Dominican Republic announces adoption of IHRA working definition of antisemitism
Country becomes seventh Latin American nation to officially embrace the framework with plans for a museum dedicated to Jewish heritage
The President of the Dominican Republic, Luis Abinader, has declared that the country plans to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism, describing antisemitism as “a threat to democratic coexistence”.
The announcement means that the Central American state will become the seventh country in the region to adopt the definition, joining Argentina, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Panama and Uruguay. Argentina remains the only Latin American state with full IHRA membership.
Speaking at the Combat Antisemitism Movement’s sixth-annual Latin American Forum Against Antisemitism in Santo Domingo, Abinader said; “Antisemitism is not a problem that concerns only the Jewish people. It is a threat to democratic coexistence and to the rights and freedoms of us all. This fight must be guided by universal principles, not by temporary political circumstances.”
Addressing representatives from 19 countries, Abinader also announced funding of 50 million pesos (£626,000) towards the establishment of the Jewish Museum of Sosúa on the Dominican Republic’s northern coast. It will be the country’s first institution dedicated to Jewish heritage.
He added that rejecting antisemitism “does not mean taking a position regarding a particular government or conflict” and that the IHRA adoption reaffirms the Dominican Republic’s “commitment to the memory of the Holocaust, to the protection of Jewish communities, and to the eradication of antisemitism in all its forms. It likewise reaffirms its rejection of every manifestation of hatred, religious intolerance, discrimination, and violence against any people or community,”
According to the World Jewish Congress, there are about 100 Jews living in the Dominican Republic, with the majority in Santo Domingo and about 30–40 in Sosúa.
One of the few countries prepared to accept Jewish immigrants before and during the Holocaust, at the Evian Conference on Refugees organised by the Roosevelt Administration in 1938 the Dominican Republic declared its willingness to accept up to 100,000 Jewish refugees – the only nation to make such an offer.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry welcomed the move from Abinader, calling it “an essential tool for identifying and combating antisemitism in all its forms.”