Mexico City Jews Not Just Affiliated; they Are Part of a Kehilla

By Heidi Gantwerk

SAN DIEGO — One week ago today, I stood in a plaza in downtown Mexico City with 28 fellow travelers on our Federation mission taking in the view of two of the oldest synagogues in Mexico: Mount Sinai, built in 1918 to serve Jewish immigrants arriving from the Middle East, particularly Syria, and Justo Sierra, founded in 1941 to serve the community of refugees from eastern Europe who made their way to Mexico around WWII.

After spending over 30 years in San Diego and getting to know so many members of our dynamic Mexican Jewish community, I have long wanted to take a trip like this to explore this vibrant, closely knit community with such powerful ties to Jewish identity and Am Yisrael. I wanted to understand what Jewish community means for our brothers and sisters in Mexico City, and what we can learn from the way Jewish identity informs and enriches every aspect of their lives.

We all got that out of this trip and much more, in part thanks to the passion and heart of our remarkable trip chairs, Carlos and Esther Michan, who took their deep knowledge of the community and turned it into a packed, purposeful itinerary filled with some of Mexico City’s most important cultural and historical sites, paired with visits to impactful and highly valued Jewish institutions.

It was also an itinerary filled with fun! The colors, the music, the phenomenal food, art and architecture, the Ballet Folklorico, the Mariachi music and, of course, the tequila made for a trip filled with as much joy as it was filled with thought-provoking content.

I will not soon forget the moment we floated in a hot air balloon over the pyramids at Teotihuacan and the peace I felt – perhaps the most peace I have felt at any moment since the morning of October 7th. And I will never forget our group singing Havdalah on one of the colorful boats floating on the canal at Xochimilco with a borrowed Mariachi guitar and tamarind, cinnamon and cilantro as our besamim, our spices.

Through our visits to (and warm welcomes at) the Magen David Community, the Olami ORT School, Shabbat with the Bet El community, and our time at the astonishing Centro Deportivo Israelita (the Mexico City version of the JCC), I came to understand that Jewish life in Mexico looks very different than it does here.

Preserving ethnic traditions from Damascus, Aleppo, Eastern Europe, Turkey and other former centers of Jewish life around the world is at the heart of these distinct communities. “Affiliation” does not do their model justice; you are not just affiliated with a synagogue or a school in Mexico, you are part of a true kehillah, a community – complete with schools, sports, financial support, social infrastructure, and more; one where your parents and grandparents likely belonged as well.

In Mexico, more than 93% of Jewish children attend Jewish day schools. Nearly half of the community – 18,000 out of 40,000 Jews – are active members of the Centro Deportivo, the central institution that brings Sephardic and Ashkenazi, Damascus and Aleppo, old and young, traditionally observant, modern orthodox and Masorti together under one roof. (Well, actually, on a 20-acre campus with multiple roofs.)

In an overwhelmingly Catholic country, Mexico City’s Jews have created powerful, supportive institutions and close community ties. It is no wonder members of our Mexican Jewish community have been instrumental in founding some of San Diego’s most active and engaged Jewish institutions here, including the Ken Jewish Community and San Diego Jewish Academy, among others. Here at Federation, our thoughts are turning to ways we can learn from and partner with Mexico City, since our communities already have so many deep ties to one another.

At Shabbat services last Friday at Bet El in the Polanco neighborhood, our group was able to sing along to many familiar prayers, and we could follow along in the siddur, even if we didn’t speak a word of Spanish. We may not have understood the sermon, but we knew when to sit and to stand, we chanted the Kaddish as one community, and we understood that although San Diego and Mexico City may be physically separated by hundreds of miles, we share centuries-old ties that make us all part of one global community – of Am Yisrael.

That Havdalah on the boat may have been a first for the Mariachis, and for Xochimilco, but it was a moment, like many others on this trip, that did so much to tie us all together. There is nothing like traveling together to form a bond with others.

The shared experiences we had in Mexico on our planned itinerary alongside those that were completely unplanned (what happens in Mexico…) will always be something special and impactful that only those of us traveling together can really understand. The journey created special relationships that will extend far beyond the week we shared on our bus.

I can’t wait for our next opportunity to travel to Mexico City, or to Cuba on our Women’s Mission this May, back to Israel, or any other place on earth where Jews have built a home. I hope you will join us!

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Heidi Gantwerk is president and CEO of the Jewish