Haiti Jewish community, Is it for real?

One place that has been trying to keep the spirit of a Jewish community in Haiti was Gilbert Bigio's mansion. This Jewish community center is located in Port-au-Prince and it was where Haiti's only Torah scroll was kept, an Israeli flag fluttered from the rooftop and each Passover the country's 50 or so Jews would gather for a Seder, singing or practice their Jewish religion in Haiti.

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Like many buildings around port au Prince, the center was destroyed in the Jan. 12 earthquake that leveled much of this city. There are no evidence that any of the members of the Jewish community living in Haiti were known to have been killed in the Haiti earthquake. According to report, since Haiti earthquake, there are only about 15 or so Jews left in Haiti, out of a total population of 9 million. And they spend most of their time in Miami or the neighboring Dominican Republic because conditions at home are so difficult.

There are no Israeli products, no Israeli names, nothing in Haiti attributed to Jewish. Israel was one of the earliest countries to dispatch a relief and rescue team to Haiti, and they set up a sophisticated field hospital after the quake that was widely hailed as the best place to get medical care in Port-au-Prince in the days after the earthquake.

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Read more: Earthquake, 2010 Haiti earthquake, Culture, Gilbert Bigio, Jewish, Jew, People, Culture

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