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CDIJUM presents history of Mexico’s Jewish community

Mexico's Jewish Documentation and Research Center inaugurated its new headquarters in Mexico City

Several books that were stolen during the Nazi regime are presented at the Nuremberg municipal library on September 10, 2013 - Photo: Daniel Karmann/EFE
18/01/2019 |19:31Mauricio López Arce |
Redacción El Universal
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Mexico’s Jewish Documentation and Research Center (CDIJUM)

has inaugurated its new headquarters. The building will connect the old Rodfe Sedek sinagogue with the new Charles y Alegra El-Mann building , located in the Roma neighborhood .

This venue holds several archives and documents that recount the history of Mexico’s Jewish community.

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During the opening ceremony, Rubén Goldberg Javkin, chairman of the CDIJUM’s board of directors , said that the new headquarters were meant to fulfill a commitment that was made over three years ago.

“We want to generate synergies and unite efforts to focus our historical records in a single space, so that they may become available for all those interested in learning about our culture and history, stated Goldberg Javkin.

All records collected by the CDIJUM, said Goldberg, “give testimony of where we come from and who we are. They are an essential part of our identity as Mexicans and as Jews .”

The chairman of the Mexican Jewish Community’s Central Committee, Romano Jafif , explained the origin of an 80-year-old law initiative presented by deputy Alfredo Félix Díaz before the Congress of Union. It asked for Israeli citizens from countries that were at war with Mexico to be allowed into the country.

He also congratulated the CDIJUM for their work in preserving documents that the Jewish community had accumulated for nearly 107 years .

At the end of the ceremony, Cecilia Félix Díaz , daughter of the deputy Alfredo Félix Díaz, one of the main opposers of fascism and Mexican synarchism, formally handed the historic law initiative to the CDIJUM.

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