Words to Eric Freund on the Occasion of his Bar Mitzvah

Claudio Kahn, Jewish Community President during some of the toughest years in El Salvador, shared some words with Eric about the community, the Freund family, and being Jewish in El Salvador.
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Por Claudio Kahn

Querido Eric:
Mi esposa me dijo que no comprendía como siendo yo tan refunfuñón, me hubieran pedido tus padres dirigirme a ti, en este día, hasta la fecha, el más importante de tu vida.

Gracias, Eric, estoy muy emocionado, es para mí un honor poder participar de esta celebración.

Me pregunto si serán estos tiempos modernos o será que estamos creciendo; pero el tiempo vuela a la velocidad de la luz...He aquí que llegando el día de tu Bar Mitzva, tú representas la cuarta generación de tu familia en El Salvador, lo cual significa una gran responsabilidad para ti, el continuar con las tradiciones y practicar los valores inculcados por tus mayores.

Eric: habrás oído contar muchas veces cómo tu bisabuelo, Max Freund, junto con otros judíos comenzaron a reunirse en su casa para rezar en Shabat y otras fiestas, habiendo sido tu abuelo Ernesto, el primer Bar Mitzva de esa época.

Tu bisabuela, doña Herta Freund fue una señora muy comprometida con todas las actividades de la Comunidad , facilitando su casa, hasta que finalmente se pudo construir la primera Sinagoga en la 23 Avenida cerca del centro de la ciudad.

Ernesto, tu abuelo, se enamoró de una Brasilera que le presentaron, Lea, y juntos formaron el pequeño Clan Freund con cuatro hijos varones, de donde sale tu papá Eduardo. Lea ha sido incansable para fomentar y conservar las tradiciones judaicas. Nosotros con María celebramos el Seder en dos ocasiones junto a tu familia, en su departamento de Miami, cuando por circunstancias de guerra y ante la inseguridad y el peligro, muchas familias de nuestra Comunidad tuvieron que emigrar a otros países.
Ernesto y Lea tenían que poner a estudiar y sacar adelante sus cuatro muchachos, pero ellos siempre estuvieron ligados muy de cerca con nuestra Comunidad.

Traigo a cuenta, aquí, una pequeña anécdota: La antigua Sinagoga se estaba alquilando a la Universidad Evangélica y quedaba en el Templo la Bimá que era una roca sólida de mármol... ¿Qué hacer?

Inmediatamente a consultar con los Freund en Miami y todos angustiados a consultar con el Rabino Granat que se había trasladado a la Comunidad Kol Shearit de Panamá.

Lo que el rabino nos dijo nos quitó un peso de encima:
“Mientras estemos todos juntos rezando, la Bimá tiene un significado pero al no haber nadie de la Comunidad es solamente una piedra”
Estudiando en los Estados Unidos, Eduardo, tu papá, conoció a Sylvia, tu mamá. Ellos se casaron en la Sinagoga Emanuel de Miami Beach. Nosotros estuvimos presentes y viene a mi memoria el recuerdo de ese lindo Templo y el desfile de familia que procedió al de los novios; y vemos a tu bisabuela, la querida Tía Fanny, nuestra querida Tía Fanny, desfilando divertida y sonriente del brazo de William, tu tío.

Siguiendo con la historia y calmándose la situación social en el país, muchas familias regresaron, en cuenta tus padres y abuelos. Y aquí tenemos a tu mamá Sylvia, criando una marimbita de niños, siendo tú el pequeñito.

Es así como hemos conocido a tu abuelo Josué y a tu abuela Reina, quien ha venido de visita muchas veces para estar con sus hijos y nietos en la compañía de tu abuela Riva, una adorable y sonriente señora hablando yidish. La recordamos en pago-pago, la primera casa del lago de tus abuelos, posesionada cuidando a la “tiernita chelita” que era tu hermana Ariella...

Como ves, Eric tienes mucha suerte de tener una familia muy hermosa y numerosa, muchos de ellos primos y tíos se encuentran hoy aquí para acompañarte en la celebración de tu Bar Mitzva; junto a tus padres, abuelos, y tus hermanas, Michelle y Ariella; sin olvidar a tus amigos, tus grandes amigos. Por cierto estamos muy complacidos de tener con nosotros después de muchos años, a tu tío Roberto y a su familia.
Nosotros, hemos estado algunas veces para el Shabat en casa de Ernesto y Lea y hemos podido constatar la unión familiar y la alegría de esas reuniones. A los jóvenes les parece todo natural, pero quiero hacer énfasis en el “Trabajo de Hormiga” de la madre y de la abuela judías ya que hay que comprar lo necesario, preparar los platillos, tender manteles y pulir candelabros para que la cena sea perfecta; y aunque sea un gusto para la abuela tener reunida a toda la familia, hay que saber apreciar ese trabajo que sirve para conservar nuestras tradiciones.

Tenemos nosotros, los hombres y mujeres de esta Comunidad, una gran responsabilidad en la conducción de nuestros hijos para la continuidad del judaísmo que profesamos; todo lo cual habrá de tocarte también a ti, querido Eric, a su debido tiempo.

Me siento muy feliz de tener un alumno para tocar el shofar, sigue adelante Eric y gracias de nuevo por el honor conferido ...
Quiera Adonai, nuestro Dios, bendecirte y conducirte por los caminos del bien y del éxito en todo lo que tú te propongas.

Mi cariño grande para ti.

En nombre de nuestra Comunidad te quiero entregar este recuerdo del día de tu Bar Mitzva.

Nota del Editor: El Sr. Claudio Kahn pronuncio estas palabras el sabado 25 de Noviembre con motivo del Bar Mitzva de Eric Freund. Agradecemos al Sr. Kahn el habernos provisto del texto completo de su discurso.

Salvadoran Embassy moves to Tel Aviv

From the website for the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews.
www.ifcj.org

Salvadoran Jews regret decision to move embassy, but understand
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
By: Larry Luxner

from JTA

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador, Oct. 24 (JTA) — El Salvador's Jews are disappointed that their country has decided to move its embassy in Israel from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv, but say it won't affect their relations with the government or with the country's large Palestinian community.

El Salvador announced the move in late August, only 10 days after Costa Rica did the same thing. Since the early 1980s, the two small, Central American nations had been the only countries that recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

In an interview in San Salvador last week, Foreign Minister Francisco Lainez told JTA that "we thought it was important to be in compliance with U.N. resolutions asking for all countries not to have their embassies in Jerusalem.

"We had actually made the decision before Costa Rica," Lainez said, though he refused to say exactly when that decision was made. "When we announced our decision, we let the Israelis know, and although they would have liked us to stay, we did it with respect to all parties involved."

He added, "We believe that Israel has the right to live within internationally recognized, secure borders... but we didn't want to make the announcement while the war" in Lebanon this summer "was still going on. Our decision had nothing to do with Costa Rica."

Hardly anyone buys that idea.

"It did not happen in a vacuum," said Ricardo Freund, president of the Comunidad Israelita de El Salvador, the country's main Jewish organization. "Everybody knows that the two were related."

Rene Leon, El Salvador's ambassador to the United States, readily concedes that his country closed its Jerusalem mission only after Costa Rica did so. He said it was a "very painful decision" for President Elias Antonio Saca, who despite his Palestinian origins had vowed not to move the embassy out of Jerusalem.

"I think the Israelis understood that it was very difficult for El Salvador to be the only country in the world not in compliance with the U.N., and that we would have been subjected to bashing at the international level," Leon told JTA.

He added that El Salvador's decision was "entirely political," and that "it was not a calculated decision to open up business relations with the Arab world," as some Jews in Central America and the United States have charged.

"Of course I'm not angry with Saca," said Claudio Kahn, a Salvadoran businessman and past president of the Jewish community. "We have about 60,000 Palestinians here, and every time we changed presidents, the government was pressured by local Palestinians to move the embassy."

Kahn reserves his anger for Costa Rican President Oscar Arias Sanchez, whom he calls a "son of a *****" for ending that country's long pro-Israel tradition — a sentiment shared by most of Costa Rica's 4,000 Jews.

"The Arabs financed his campaign in Costa Rica, and the first thing he said he would do was move the embassy to Tel Aviv," Kahn said.

He noted that unlike Arias Sanchez — who shocked Jews at home and abroad with his announcement — Saca met for an hour privately with Jonathan Peled, Israel's outgoing ambassador to El Salvador, before announcing his decision.

According to Freund, 120 Jews live in El Salvador, a crowded, impoverished nation of 6.7 million people.

Most of them are Ashkenazim whose grandparents came from Germany or France, and virtually all of them belong to the Comunidad Israelita de El Salvador. Few Jews here keep kosher; the ones who do import kosher meat and other food items from nearby Guatemala.

Pablo Berman was hired in September 2005 to be the community's spiritual leader. The Argentine-born rabbi said he has yet to encounter anti-Semitism in his adopted country

"I've been here for a year, and nobody ever gives me problems," Berman said. "On the contrary, people come up to me and ask me why I wear a kippah and what it means. There's a lot of interest in Judaism."

Berman said Salvadorans seem to have deeper sympathy for Jews and Israel than for the Palestinians — despite the large Palestinian Christian presence and the recent construction of a "Palestine Plaza" in downtown San Salvador, as well as a monument to the late PLO chief Yasser Arafat along the city's Jerusalem Avenue.

"The Salvadoran people are very pro-Israel, especially the evangelicals. You see Jewish symbols all over the street," he said. "The Salvadorans are very friendly and very interested in knowing Jewish traditions. People call every day, asking if we offer classes in Hebrew and Jewish cooking."

Freund, who was married at the Salvadoran Embassy in Jerusalem in 1988, said the Jewish community still maintains excellent relations with both the Saca government and with local Palestinians — despite the embassy flap.

"If anything it will be good for us, because this has been a constant source of irritation and aggravation," said the businessman, who owns a chain of do-it-yourself home improvement stores. "The Palestinian Arab community of El Salvador had been insisting for years that we move the embassy to Tel Aviv. Now that will no longer be the case."

Ironically, those most likely to be inconvenienced by the embassy switch may actually be Palestinians.

"I was always proud, as a Salvadoran and as a Jew, to have our embassy in Jerusalem," Freund said. "But the ones who used our embassy's consular services in Jerusalem were mainly Palestinian Arabs who lived in Bethlehem. They had it easy. Now they're going to have to travel to Tel Aviv. It will be much more difficult for them."

A short hiatus

Dear Readers,
As many of you can see, I have taken a short break from writing. Graduate school has been very demanding and I've found it difficult to produce quality posts with my current workload.

....but the Storylistener is not going anywhere.

Please check back as I plan to post intermittently until my winter break where I envision having more time to dedicate to the project.

In the meantime, take care and keep in touch.