Jorge Weill: A Conclusion

Towards the end of the interview, I began asking Jorge about the Jewish community’s future. This excerpt concludes Jorge Weill’s entries in the blog. For more information on his oral history, simply scroll down to begin reading.
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(Do you see any challenges now for the Jewish community here in the coming years?)

I think that the Jewish community is doing a very good job at going through different stages. There was a stage in the ‘80s of survival. And now the Jewish community has grown, it’s become more complex, it’s got to become more organized, and it needs to have much stronger involvement. I have a feeling that probably the biggest challenge that there’s going to be is to maintain that togetherness, that unity in the community. It’s going to require a lot of work, a lot of leadership, and a lot of structure to do it.

(Do you ever worry about the future of the community, the young people?)

I don’t think so. If you look at where we’re coming from, they’re much further ahead. There’s a lot of young people who will certainly know a lot more about Judaism than before, who are deeply involved in the Jewish community activities. I’m not talking so much about the parents of the people who are now the 6- to 18-year-olds, but I’m thinking about the 6- to 18-year-olds. They’re the future of the community, and they’re probably going to be in 10, 15 years involved in the leadership of the community. And they’re going to be very well prepared and committed. So I’m very positive about that. I think that probably one of the biggest challenges this community is going to have is a financial one. Even though it’s grown, probably there’s going to be more demands and it’s going to be more difficult. But you know, when the problem comes up, I’m sure everybody’s going to get together and face it. I think that the community as such is more than just a religious association. It’s really a community, and people have socialized within and it’s given support and identity to its members. That’s very important. I think that people have to have an identity to be successful and satisfied in life.

(That makes me think of one more thing. Did you ever feel like the—you were part of the French contingent. Your parents were French. My family comes from the German side. Did you ever feel like there were differences in the two groups?)

Yes, I felt that there was some difference, because generally speaking, the French socialized mostly with the French Jews and the German Jews associated primarily with the German Jews. You could sense, although it was never vocalized, that there was some difference, but not any discrimination. Each one had their own character. Some were more yekke than others. And obviously the people that we socialized with were primarily the French Jews. But there were enough of them to make a mass, and there were enough German Jews to make a mass. And as a matter of fact, a funny story: when I came back to live in Salvador in 1974, they held this FEDECO, the Central American Jewish Federation, convention here in Salvador. El Salvador truly has an Ashkenaz majority and we had never been exposed to Sephardic culture--keep that in mind.
All of a sudden we’re sitting down and one of the couples from Guatemala mentioned that they were a mixed marriage. And I said, “Mixed marriage? You’re not both Jewish?” “Yes, we’re Jewish.” But one was Ashkenazi and the other one was Sephardi, and I didn’t even know the difference.

Transcript by Sandy Adler, Adler Enterprises LLC.