Jews have lived in Honduras since the times of the Inquisition. Today the community is concentrated primarily in San Pedro Sula and Tegucigalpa. Other families are found in the port city of La Ceiba.
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There have been Jews in Honduras since Hernando Cortes conquered the Aztecs, accompanied by several Conversos. Later, Jews arrived there to escape the Inquisition.[1]
Due to the power of the Catholic Church in Honduras, few Jews migrated there during the Spanish Colonial Period. In the 1920s, a few German Jews settled in Honduras as a result of invitations from the government. Beginning in the 1940s some Ashkenazic Jews fleeing World War II came to Honduras thanks to the influence of local Jewry.
On 3 August 1997, the community in San Pedro Sula dedicated the Maguen David Synagogue to serve as a community centre for future generations.
With the 2009 Honduran constitutional crisis, the local Jewish community became embroiled in the controversy.[2] Rumors swirled throughout the Honduran media of Jewish and Israeli involvement in the coup d'état.[3] A commentator on Radio Globo, David Romero, suggested on the air that perhaps it would have been better if the Jews had been exterminated in the Holocaust.[4] His comments drew ire from ousted Honduran president Manuel Zelaya, the US Embassy in Tegucigalpa and the Anti-Defamation League.[5]
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