During the very late 19th century into the 20th, Sephardic and Middle Eastern Jews also began arriving from what is now Syria and the crumbling Ottoman Empire, forming the Maguén David and Monte Sinaí communities.[3] These with those still coming from Eastern Europe were poorer usually shoemakers, furriers, peddlers and tailors, which first lived in cities such as Puebla, Veracruz and Chiapas before migrating to Mexico City.[9] For the Sephardic Jews similar language and culture made it easier for them to adapt.[15] In 1900, the Mexican census counted 134 Jews in the country.[6] From then until 1950, an estimated 7,300 Jewish people immigrated to Mexico from Eastern Europe, 2,640 from Spain or the former Ottoman Empire, and 1,620 from Cuba and the United States.[16] These various Jewish groups formed their own religious congregations and social institutions. Turkish Jews began holding open religious services in 1901 and founded the first Talmud Torah in 1905, as an educational institution for boys. Ashkenazi Jews began holding open services as early as 1904. The first formal Jewish organization in Mexico, the Monte Sinaí community was founded in 1912.
