The Jews in Chile

Sinyor Moshe Weinstein, who has recently returned from Chile, a free republic in South America, relates upsetting things about the Jews of this country.

The number of Jews residing in Chile barely reaches three hundred families, who came there from different European countries, some from here, others from there. They are dispersed in various provinces of the republic, and their intellectual condition is very sad. This upsets all those who take to heart the progress of the Jewish nation. All of them have assimilated so much that there is no distinction any more between them and the locals. The number of intermarriages between them and the Christians is growing every day. One can hardly find in them even a smallest sign of Jewishness. Even those who call themselves Jews, those who consider themselves faithful to their religion and their people, even they observe almost nothing of what is required by the Law of Moses. They do not observe Jewish holidays, do not observe Shabbat, do not circumcise their children, do not observe Passover, and do not observe even Yom Kippur. Sinyor Weinstein says that in his view the Jews of Chile have lost both the Jewish consciousness and the religious sentiment, and they are doomed to disappear altogether as Jews one of these days.