RIO DE JANEIRO (JTA) — The mayor of Mexico City praised his country’s Sephardi heritage during the opening of the global biennial Erensya summit on Tuesday.

“In Mexico we have history, we have inheritance, we have language that comes from Sephardi history,” Miguel Angel Mancera said. “We are proud to host this congress here and for the first time held outside Europe. It is an honor.”

Sephardi Jews from more than 20 countries gathered in Mexico for the three-day conference, ending Wednesday, to discuss their culture and tradition and the Jewish presence in Mexico in the past and today, and to exchange relevant experiences from the Sephardi world.

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“Mexico receives and supports all the communities in the world,” the mayor added, pointing out that Mexico’s first constitution states that discrimination is prohibited and anti-Semitism is categorized as such. “What moves us must be tolerance.”

The president of the Mexico-Israel Cultural Institute, David Srur, recalled the strong Jewish presence during the period that Mexico was a Spanish colony.

“Long live the culture, the science, our roots and the memory, which will lead us to a world full of optimism and union,” Srur said.

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