Thirty minutes from the town I work in is a tourist town called Sosúa. Sosúa has an interesting past in that Jewish refugees founded it in the early 1940's. Rafael Trujillo, the dictator of the time, allowed Jews to come and settle in Sosúa. Originally the plan was to permit 100,000 Jews to enter the Dominican Republic, however that fell through and only 800 Jewish refugees arrived. They came and formed their own self-sufficient Kibbutz-like settlement. Many of the Jews have left; however, they maintain an active Jewish community centered around their beautiful little Synagogue. Although there was once a thriving Jewish community, many Dominican people are still ignorant of the Jewish people and the Holocaust. This became a painful reality for me when I was telling the messenger man at the office that I am Jewish. It is important to note that one of the three goals of Peace Corps is to teach our host country nationals about the United States and Americans. As Peace Corps Volunteers we are essentially acting as little ambassadors. Being a proud Jewish-American, I tell Dominicans about the Jews which helps to erase the stereotype of all Americans as white and Christian. Some Dominicans then have told me that I am not a real American but most others are interested to learn about the Jews. However, when I told the messenger man that I was Jewish, he said I could not be since I am a good and nice person. I continued to probe him about the statement and he said to me that the Jews are "escupidoros" which, after referring to my pocket dictionary, means "spitters" in Spanish. "Spitters, why spitters?," I asked. He told me that the Jews spat in the faces of the Nazis during the war. The messenger man was ignorant of the atrocities committed against the Jews at the hands of Nazis.

Having lived with these people I knew the importance of educating them to the trial and tribulations of the Holocaust and other world genocide. So for Holocaust Remembrance Day I had an event at the Chamber of Commerce. The Israeli Embassy lent me a video in Spanish on the Holocaust and I said some words (read my speech) about the Holocaust as well as about the current events happening in Kosovo. More then fifty people came from all sectors of society (as well as a few of the original Jewish survivors from Sosúa), which showed that the people here are open to learn. After the video, I had some children walk in with candles and we had a minute of silence like they do in Israel. Also, I went on the local TV station to promote the event and I spoke about the Holocaust and Kosovo. The TV station agreed to show three different Holocaust videos that week in remembrence.

That night is one of my fondest memories of my time in the Peace Corps. I feel like I helped to educate and open the peoples eyes to the Holocaust and to make them aware that it still can happen today. As is evident with what happened in Kosovo. We must teach tolerance towards other people. That we are all equal citizens of this world and must learn to live together in peace.

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