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The Dominican Republic was a haven for Jews fleeing the Nazis. A museum project could tell that story.
SOSUA, Dominican Republic (JTA) — Sitting inside a small wood-frame shul just around the corner from Playa Alicia, where tourists sip rum punch while watching catamarans glide by, Joe Benjamin recounted one of the most uplifting but often forgotten stories of Jewish survival during the Holocaust.
“I was bar mitzvahed right here,” he said, pointing to a podium at the front of the sanctuary in La Sinagoga de Sosua. It was built in the early 1940s to meet the spiritual needs of about 750 German and Austrian Jews.
At the time, the Dominican Republic was the only country in the world that offered asylum to large numbers of Jewish refugees, earning the moniker “tropical Zion.”
Benjamin, 82, is president of the Jewish community of Sosua and one of only four surviving second-generation Jews remaining in this touristy beach town on the northern coast of the Dominican Republic. His parents were part of the unconventional colony of Jewish immigrants who established an agricultural settlement between 1940-47 on an abandoned banana plantation overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.
“When I talk about that, I get goosebumps,” Benjamin said. “This is a distinction that the Dominican Republic has. It was the only country that opened its doors to Jews.”
Joe Benjamin, president of the Jewish Community of Sosua, inside the sanctuary of La Sinagoga. (Dan Fellner)
At the 1938 Evian Conference in France, attended by representatives of 32 countries to address the problem of German and Austrian Jewish refugees wanting to flee Nazi persecution, the Dominican Republic announced it would accept up to 100,000 Jewish refugees. About 5,000 visas were issued but fewer than 1,000 Jews ultimately were able to reach the country, which is located on the same island as Haiti, about 800 miles southeast of Miami.
Benjamin was born in 1941 in Shanghai, the only other place besides the Dominican Republic that accepted large numbers of Jewish refugees during the Holocaust. Shanghai, then a divided city not under the control of a single government, did not require a visa to enter. About 20,000 Jewish refugees immigrated there, including Benjamin’s parents, who fled Nazi Germany in 1939.
In 1947, with a civil war raging in China, Benjamin’s father realized the country “was getting a little difficult” and looked for another place to raise his two children.
“I think my father read it in a newspaper – there was a Jewish refugee colony in the Dominican Republic,” he says. “My father had no idea where that was, but he said, ‘I’m going there.’”
Benjamin’s family took a ship from China to San Francisco, a train to Miami, and then flew into Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic’s capital city. At that time, the city was officially called Ciudad Trujillo after the country’s dictator, Generalissimo Rafael Trujillo, who ruled the Dominican Republic from 1930 until his assassination in 1961.
Photos of some of the 750 Jewish refugees who settled in Sosua in the 1940s on display at the Gregorio Luperon International Airport in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic. (Dan Fellner)
Historians suggest the Dominican dictator’s motives in accepting large numbers of Jewish refugees at a time when so many other countries — including the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom — turned their backs were fueled more by opportunism than altruism. It’s believed that Trujillo wanted to improve his reputation on the world stage following the 1937 massacre of an estimated 20,000 Black Haitians by Dominican troops. Furthermore, Trujillo liked the idea of allowing a crop of mostly educated immigrants who would “whiten” the country’s population.
“He was a cruel dictator,” Benjamin said of Trujillo. “But it’s not for me to judge. Because for us, he saved our lives. If you’re drowning and someone throws you a rope, you hold on to it. You don’t start asking his motive. You just hold on.”
In 1947, Benjamin was among the last group of Jewish refugees to arrive in Sosua, one of about 10 families known by the other colonists as the “Shanghai group.” The Sosua settlement was run by an organization called the Dominican Republic Settlement Association (DORSA) that was funded by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee in New York.
“DORSA would give you 10 cows, a mule, a horse and a cart,” said Benjamin. “My father by profession was a cabinet-maker. He thought he was going to do that here. But there was no market for that. So he dedicated himself to farming.”
Benjamin said conditions in Sosua were “primitive” and a difficult transition for many settlers who had been city-dwellers in Europe. Still, he spoke fondly of a childhood in which he was relatively insulated from the horrors that befell so many other Jewish children his age.
“We had enough to eat,” he says. “We enjoyed the beach. And I went to a Jewish school.”
La Sinagoga de Sosua in the Dominican Republic served the spiritual needs of the Jewish refugees who found a safe haven in Sosua during the Holocaust. It’s now open only for the high holidays. (Dan Fellner)
The school, originally called Escuela Cristobal Colon, opened in 1940 in a barracks and was attended by Jewish children as well as the children of Dominican farm workers. The school still exists and is now called the Colegio Luis Hess, named after Luis Hess, one of the Jewish settlers. Hess taught at the school for 33 years and lived in Sosua until his death in 2010 at the age of 101.
While the children attended school, men worked on farms and women cooked dinner for their families, who ate communal style. Beds were lined with mosquito netting to prevent malaria. As men greatly outnumbered women — Trujillo did not allow single Jewish women to enter the country — intermarriage was common.
Over time, the agriculture venture failed and DORSA instead decided to promote a beef and dairy cooperative, Productos Sosua, which ultimately proved successful.
After finishing high school, Benjamin moved to Pittsburgh to attend college (he’s an engineer who once built and flew his own airplane), got married and started a family. After 17 years in the United States, he decided in 1976 to return to the Dominican Republic, where he became an executive with Productos Sosua. He worked there until he retired in 2004, when the firm was sold to a Mexican company.
“All my life I talked about Sosua as my home,” he said. “I like it here. Everybody knows me.”
A street mural recognizes Sosua’s Jewish history on the main road connecting Sosua with Puerto Plata on the north coast of the Dominican Republic. (Dan Fellner)
Today, Sosua is vastly changed from the sleepy town in which Benjamin was raised. In 1979, an international airport opened in Puerto Plata, just a 15-minute drive to the west. Sosua morphed into a congested tourist destination known for its golden-sand beaches and water sports. It also became a hub of the Dominican sex tourism industry.
Most of Sosua’s Jewish population immigrated to the United States by the early 1980s. Benjamin estimates that only 30-40 Jews remain in Sosua, most of whom are not religiously observant. As a result, the synagogue hasn’t been able to financially sustain a permanent rabbi for more than 20 years. Services are held only on the high holidays, when a rabbi is flown in from Miami.
Benjamin says a group of seven Jews chips in about $2,500 a month to pay for security and other operating expenses.
“It’s very hard to get the Jews here to pay,” he said. “When we bring in the rabbi, we try to charge something. But we don’t get any people if we charge.”
Next to the synagogue is a small museum called the Museo Judio de Sosua, which offers a window into the town’s Jewish roots. Five years ago, the U.S. Embassy in Santo Domingo donated $80,000 to the museum to preserve and digitize its archives. However, the museum, which is badly in need of repairs, has been closed for the past year.
The Museo Judio de Sosua, which tells the story of the Jewish refugees who found a safe haven in the Dominican Republic during the Holocaust. The museum is closed while the community waits for funding to reopen it. (Dan Fellner)
Benjamin has been in discussions with the Dominican government in hopes it will soon finance a major renovation of the museum that would include an exhibition hall big enough to accommodate 100 people for events. Benjamin says he is optimistic the project, which has a price-tag approaching $1 million, will be green-lighted by the government.
“They are very positive about it because it could become a tourist attraction,” he says, noting that Puerto Plata and nearby Amber Cove have become popular port-stops on Caribbean cruises originating in Florida. “If it comes to fruition, it will be in the next year. Because if they don’t do it by then, the government changes. And the next government never continues what the previous government started.”
Otherwise, there are only a few remnants of Jewish life in Sosua for visitors to see. In Parque Mirador overlooking the Atlantic, there is a white cement-block star of David, built to honor the Jewish refugees. About 70 Jews, including Benjamin’s parents, are buried in a Jewish cemetery about a five-minute drive south of the synagogue.
The main street connecting Sosua with Puerto Plata has a street mural depicting the town’s history that features a large star of David right above a scuba-diver. And two of the most prominent streets in Sosua — Dr. Rosen and David Stern — still bear the names of two of the colony’s Jewish founders.
Dr. Rosen Street in downtown Sosua is named after Joseph Rosen, one of the founders of the Dominican Republic Settlement Association. (Dan Fellner)
There had been an exhibition about Sosua’s Jewish colony at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York but it closed several years ago. All the more reason, Benjamin says, that the Sosua museum reopens as soon as possible so that the story of the Jews who found a Caribbean cocoon to ride out the Holocaust isn’t forgotten.
“Look at what’s happening in the world — there is a rise in antisemitism,” he said. “It’s very important that our history is documented. It will also be a place where Dominican schoolchildren can come and learn about Judaism.”
With the museum closed, the only place in the area to see photos of the Jewish settlers on public display is the departure lounge in Puerto Plata’s airport. Next to a Dominican band serenading travelers with meringue music, there is a display of pictures showing the colonists riding horses, tilling the fields, attending school and praying in La Sinagoga.
“When they came here, the Jews found no antisemitism at all in this country,” said Benjamin. “They were as free as anybody. They had a wonderful life.”
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Zohran Mamdani is elected mayor of New York City, in decisive end to race that polarized Jewish voters
Zohran Mamdani has been elected mayor of New York City, delivering a decisive win in a three-way race that divided and in many cases distressed the city’s Jews.
Mamdani received a significant enough majority of votes that major news agencies declared the election less than 40 minutes after polls closed in the city, following the highest turnout in more than half a century.
The results mean that Mamdani, a 34-year-old democratic socialist who ran on a platform of affordability, will get a chance to try to turn his vision into reality as the leader of the United States’ largest city. They also solidify Mamdani as the vanguard of the progressive movement at a time when more Democrats have begun to subscribe to his harshly critical views about Israel.
A sweeping effort by many in the Jewish establishment to halt Mamdani’s march to City Hall fell short. In recent weeks, prominent Jewish voices in the city mounted a sweeping campaign to direct votes to former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who ran as an independent after losing to Mamdani in the Democratic primary. It was not enough: Cuomo came in second in the general election, too, followed in distant third by a Republican, Curtis Sliwa.
Many Jews opposed Mamdani because of his long-held, strong pro-Palestinian views and commitment to the movement to boycott Israel. Polls showed his support among Jewish voters ranging widely but always lower than his overall support among New Yorkers, even as some Jews in the city supported him in spite of or because of his pro-Palestinian views.
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How Mamdani became New York’s next mayor, with Jews divided between fierce opposition and fiery support
Zohran Mamdani, the 34-year-old democratic socialist whose campaign was powered by youthful energy, a surge of new voters, and a promise of unconventional change, completed his yearlong journey with a decisive victory — to be elected the 111th mayor of New York City and the first Muslim to hold the office.
Mamdani’s victory, with just over 50% of the vote, was made possible by a splintered opposition. Former Governor Andrew Cuomo, running as an independent after his bitter primary loss, hoped for a comeback by highlighting Mamdani’s harsh criticism of law enforcement and of Israel, rallying much of the city’s Jewish and older Democratic voters after Mayor Eric Adams withdrew.
But Cuomo’s lingering unpopularity — he resigned as governor in 2021 after numerous women accused him of sexual harassment, allegations he denied — combined with his campaign’s lackluster strategy and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa’s continued presence in the race, helped clear the path for Mamdani to prevail.
Voting turnout surged past two million, with early voting also at a record high.
Cuomo received about 41% of the vote, according to unofficial results, higher than the 36% he got in the June primary.
A campaign that redefined Jewish politics in New York
Democratic nominees for mayor typically win in November — with about two-thirds of New York voters registered as Democrats. But Mamdani was not the typical Democratic frontrunner in the city with the largest Jewish population outside of Israel. An outspoken and unapologetic critic of Israel and defender of Palestinians, Mamdani’s stance on the conflict in Gaza resonated with a majority of voters, according to public opinion polls.
His campaign roiled the Jewish community more than any mayoral contest in recent memory. Rabbis across the country weighed in on Mamdani’s candidacy. More than 850 rabbis and cantors signed a letter opposing Mamdani and the “political normalization” of anti-Zionism. Other prominent rabbis, who refused to issue political endorsements, called out Mamdani’s rhetoric but cautioned against the potential consequences of an increasingly divided Jewish community.
Felice Schachter, an Upper West Side resident who has been involved with the Facebook group Mothers Against College Antisemitism, is planning her possible exit from the city after the votes are counted. “If God forbid, Mamdani wins, I’m leaving here. I’m moving. I don’t think it’s safe for Jews,” she said at the Ziegfeld Ballroom in midtown Manhattan at the watch party for Cuomo.
“I already spent time in Long Beach. I have a real estate broker. I got my pre-approval. I’m ready to go. My real estate broker knows tomorrow, I said, ‘If Mamdani wins, call Wednesday morning. I’m gonna have an offer in by December 1.’”
Mamdani is the first major party nominee to pledge to publicly back the movement to boycott Israel, which some in the pro-Israel community see as an assault on the legitimacy of the Jewish state’s existence. He also said he would not visit Israel, breaking with a tradition upheld by mayors since 1951 to show solidarity with Jewish constituents at home.
Mamdani promised to end the city’s half-century practice of investing millions in Israeli government debt securities and said he would dissolve a council Mayor Eric Adams created in May aimed at strengthening the U.S.-Israel economic ties. Recently, he said he would reassess a partnership between the Roosevelt Island campus of Cornell University and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology because of the Israeli university’s ties to the IDF.
The war in Gaza was also a flashpoint in the campaign, with Mamdani tapping into the anger over the loss of life and the dire humanitarian crisis.
Mamdani attended some of the protests just after the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas and led a hunger strike outside the White House to call for a permanent ceasefire in November 2023. Though he condemned Hamas’ attack as a “horrific war crime,” he defended the campus protests, some of which included offensive displays or antisemitic statements, and he criticized the Adams administration for its crackdown on them.
Mamdani faced the most scrutiny for refusing to outright condemn the slogan “globalize the intifada,” for saying he doesn’t recognize Israel as a Jewish state, and for a newly surfaced 2023 video in which he said that the New York Police Department’s boots are “laced by the IDF.”
He also clashed with the Anti-Defamation League, saying the organization does not speak for New York Jews’ concerns.
Mamdani enjoyed support among progressive and younger Jews who see his criticism of Israel as compatible with Jewish values of justice. He was also boosted by local Jewish elected officials such as Ruth Messinger and embraced by prominent liberal rabbis.
A letter signed by more than 250 rabbis and cantors stated, “we recognize that candidate Zohran Mamdani’s support for Palestinian self-determination stems not from hate, but from his deep moral convictions.” It also defended attacks against his Muslim identity, arguing, “Jewish safety cannot be built on Muslim vulnerability, nor can we combat hate against our community while turning away from hate against our neighbors.”
Mamdani’s extended olive branch and coalition
Despite the backlash and the opposition, the son of Ugandan and Indian immigrants embarked on an unprecedented outreach effort to a broad spectrum of Jewish New Yorkers across the city’s five boroughs, even finding allies in segments of the Hasidic community.
He attended High Holiday services at Kolot Chaiyeinu and the Lab/Shul, he addressed members of Congregation Beth Elohim for a community conversation earlier this month, and visited Hasidic leaders in South Williamsburg during Sukkot. On the second anniversary of Oct. 7, he appeared at an Israelis for Peace vigil alongside hostage families. Mamdani also recently published an open letter in Hasidic Yiddish, outlining his plans to combat antisemitism and advance his affordability agenda, and gave an interview to a popular Yiddish magazine, Der Moment.
In public appearances, he highlighted conversations he had with Jewish New Yorkers, in which he listened to their concerns and expressed solidarity with their struggle amid rising antisemitism.
Mamdani reassured the community that he would increase police protection outside houses of worship and Jewish institutions and invest in hate crime prevention programs. He also vowed to retain police commissioner Jessica Tisch, who is Jewish, and said he would use a city curriculum in public schools that teaches about Jewish Americans, even as it contradicts his own position on Israel. He also assured liberal Zionists that support for Israel would not be a litmus test for serving in his administration.
The road ahead
In his primary victory speech, Mamdani promised, if elected, to govern for every New Yorker, “including Jewish New Yorkers,” and those who didn’t vote for him. He’s expected to echo that sentiment in a victory speech at the Brooklyn Paramount Theater.
Building his administration and governing will test whether the promise of inclusion can overcome the scars of the campaign.
Jewish leaders will be closely monitoring to see how Mamdani reacts to the first antisemitic incident under his watch and whether he will move to implement his boycott and divestment agenda across city agencies.
There are also open questions about whether activists critical of Israel and with troubling pasts will fill senior roles at City Hall, and who will have a seat at the table when critical issues impacting the community are discussed.
Business and law enforcement leaders are bracing for his proposals to redirect police funding toward housing and mental-health programs and are unsure how his budget priorities will impact the economy.
A check on the mayor
Even as he takes office with a clear mandate, Mamdani faces a complex political landscape filled with powerful Democrats who did not endorse him and could act as a check on his more controversial ambitions in a city of 8.5 million with deep Jewish roots and global connections.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, both of whom pointedly stayed neutral in the mayoral race, could be persuaded to speak out if Mamdani’s policies threaten to alienate the city from federal partners or jeopardize cooperation with Israel.
Rep. Dan Goldman, Councilwoman Julie Menin — who is running to become City Council Speaker in January — and former Comptroller Scott Stringer, all of whom withheld their support, could be part of an influential bloc of Jewish voices demanding accountability and moderation from City Hall.
Comptroller-elect Mark Levine, a key ally who campaigned with Mamdani but has publicly vowed to reinvest in Israel Bonds and use his platform to speak out for Israel, could become both a bridge and a brake on the administration. If Levine follows through on his promises and the mayor pursues divestment, a public clash between the two men could be one of the defining political dramas of the new administration.
For President Donald Trump, who endorsed Cuomo at the last minute, and New York Republicans, Mamdani’s win was expected to be a political gift. GOP officials intend to highlight the election as proof that Democrats have lost the center and use it to rally Jewish voters in next year’s gubernatorial race against incumbent Gov. Kathy Hochul. Rep. Elise Stefanik, the chair of the House Republican Leadership, who earned plaudits in the pro-Israel community after confronting the presidents of Harvard, MIT, and the University of Pennsylvania over campus antisemitism, is expected to launch her campaign for governor in the near future.
Hannah Feuer contributed reporting.
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Itay Chen, last remaining American hostage in Gaza, returned to Israel
Israel announced Tuesday it had received the remains of IDF soldier Itay Chen, the youngest and last of six American citizens held hostage in Gaza during the Israel-Hamas war.
Staff Sgt. Chen, 19, was serving in a tank unit Oct. 7 when he was killed at the Nahal Oz military base. Hamas militants then took his body to Gaza, along with Matan Angrest and the remains of Capt. Daniel Perez and Sgt. Tomer Leibovitz. Chen was one of 53 IDF soldiers killed and 10 captured at Nahal Oz that day, and one of two American-Israeli soldiers killed that day.
Angrest was returned in an exchange as part of last month’s ceasefire agreement. The remains of the other American-Israeli soldier, Omer Neutra, were returned to Israel earlier this week.
For months after Oct. 7, Chen’s family held out hope he had been taken alive to Gaza, and his parents, Ruby and Hagit Chen, were among the most outspoken members of the hostage families — and became prominent critics of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as the war dragged on.
Ruby walked out of Netanyahu’s Sept. 2025 speech to the U.N. after the prime minister, listing the hostages by name, only recited the ones still alive.
“Is he subtly admitting that he is no longer focused on bringing everyone home?” Ruby Chen wrote later in a blog post. “Is he saying that each individual hostage is no longer important?”
Itay Chen was born in New York and grew up in Netanya.
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