Celebrating 1,700 years of Jewish life in Germany

Bringing Germany's Jewish heritage closer to people can be daunting, as proven by the commemorative festival that began in 2021. Festival head Andrei Kovacs shares his impressions.


Hoisting the festival flag in Bonn

DW: The commemorative year celebrating "1,700 years of Jewish life in Germany" is coming to an end – although festivities will be extended to summer 2022 because of COVID. It has been a turbulent year with the conflict in the Middle East, attacks on synagogues, increasing antisemitism and the pandemic. Were you able to celebrate at all?

We have been facing challenges ever since we began planning for the commemorative year in the summer of 2019. We named the commemorative year as such because we wanted to celebrate the existence of Jewish life in Germany despite increasing antisemitism nowadays, and also because of the changing history and the Shoah. This resilience needs to be celebrated together with our project partners.



STORYTELLING ITEMS BEHIND 1,700 YEARS OF GERMAN-JEWISH HISTORY
An antique oil lamp
One of the oldest items of the exhibition "Shared History" is this oil lamp from the 4th century decorated with a depiction of a menorah A menorah is a lampstand for seven lamps and one of the most important symbols of Judaism. This oil lamp was found in the western German city of Trier, but the motive suggests it was produced elsewhere, probably in Carthage, an ancient city in Northern Africa.
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Around 1,000 sponsored and independent project partners participated all over Germany. Until today, over 2,200 events have been organized. New networks and alliances have been built, as can be seen, for example, in the over 40 independent thematic sites on the 1,700 years of Jewish life in Germany, which we have included on our website.

They show that the German states, media groups and institutions are participating with their own formats in this festive year. 30 cities from 13 states participated, including 23 Jewish communities. I see that as a success, because we managed to celebrate despite the many hurdles that were presented to us.

What were your highlights?

Among the many landmark events, one of the high points for me was when a senior member of a Jewish community said that for the first time in 76 years, her community had the courage to exhibit Jewish life in public, and that too, together with new, non-Jewish partners. That was a first, albeit small step. I think that needs to be established more sustainably.

Kovacs, heads the association '321-2021: 1,700 years of Jewish life in Germany'

What also fascinated me was the interest shown by the foreign press, people from other European countries, and globally. The Foreign Ministry was also involved. More than 20 events were held in diplomatic missions of Germany around the world as part of the festival.

It was overwhelming and to me, it shows how important this work is — not only for us to strengthen the Jewish community here in Germany and to give it a future, but also outside the country. Many descendants of Jewish families, who were victims of the Shoah and who live around the world, want to know how Germany deals with Jewish life today, a country, where 76 years ago, the most brutal crime in human history took place.

Festivals like the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles, the Sukkot, were celebrated in a grand manner. For the first time, non-Jewish people could participate. What did people think of these invitations?

During Sukkot, guests should also be invited into the huts. Unfortunately, most Jewish festivities take place with police presence because of security reasons and it is difficult when external guests want to participate.

That probably also has to do with the fact that these celebrations traditionally take place in private areas.

That is true. One of the beautiful results was to see that many young people, especially young Jewish people, for whom it is a matter of course to belong to a modern society, were able to show this with self-confidence. And this also includes appearing self-confident to the outside world. Many Jewish communities were ready to create new networks and cooperated with non-Jewish institutions and cities.

Hopefully, it has shown that such concepts have a future and that we can motivate many to celebrate together on a larger scale. To develop an understanding, to get to know each other, for a common future. The hope is to enable a certain empathetic access to Jewish life. Not just theoretically, but to actually meet, to experience beautiful moments together, to build bridges - for empathy and respect.

Could you also involve schools where the Holocaust is the only point of reference to the issue?

We have made inroads into involving schools by cooperating with UNESCO project schools and organizing cultural events in educational sectors, which regularly take place under the umbrella of the association. Here, we always speak about Jewish life today.

Thankfully, we have two teachers working part-time, sent to us by the state of North Rhine-Westphalia to deal with the subject on behalf of the association. Of course, we are trying to change something, but we know that it is not easy. Each state and the schools themselves determine what is covered in depth in school curricula. But we have made good inroads.

For example, together with partners, we produced a 3D film, which was released some weeks ago. Through the film, we try to make 1,700 years of Jewish life in Germany comprehensible for pupils. The idea was to develop and offer modern formats for use in the classroom. The film is short and incisive, and it shows not only the history but also the present status of Jewish life in Germany.

You wanted to celebrate the year as publicly as possible. Was that successful or did you need a lot of police presence during the events?


A LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS: REMEMBERING GERMANY'S DESTROYED SYNAGOGUES
Shalom Aleichem: A wish for peace in 2021
Inaugurating the synagogue in 1900, then Dortmund Mayor Karl Wilhelm Schmieding called what is now known as the Old Synagogue a "jewel for the city, built to last for centuries." At the time, it was one of the largest in Germany. But his statement would be proven wrong. In 1938, the Nazis forced the Jewish community to sell it and began demolishing it on November 9, when the pogroms began.
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Unfortunately, the reality is such that due to security reasons, no event on Jewish life can take place without police presence. Even this is part of Jewish life in Germany. Despite that, many guests come to our events. The commemorative year has been extended to July 2022. Naturally, we hope that it stays that way and that we are not harassed or threatened by any incidents.

Just recently, the actual occasion of this jubilee year was celebrated. On December 11, 321, Constantine the Great passed a decree that allowed Jews to be part of city councils. The celebratory association commemorated the 1,700 years of this historical document with an equal number of flags hoisted all over Germany. Who participated in this flag-display initiative?

We all wanted to display flags against antisemitism and for Jewish life in public, without hiding and for all to see. It is not enough to speak about antisemitism in closed rooms. Every human being must stand up against antisemitic and racist prejudices.

Under the initiative, we hoisted over 1,700 flags with many people and institutions all over Germany, against antisemitism and for Jewish life. We are thankful for the wide participation and have wonderful pictures of proud people showing and standing together against antisemitism.

Do you sometimes feel uncomfortable when you see how the AfD blatantly presents itself as antisemitic in Germany?

Yes, naturally, I observe that personally with some worry. But antisemitism is not restricted to one party. Empirical studies show one in four Germans have antisemitic ideas. We are trying to counteract that. German Jews are a post-migrant group. Probably, over 95% of Jewish people in Germany are themselves migrants or have migrant parents and grandparents. German Jews from before the Shoah are non-existent. Only someone who stands for a pluralistic society can fight for Jewish life in Germany.

2,200 events took place in the celebratory year and that sounds like a success story. What needs to be done so that it stays that way?

For one, we have a future-oriented culture of remembrance, which we will continue to need. It is important for everyone to learn from the past and to ensure that such a human tragedy does not repeat itself. But here a paradigm shift in the remembrance and commemoration culture is required, because the generation, which could talk first-hand about that crime against humanity, will soon cease to exist.

Young, Jewish, German, and on the move

The Shoah will be part of history. We need to ensure that we do not forget and distance ourselves. That is why a future-oriented remembrance and commemorative culture is very important.

On the other hand, it is important that one continues to convey a realistic picture of Jews living in Germany, naturally, free of prejudice and stereotypical thinking, but also free of glorified ideas that people very often have about Jewish life.

In my opinion, this is the only way to ensure that we can live together in an uninhibited atmosphere. I hope that we were able to contribute something to this with the year of celebration. My children don't want to be associated only with the Holocaust and not only with history, but they live in the now, today, and want to deal with their own future in Germany.

Musician and entrepreneur Andrei Kovacs comes from a Hungarian-Jewish family. His grandparents survived the ghetto in Budapest and the concentration camp at Bergen-Belsen. The 46-year-old heads the association, "321-2021: 1,700 years of Jewish life in Germany."

The interview was translated from German.

Why are attacks on Christians increasing in India?

A surge in attacks on Christians in India is part of a much broader malaise, experts say. "The objective is clear: to isolate and demonize minorities so that a Hindu state is established," a political scientist told DW.


Like many minorities in India, Christians are subjected to increasing levels of violence


India is witnessing a sharp rise in attacks on Christian gatherings, churches and educational institutions, especially in states governed by the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The attacks on Christians, who make up about 2% of India's more than 1.3 billion people, are part of a broader shift in which minorities have been made further unsafe.

In the run-up to Christmas the incidents spiraled, with critics accusing the authorities of turning a blind eye to them.

A pattern in attacks

In Agra, the city of the Taj Mahal, members of right-wing Hindu groups burned effigies of Santa Claus outside missionary-led schools and accused Christian missionaries of using Christmas celebrations to bait people.

Protesters entered a Presbyterian church on Christmas night in Assam and disrupted proceedings, demanding that all Hindus leave the building. On Christmas Eve, a celebration at a school in Haryana's Pataudi town was disrupted by members of a right-wing Hindu vigilante group who stormed into a school shouting pro-Hindu slogans.

Earlier this month, a Catholic school in central Madhya Pradesh state was vandalized by a mob of about 500 Hindu extremists, despite school authorities' requesting police protection prior to the attack. The mob was armed with iron rods and stones, and chanted "Jai Shri Ram" (Hail to Lord Ram) while damaging school property.

All the attacks have a seemingly disturbing pattern coinciding with renewed attention on a long-standing claim from right-wing Hindu groups that a string of forced conversions is taking place. This claim has been vehemently denied and there have yet to be any incidents investigated by the police.

A report released by the joint initiative of the United Christians Forum, Association for Protection of Civil Rights and United Against Hate revealed that at least 305 incidents of violence against Christians took place within the first nine months of 2021. This includes at least 32 incidents in southern Karnataka state.

"These attacks have a discernible pattern, and the attempt is to polarize the atmosphere as well as put minorities in their place," Father Pius Malekandathil, a historian, told DW. "Hate crimes like targeting visible targets like churches and educational institutions are a way to seek attention and put the scare in the community."

Political scientist Zoya Hasan told DW that the subjugation of minorities, especially Muslims, in recent years is part of a growing atmosphere of religious intolerance.

"The objective is clear. This plan would translate to isolating and demonizing minorities so that the Hindu order is consolidated and a Hindu state is established," Hasan said. "It is well thought of and purposeful."

Since the BJP came to power in 2014, attacks on Christians have been on the rise. According to a report by Persecution Relief, a non-profit that monitors violence against Christians, crimes against the community increased by 60% from 2016 to 2019.

In some states, Christian churches have been vandalized. In others, pastors have been beaten and abused. Congregations have been broken up by mobs and believers hospitalized with injuries.
Anti-conversion laws

At least nine Indian states have planned anti-conversion laws. Karnataka recently passed the Protection of Right to Freedom of Religion Bill that has several stringent provisions including 10-year imprisonment for conversion by "fraud or inducement."

In India's most-populous state, Uttar Pradesh, which is heading for crucial elections in a couple of months, religious conversions are prohibited and marriages are nullified if they are carried out with the sole purpose of religious conversion.

Such an act carries a prison term of up to 10 years and a maximum fine of 50,000 Indian rupees (€585/$643).

In October, two Franciscan nuns waiting at a bus stop in Uttar Pradesh were stopped by Hindu groups and forcibly taken to a police station. The nuns were picked up along with a group of evangelical Christians, who had been accused of conversion for holding a routine Sunday prayer meeting.

Political agenda

Father James Panavelil, an assistant vicar of St. George Church, told DW that he believes the attacks are not random and that there is a clear political agenda to divide the people on the basis of religion, using conversion as a decoy for a far more sinister ploy.

"Assembly elections are around the corner," Panavelil said. "We are seeing the political class moving on their dream of making India a Hindu nation. Where would the Christians and Muslims be then?"

The normalization of the violence has been troubling for Christians, who are increasingly feeling the burn of Hindu nationalism.

"No religious followers or their buildings should be attacked or ransacked by any religious fundamentalists. If followers deviate from their faith to other tracks like forcible conversion, it should be challenged in the court," Sister Jesme told DW.

Jesme, who quit the Catholic Church over a decade ago after weighing in on nuns' exploitation in Kerala, said many "fundamentalists were being given a free run."

Priests are exploiting the vulnerable, Hindu leader says

Hindu extremists allege that Christian pastors and activists are luring and converting people through coercion, specifically targeting the tribal communities and poor, lower-caste Hindu families by offering cash payments, free medical assistance and trips abroad, funded by foreign donors.

"Christian priests visit interior villages and areas in Gujarat and convert tribal Hindus. Those who got recently converted are relatives of those who were earlier converted to Christianity," said Piyush Shah, a Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader.

In 2008, the country witnessed its worst violence against Christians in the Kandhamal region of eastern Odisha by Hindu hard-liners. More than 600 villages were ransacked, 5,600 houses were looted and burnt, and 54,000 people were left homeless, according to the National People's Tribunal.

At least 39 Christians were killed and 232 churches destroyed, though human rights groups quote higher numbers.

The recent attacks are occurring despite a clause in the country's constitution that guarantees the freedom to openly practice any religion.

Edited by: John Silk

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Experience “Hecho en Puerto Rico: Four Generations of Puerto Rican Puppetry” at the Ballard Museum

By MELANIE SAVAGE
HARTFORD COURANT |
NOV 29, 2021

Hecho en Puerto Rico: Four Generations of Puerto Rican Puppetry is co-sponsored by the UConn Puerto Rican and Latin American Cultural Center (PRLACC) and El Instituto: Institute of Latina/o, Caribbean, and Latin American Studies.

MANSFIELD — According to UConn representatives, the Hecho en Puerto Rico: Four Generations of Puerto Rican Puppetry exhibition at the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry is historic in that it is the first exhibition in the U.S. to present an inclusive overview of Puerto Rican Puppetry.

The exhibit covers four generations of puppetry and is curated by Dr. Manuel Morán and Deborah Hunt.

The grand opening of the exhibit was held on Nov. 18, and took place as a virtual tour led by Morán and Hunt. The exhibit will be on display through May 8, 2022 at the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry. This exhibit is co-sponsored by the UConn Puerto Rican and Latin American Cultural Center (PRLACC) and El Instituto: Institute of Latina/o, Caribbean, and Latin American Studies.


“Hecho en Puerto Rico invites the spectator to discover over 50 years of puppet productivity, by four distinct generations of builders and performers in and from Puerto Rico,” reads a press release for the exhibit.


Oberon, from Teatro SEA’s Sueño (2018), will be featured in the Ballard Institute’s new exhibition, Hecho en Puerto Rico: Four Generations of Puerto Rican Puppetry.


Although puppetry first appeared on the island of Puerto Rico in the 19th century, this exhibit is divided into four periods of creation from the 1960s to current times, “demonstrating a shift in focus from purely educational content, to culturally and politically relevant themes, to a focus on adult audiences, and now into the current generation of emerging puppeteers,” reads the release.

Despite economic and political turmoil and natural disasters, Puerto Rican puppetry continues to evolve and grow, and puppetry in Puerto Rico continues to thrive.

The exhibition highlights the work of such puppeteers and companies as Agua, Sol y Sereno; Brenda Plumey; Daniel y sus Muñecos; Deborah Hunt; Edward Cardenales; El Mundo de los Muñecos; José López; Luis Villafañe; Mario Donate; Mary Anne Hopgood; Papel Machete; Poncili Creación; Pura Belpré; Santin y sus Muñecos; Teatro SEA and Manuel Morán; Tere Marichal; Vueltabajo Teatro; and Y No Había Luz.

Hunt has lived and worked as a mask maker, mask and object theatre performance artist since 1973, creating and presenting original theatre works, performances and festivals or encounters in the South Pacific, the Caribbean, Europe, and Asia.

Born and raised in Aotearoa, New Zealand, she has been based in Borikén/Puerto Rico since 1990, where she founded Maskhunt Motions, a nomadic laboratory for experimental object theatre work. Hunt teaches mask work and puppetry in communities worldwide, in a practice exploring puppetry in public and private spaces.

Her work ranges in scale from the miniature to creating giant puppets that transform into peepshows. She has created encounters and festivals to promote puppetry for adult audiences and published mask and puppetry manuals in Spanish and English. She is interested in performing in unconventional places and to very intimate audiences. Hunt characterizes her work as “theatre of the useless.”


Deborah Hunt has lived and worked as a mask maker, mask and object theatre performance artist since 1973.

Morán was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and studied at the University of Puerto Rico and New York University, where he earned a doctorate degree in Educational Theater. He is the founder, CEO and artistic director of Society of the Educational Arts, Inc. (SEA).

A writer, director, and producer for theater, television, and film, he is also an actor, singer, and composer, and created the International Puppet Fringe Festival of NYC in 2018. He is a former vice president (2012-21) of UNIMA (Union Internationale de la Marionnette). His three-part documentary film, Títeres en el Caribe Hispano/Puppetry in the Caribbean, premiered at the Havana Film Festival in Cuba in 2016 and has been screened in festivals around the world.

Morán’s theater and literary work has been published in Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the United States, including his books Migrant Theater for Children: A Caribbean in New York (2016), and Mantequilla/Butter; Adventures and Tribulations of a Puerto Rican Boy (2017). He is currently starring in the web series “El Avión The Airplane” (www.elaviontheairplane.com), and is the proud dad of Manuel Gabriel, with whom he lives in New York City and San Juan, Puerto Rico.


Dr. Manuel Morán is the founder, CEO, and artistic director of Society of the Educational Arts, Inc. (SEA). (George Riveron)

For more information and to learn about other Ballard Institute online programming, visit bimp.uconn.edu or email bimp@uconn.edu. The Ballard Institute & Museum of Puppetry is located at 1 Royce Circle, Suite 101B, in Storrs. Find the museum on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok.

Melanie Savage started as a freelancer with the ReminderNews in 2007, and became a staff reporter shortly thereafter. Melanie holds an M.A. in English from UConn, and also works as a public housing administrator. Melanie enjoys getting to meet some of the more interesting and inspirational people within the communities she serves.

AMID A GLOBAL BANANA CRISIS, PUERTO RICO’S ABUNDANT BIODIVERSITY OFFERS A TASTE OF HOPE


A report by Alicia Kennedy for The Washington Post.

Bananas grow so well in Puerto Rico that people are constantly giving them away. My neighbors in Old San Juan will go out to the country for the weekend and start knocking on your door come Monday, asking if you would like a bunch. Saying yes can be dangerous, I’ve learned, because you could find yourself with 10 pounds of guineos niños, also known as ladyfingers. That’s more than enough for four loaves of banana bread and a daily burst of potassium in the morning’s oatmeal. It’s more bananas than anyone really needs. But the bananas keep coming.

More than 90 distinct kinds of banana have been grown and catalogued by the USDA Tropical Agriculture Research Station in Mayagüez, not including plantains or ornamental varieties. That means that locally, “banana” or “guineo” needs a modifier, because it doesn’t only refer to the popular Cavendish variety that is well known in the United States (of which many subvarieties also exist). Here, that’s guineo flaco, or skinny banana. It’s the one that I and most folks in the United States grew up eating, though, and so moving to San Juan has been a mind-altering experience where this fruit is concerned. While I had known that there were bananas of varying colors, textures and flavors, they had all been locked away from me in the tropics, only to be admired from afar. Now, I am almost overwhelmed by their abundance.

But bananas, like every foodstuff that grows in the Global South and becomes a beloved commodity in the Global North, have a rather sordid history. Scientists and other researchers have agreed they originated in South Asia and made their way west, eventually landing in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean, of which Puerto Rico is part, from the Canary Islands in 1516. It wasn’t until the late 1800s that they became an everyday good for consumers in the United States and Europe. Heavy-handed U.S. companies bought up land in Central America and the Caribbean, where workers were paid little and the fruit companies used their power to sway local governments (which would come to be pejoratively referred to as “banana republics”). Colombian workers for the United Fruit Company, now Chiquita, went on strike in 1928 and were gunned down by the Colombian army, at the behest of U.S. business interests in the region.

Conditions for banana workers generally have not gotten much better. According to the Food Empowerment Project, “buying conventional bananas contributes to both environmental and human rights abuses” even in 2021. Their ubiquity and popularity are to blame: Bananas are sold cheaply because workers are paid poorly at the origin, and often pesticides are used that degrade both their health and the health of the local environment.

Because we are eating, in most cases, only one kind of banana — the Cavendish — the lack of biodiversity makes the plant very susceptible to disease. Headlines have said for decades that we might soon see the end of the Cavendish, just as the Gros Michel fell out of high-volume production because of Panama Disease in the early 1900s. At the USDA’s Tropical Agricultural Research Service in Mayaguëz, which opened in 1901, they study potentially more resilient types of banana, given that they grow so well there. Their hope is to find a variety that is resistant to disease, specifically the fungus Tropical Race 4, but considering how easy it is to wipe out a whole crop when only one variety is grown, the answer seems to be biodiversity and becoming accustomed to “banana” not meaning just one flavor and color.

Agroecological farmers encourage biodiversity for this reason. Not only is it more interesting to eat a few different kinds of this fruit, it’s more healthy for the soil and keeps disease at bay.

At Finca el Paraíso in Arecibo, farmers Jaime Jordán and Nina Craig grow six varieties of banana. The ones they bring to the weekly farmers market in Old San Juan are the guineo flaco, guineo manzano and guineo morado. They work their land alone, with help from a neighbor just two days a week. Craig came to Puerto Rico two decades ago as an environmental biologist studying the habitat of a local parrot, while Jordán grew up in nearby Utuado in an agricultural family and studied agronomy (he’s also an artist). Their expertise is complementary, leading to a bounty at the weekly market. Even though neighbors drop off bunches of bananas for me regularly, I always buy from Finca el Paraíso’s selection, because they taste like nothing I’d ever had before. Visiting the farm helped me understand why.



Every part of the farm, where they also grow various greens, plantains, ají dulce peppers, ornamental and edible flowers, and more, is tended to by hand: the maintenance and the digging. Craig tells me most of the banana plants were there when they bought the farm in 2010, and they don’t require much work because of a supply of groundwater. Jordán tends to the dead leaves with a machete, and that keeps them going; the trees are competitive when it comes to space, so they can’t be overcrowded.

“After Hurricane Maria, they all tried to grow back at once,” Craig tells me. It took years for them all to grow and fruit in the same way (Craig, Jordán and their son also spent 10 months living in their garage while their house was rebuilt from the destruction). They’ve planted “dwarf” Cavendish plants, because the shorter and stockier trees stand up better to extreme weather, while tall trees are easily knocked down. Having the diverse varieties together has made their crop less susceptible to disease; bananas, she says, need less care than plantains.

Their most popular variety by far are the guineo manzano, which are small like the guineos niños and yellow like a Cavendish. I fell in love with them when, in the midst of a pandemic fall, I realized how much I missed the taste of an apple and didn’t want to go to the supermarket for a commodity variety that had spent weeks on a boat. When Craig told me these taste like apples, with a somewhat firm texture and tart flavor, I had found my perfect satisfaction for a faraway craving. Though they’re unmistakably a banana, their essence is quite different.

Lately, I’ve been eating more of the red guineo morado, a squat, fat banana with red skin that is ripe when it turns pink and spotted. That can take many days from their harvest. In my hot, humid kitchen, plantains turn yellow within a day, but the morados sometimes aren’t ready for five days. When they do ripen, their texture is creamy and rich; while the flesh is yellow on the outside, inside it is orange like the yolk of a farm-fresh egg, and there is more subtlety of flavor than with a Cavendish.

Bananas are so abundant here, I’ve even considered using the peels as a meat substitute, as there are numerous recipes where it can stand in for pulled pork, bacon and in curries.

But in Puerto Rico, where they grow so well as a plant of the “wet tropics,” it’s the flesh that is used in many traditional dishes. Green, unripe bananas are grated and become the basis of pasteles and fried alcapurrias, forming a dough with other starchy viandas, or root vegetables. Another dish, guineos en escabeche, is where the unripe banana is essentially pickled in a ceviche-like preparation. It’s even possible to make tostones de guineo, the twice-fried snack, and bolitas, a dumpling for soup — both of these are usually made with the starchier green plantain.



The food writer César Pérez Medero tells me, “One of the first things I ever used to cook for myself as a kid was Lipton soup from the packet with a few leaves of recao [an herb] thrown in and a side of boiled guineo with olive oil and salt.”

But many bananas still go to waste, especially those that are sold in supermarkets. To try to make something of the glut of fruit, Rodrigo Lloveras and Elizaveta Stakhanova have started the Lizkas Initiative, in which they partner with supermarkets to take the bananas that would go in the trash so they can make vegan muffins for retail and wholesale. In addition to recovering that waste, they also use bananas from their farm in Ciales, where not only guineos niños and manzano are grown, but even the once-lost Gros Michel.

“On a weekly basis, it’s about 35 to 45 pounds of bananas” that they’re recovering from supermarkets, says Stakhanova. “And I think the most important part is that we use every single bit of the banana. Everything that we don’t use, we compost; at supermarkets, they just put it into a landfill. So we give it a full cycle of life and make it sustainable,” she says.

As the United States continues to eat the Cavendish and worry about its demise, in Puerto Rico, robust crops of different varieties are being sold by small farmers, used in the cuisine, and turned into vegan muffins and compost. Though this is a colony where 85 percent of food is imported, a culture of agriculture and farming wisdom remains, represented in the bounty of bananas and the generosity contained in each bunch.

Congress Can't Discriminate Against Puerto Rico Residents Just Because They Live There

The Supreme Court can and should ensure all residents of U.S. territories can access the same benefits and rights they’re entitled to.

Adriel I. Cepeda Derieux ,

 Senior Staff Attorney, 

Voting Rights Project, 

American Civil Liberties Union
November 9, 2021


In 2012, José Vaello-Madero, a U.S. citizen born in Puerto Rico but living in New York, applied for and received Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits because severe health problems left him unable to support himself. A year later, he moved to Puerto Rico to rejoin his family and care for his ailing wife. He continued to receive SSI benefits, unaware that federal law excludes Puerto Rico residents from the program, simply because they live in a U.S. territory rather than a state. In 2016, the federal government sued Vaello-Madero to collect over $28,000 it claimed it “overpaid.” On Tuesday, the Supreme Court will hear his case in United States v Vaello-Madero, a case that could help put an end to unconstitutional discrimination against residents of Puerto Rico and other U.S. territories.

SSI is a nationally-applicable program that provides benefits and support for seniors and people with disabilities with limited means. Eligibility should be solely based on one’s disability and financial means, but as Vaello-Madero learned, it also is dependent on where one lives. The law extends benefits to residents of all 50 states, and to residents of the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. territory. But it denies assistance to the elderly and people with disabilities who happen to live in Puerto Rico or any other U.S. territory—even though most of them are U.S. citizens and all are entitled to equal protection under the Constitution.

In denying Puerto Rico residents access to SSI benefits, Congress continues a troubling and discriminatory pattern of affording residents of U.S. territories—overwhelmingly, people of color—second-class status. Congress, for example, also disfavors residents of the territories access to Medicaid and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) funding. Residents of U.S. territories are also often on the losing end of receiving emergency funding like the federal Coronavirus Relief (CARES) law or funds to rebuild after a devastating hurricane like the one that hit Puerto Rico in 2017.

In the Supreme Court, Vaello-Madero argues that denying him benefits simply because he now lives in Puerto Rico rather than New York is unconstitutional discrimination. His needs are exactly the same, whether he lives in Brooklyn or San Juan. And as a U.S. citizen, he is entitled to equal protection of the laws. However, the United States argues that the only way for Mr. Vaello-Madero and other residents of the territories to remedy this discrimination “is action by Congress.” But that reasoning ignores the fact that residents of the territories have virtually no real representation. In the Senate, they have no representation at all. In the House, residents of the territories have only a single non-voting delegate. People like Mr. Vaello-Madero cannot “resort to the polls” “for protection against abuses by [the] legislature.” Living in a territory the United States has held in limbo for over a century, representation in Congress remains closed to them by constitutional design.

Despite this systemic second-class treatment, residents of Puerto Rico, like those of Guam, American Samoa and the U.S. Virgin Islands, are entitled to equal protection of the laws of the United States.

This piece was originally published in The Hill on 11/8/21. The full piece can be found here.

Op-Ed: US vs. Puerto Rico banks, who wins?

Contributor December 28, 2021
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Both US & Puerto Rico banks' management have successfully navigated through one of the worst economic exogenous shock periods in several generations. (Credit: Blackboard373 | Dreamstime.com)

The Oracle of Ohama Warren Buffet cleverly stated some words that will live forever “Despite some severe interruptions, our country’s economic progress has been breathtaking. Our unwavering conclusion: “Never bet against America.” This statement was part of Berkshire Hathaway’s annual report letter written by Mr. Buffet that has become a yearly event. 

With the mantra “Never bet against America,” we decided to embark on an analytical review of the Top US and Puerto Rico public bank holding companies.

We begin our analysis by examining the top seven US bank holding companies, part of the Birling Capital US Bank Index, which is a market value-weighted index composed of the top seven ank holding companies headquartered and/or with their principal place of business in the United States. All companies trade on NYSE, AMEX, or NASDAQ national stock markets.

This report examines how each bank holding companies’ stock has fared during 2021 from Jan. 1, 2021 to Dec. 24, 2021 and compared to the Dow Jones, S&P 500, Nasdaq and how they have managed against the Birling Capital US Bank Stock Index.

 The returns of these four indices have been as follows:

1. Dow Jones Industrial Average 17.46%
2. S&P 500 25.82%
3. Nasdaq Composite 21.45%
4. Birling Capital U.S. Bank Index 38.12%

The Birling US Bank Index has a return of 38.12% year to date 2021, and when pegged against the other indexes, it beats them all. Let see how each of the constituents companies in the index has performed individually and against the major indexes. 

1. Wells Fargo & Co (WFC), Achieved a total return of 60.24%that beats the Dow, S&P, Nasdaq & Birling US Bank Index handsomely. The stock price on Dec. 24, 2021 was $48.36, increasing $18.18 since Jan. 1, 2021.
2. Bank of America Corporation (BAC), Achieved a total return of 46.55% that beats the Dow, S&P, Nasdaq & Birling US Bank Index handsomely. The stock price on Dec. 24, 2021 was $44.42, increasing $14.11 since Jan. 1, 2021
3. Goldman Sachs Group (GS), Achieved a total return of 46.01% that beats the Dow, S&P, Nasdaq & Birling US Bank Index handsomely. The stock price on Dec. 24, 2021 was $385.04, increasing $121.33 since Jan. 1, 2021.
4. Morgan Stanley (MS), Achieved a total return of 44.96% that that beats the Dow, S&P, Nasdaq & Birling US Bank Index handsomely. The stock price on Dec. 24, 2021 was $99.34, increasing $30.81 since Jan. 1, 2021
5. JP Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM), Achieved a total return of 23.76% that lags both the Birling U.S.Bank Index and the S&P 500 but beats the Dow Jones and Nasdaq. Dow Jones Industrial Average. The stock price on Dec. 24, 2021 was $157.26, increasing $30.19 since Jan. 1, 2021
6. U.S. Bancorp. (USB), Achieved a total return of 20.86% that underperformed the Birling U.S. Bank Index, S&P, Nasdaq and beat the Dow Jones. The stock price on Dec. 24, 2021 was $56.31, increasing $9.72 since Jan. 1, 2021
7. Citigroup Inc. (C), Achieved a total return of -2.35%% that underperformed the Birling U.S. Bank Index, Dow Jones, S&P, and Nasdaq. The stock price on Dec. 24, 2021 was $60.21, decreasing $1.45 since Jan. 1, 2021.

As a Group, the Birling Capital US Bank Stock Index companies have a total market capitalization of $1.5 trillion, a $253.2 billion rise during 2021. 

Had any investor invested $10,000 on Jan. 1, 2021, these would have been the results:

Company	Total Value	Total Gain/Loss
1. Wells Fargo & Co	$ 16,024	$6,024
2. Bank of America	$14,655	$4,655
3. Goldman Sachs	$14,601	$4,601
4. Morgan Stanley	$14,496	$4,496
5. JPMorgan Chase	$12,376	$2,376
6. U.S. Bancorp.	$12,086	$2,086
7. Citigroup Inc.	$9,765	($235)

These are pretty outstanding results; however, the story takes quite a different turn than the Birling Puerto Rico Bank Index. 

The Birling Capital Puerto Rico Bank Index began 2021 much more robust than anyone anticipated. The three bank holding companies that make up the index have risen to lofty levels as most are viewed as in a much better position as we put the pandemic behind them. 

We review each of the banks in that light, analyzing their performance from Jan. 1, 2021 to Dec. 24, 2021.

Birling Capital Puerto Rico Stock Index has a return of 46.83%, which, when compared to the other indexes it beat them all. The Dow Jones has 17.46%, S&P 500 25.82%, Nasdaq Composite 21.45%, and Birling Capital US Bank Index 38.12%

Author Francisco Rodríguez-Castro is president of Birling Capital.

The 46.83% year-to-date return translates into 166.49% more than the Dow Jones, 81.37% more than the S&P 500, 118.59% more than the Nasdaq, and 22.85% more than the Birling U.S. Bank Index.

Now let’s take a look at each stock and its returns.

1. Firstbank Corp.(FBP), Achieved a total return of 47.40%that beats the Dow, S&P, Nasdaq & Birling US Bank Index and Birling P.R. Stock Index handsomely. The Stock price on Dec. 24, 2021 was $13.59, increasing $4.37 since Jan. 1, 2021.
2. Popular, Inc. (BPOP), Achieved a total return of 43.22%that beats the Dow, S&P, Nasdaq & Birling US Bank Index and lags the Birling P.R. Stock Index. The Stock price on Dec. 24, 2021 was $80.66, increasing $24.34 since Jan. 1, 2021.
3. OFG Bancorp. (OFG), Achieved a total return of 41.42%that beats the Dow, S&P, Nasdaq & Birling US Bank Index and lags the Birling P.R. Stock Index. The Stock price on Dec. 24, 2021 was $26.22, increasing $7.68 since Jan. 1, 2021.

The Birling Capital Puerto Rico Bank Index companies have a total market capitalization of $10.6 billion, a $2.9 billion increase during 2021. 

Had any investor invested $10,000 on January 1, 2021, these would have been the results:

Company	Total Value	Total Gain/Loss
Firstbank	$14,740	$4,740
Popular Inc.	$14,322	$4,322
Oriental	$14,141	$4,142

We must remind ourselves that the Birling Capital Puerto Rico Stock index had the worst close on Mar. 23, 2020, with a return of -53.80%, so seeing it returning 46.83% is an extraordinary turnaround story. 

Our review demonstrated how both US & Puerto Rico banks’ management have successfully navigated through one of the worst economic exogenous shock periods in several generations. It has had a sustained and spectacular recovery.