El Salvador

History of Jewish immigration

The first Jewish immigrants are between 1868-1888 from Europe.

Sephardic families came from countries such as Turkey, Egypt, Tunisia and France.

In 1936, immigration continued with refugees from the Second World War.
El Salvador was the only country that issued passports to Jews on that years.

The Jewish Community of El Salvador was established in 1944 and its first synagogue opened in 1950 .

By 2000, the Jewish population in El Salvador was approximately 120 families.

A new community center and synagogue were opened in the last decade.

Nowadays, there is a "smallish" but "proactive" 50 percent of the 70 families that make up the collective Jewish community involved in community activities.

Although there arent Jewish schools, children receive Jewish education from two to fifteen years.
Many young Jews who finish high school in El Salvador choose to study university in Israel.

A little about the country

The Republic of El Salvador is a sovereign state located in Central America, with a population of 6,744,113 inhabitants.

It is the smallest country in Central America and the only Central American country without a coastline on the Caribbean Sea.

Because of its territorial extension of 20,742 km has the highest population density in continental America.

A 12-year civil war, whose human cost reached approximately 75,000 lives, ended on January 16, 1992, when the government and the guerrillas signed the Peace Accords that led to military, social and political reforms.

El Salvador is a democratic republic, representative on the governing presidential system and its capital city is San Salvador.

El Salvador is divided into 14 departments and each is subdivided into municipalities are grouped geographically into three areas, which are Western, Eastern and Central .

El Salvador is located in the tropical climate zone and offers similar thermal conditions throughout the year .

It is one of the few places in the world where tropical dry forests are still found in nature reserves. There are about 25 extinct volcanoes, with huge craters and lava.

The official language is Spanish, but English is spoken in most tourist destinations and in some towns the Nahuatl.

The currency is the Colon and the american dollar.