred refugees, but only for the duration of the war. Only with Mexico's entry into the war against the Axis powers in May 1942, was anti- Semitism subdued. The Jewish community began the organized fight against anti- Semitism with the establishment in 1932 of the Federacion de sociedades judias, which functioned on a limited scale for several years. In 1938 the Comite central israelita de Mexico was founded as an umbrella organization for all Jewish institutions and became the only representative body recognized by both the Jewish community and the government.

The economic prosperity that Mexico enjoyed during the war and during the 1950s also raised the economic status of the Jewish community and increased the number of economic areas in which Jews participated. A 1950 survey conducted among the Ashkenazim found 52 professions and branches of economic activity represented. At this time the Jewish population of Mexico was estimated at 27,000, of which 60% of the economically active population engaged in various branches of commerce, 15% in industry, and 8% in the liberal professions. The remaining Jews were laborers and clerks.

In 1970 Mexico’s population was 48,000,000, Jewish population at that time was approximately 45,000.

In 1997 there were 40,700 Jews living in Mexico, most of them (37,500) in Mexico city. 200 Jewish families live in Guadalajara, 200 families in Monterrey, 60 in Tijuana, and 300 Jewish families are scattered in other towns.