(PDF) (DOC) (JPG)November 6, 2008

MAHWAH – The experiences of European Jewish refugees who settled in Sosúa, the Dominican Republic between 1940 and 1945 was be the topic of a November 6, 2008 presentation by Dr. Marion Kaplan, Skirball Professor of Modern Jewish History at New York University.

The author of Dominican Haven: The Jewish Refugee Settlement in Sosúa, 1940 – 1945,Kaplan related the settlers’ expectations, adjustments, successes and, ultimately, why most left the Dominican Republic. Her talk on this rare success during the Holocaust and highlighted factors that contributed to the migration to the country: the Dominican government that welcomed the refugees when other governments closed their doors, the American government that agreed to the refugees’ haven in the Dominican Republic and then changed its mind, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee that supported and administered the settlement and the Dominican workers who helped build Sosúa.

Kaplan is the author of The Campaigns of the Jüdischer Frauenbund, 1904­ – 1938 and National Jewish Book Award winners The Making of the Jewish Middle Class: Women, Family and Identity in Imperial Germany and Between Dignity and Despair: Jewish Life in Nazi Germany. She has also served on the advisory committees of the Museum of Jewish Heritage for its permanent exhibit as well as “Sosúa: A Refuge for Jews in the Dominican Republic.”

E-News Archives