SCOOP: Dominican Republic adopting IHRA working definition of Jew-hatred

The Dominican Republic said on Monday night that it is adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of Jew-hatred, JNS has learned.

Víctor Bisonó, the country’s foreign minister, made the announcement, which makes it the seventh Latin American state to do so.

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Argentina holds the sole IHRA full member status in Latin America. Six other Latin American countries have previously adopted the IHRA definition: Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Panama and Uruguay.

The Latin American and Caribbean Parliament, a consultative assembly made up of national parliamentarians that represents 23 countries, has also adopted the definition.

The IHRA definition provides guidance for recognizing when criticism crosses the line into Jew-hatred by applying double standards, denying the Jewish people’s right to self-determination or using classic antisemitic tropes.

Estimates vary of the number of Jews living in the Dominican Republic from 100 to 3,000. The country holds a unique place in Jewish history as the first sovereign country that offered to accept mass Jewish immigration prior to and during the Holocaust.

It was the only country in the 1940s that offered asylum to a significant number of Jewish refugees, stating it would accept up to 100,000. The great majority never made it.

The country’s agriculture industry has deep Jewish ties, with kibbutzniks in then British Mandatory Palestine brought on to help the Dominican town of Sosúa. The country’s biggest producer of milk and cheese was founded by Holocaust refugees.

There are only two synagogues in the country—neither with a permanent rabbi. A Jewish cemetery, charity and mikveh still operate there, along with several Jewish organizations.

The Dominican Republic has previously engaged with the Combat Antisemitism Movement and the Israel Allies Foundation to review its potential adoption of the IHRA definition.

JNS sought comment from the Dominican Republic foreign ministry and from both Jewish groups.

A source told JNS that the United States is working closely with the government of Argentina to bring more Latin American countries into the IHRA fold, and that progress is expected to be made public soon.

Globally, 46 national governments have adopted the definition, along with dozens of U.S. states and more than 1,000 global entities. Just last year, 67 entities worldwide adopted the IHRA definition, a 97.1% increase from the 34 adoptions recorded the previous year, according to the Combat Antisemitism Movement.

The source said the Dominican Republic adoption of IHRA is due to the efforts of the Combat Antisemitism Movement, along with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Yehuda Kaploun, a rabbi and the State Department’s special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism.

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