Jewish Immigration To Puerto Rico - Jewish Influence in Puerto Rican and Popular Culture

Jewish Influence in Puerto Rican and Popular Culture

The municipality of Yauco has a street with the word "Judio" (Jewish) in it. It is the “Calle Cuesta de los Judios” which in the English language means "Jewish Slope Street"

Puerto Rican Jews have made many contributions to the Puerto Rican way of life. Their contributions can be found, but are not limited to, the fields of education, commerce and entertainment. Among the many successful businesses which they have established are Supermercados Pueblo (Pueblo Supermarkets) founded by George and Harold Toppel, Almacenes Kress (clothing store), founded by Jorge Artime, Doral Bank, Pitusa and Me Salve, founded by Israel Kopel.

They have also made an impact in Puerto Rico's music industry. In 1970, Raphy Leavitt organized a band with an original sound and style that became one of Puerto Rico's greatest salsa orchestras, "La Selecta". He selected the band's repertoire from songs with a particular, positive social message and philosophy, and arranged his new band's sound to be as raw and powerful as the typical all-trombone salsa sound in vogue at the time. This genre was made popular by Willie Colón, but La Selecta featured the addition of trumpets to lighten up the sound melodically. Brenda K. Starr is a salsa singer who in 2002 won two Latin Grammy Awards, one for "Best Salsa Album", for "Temptation" and the other in the category "Best Salsa Single" for "Por Ese Hombre". In 2006, the Billboard Latin Music Awards nominated her for a "Best Salsa Single" award for "Tu Eres".

Puerto Rican literature has also been enriched with the works of Quiara Alegría Hudes who wrote the book for Broadway's musical In the Heights. Her play, Elliot, a Soldier's Fugue, was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2007.; author (history based fiction writer) the Ethiopian Yosef Alfredo Antonio Ben-Jochannan whose two better known works are "Black Man of the Nile" and "His Family and Africa: Mother of Major Western Religions"; author and poet Aurora Levins Morales with her work "Remedios: Stories of Earth and Iron from the History of Puertorriqueñas" and Micol Ostow, author of "Emily Goldberg Learns to Salsa". In July 2003, members and friends of Temple Beth Shalom published "What's Cooking/ Que se Cocina en Puerto Rico", a Spanish/English cookbook which includes Jewish recipes and Jewish holidays.

Some American personages with Puerto Rican and Jewish roots are: Geraldo Rivera, Freddie Prinze, Jr., David Blaine, Bruno Mars, Sally Jessy Raphael, Hila Levy, Brenda K Starr, Ian Gomez, Leslie Kritzer, Julio Kaplan, Joaquin Phoenix, and Jenna Wolfe.

The American television sitcom "Welcome Back, Kotter", which originally aired on the ABC network from September 9, 1975 to June 8, 1979, had a character named Juan Epstein, played by Robert Hegyes. According to script Epstein was a fiercely proud Puerto Rican Jew. In the 2008 film "Nothing Like the Holidays", actor John Leguizamo plays the role of Mauricio Ridriguez, a Puerto Rican whose wife Sarah (played by actress Debra Messing) is of the Jewish faith. In one scene of the film, the family discusses the fact that there are many Jewish Puerto Ricans and that in San Juan there is a large Jewish community.