mzungu jews aff de caribbean

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da tredd title inspired pirates aff de caribbean cah sum aff dem port royal pirates were mzungu jews. lang thyme mii use fii tease witchee bout jews ann jamaicans unique relationship butt mii decided fii enlarge de disscussion to de caribbean

big argument ear cah dear iss sum dissagreement inn da caribbean iff mzungu ar reall jews ann iff wii shood cawl dem isrealites

let us use diss tredd fii xxamine mzungu jews roles ann influences inn da caribbean

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Re: mzungu jews aff de caribbean

WHEN Lisa Hock's son Corey was about to turn 13 and she began looking for an alternative to the routine and occasional excess of banquet-hall bar mitzvahs in Toronto, her hometown, she hardly imagined that he would end up reciting the blessings while shuffling through sand on a Caribbean island.

But Corey wasn't on the beach; his bar mitzvah took place at the United Netherlands Portuguese Congregation Mikvé Israel-Emanuel in Willemstad, Curaçao, the island north of Venezuela that is an autonomous part of the Netherlands and home to the oldest continuously operating synagogue in the Western Hemisphere. There, the blanket of soft white sand that coats the floor commemorates the clandestine means by which forcefully Christianized Jews in Inquisition-era Spain and Portugal continued to conduct Jewish prayers.

In choosing Curaçao, Ms. Hock joined a growing number of North American Jewish tourists flocking to some Caribbean islands partly for their Jewish histories and the vibrant Jewish communities active there today. The increasing fashion for destination "life-cycle events" like weddings and bnai mitzvah (which refers to both boys and girls) has encouraged the trend. As niche-market operators have refined on-the-go accommodation of religious requirements, the Caribbean has also become a popular destination for kosher holiday tours, particularly for Passover.

"We weren't interested in a traditional service, and then the luncheon, the big party," Ms. Hock, a lawyer, said. "We wanted to expose Corey to a different part of the world because we thought it would have more meaning that way, but we weren't comfortable going to Israel. It was so beautiful, we were in tears - the sand on the floor, the open windows with the sun beaming in. We just wouldn't have felt the same way in Toronto, where our congregation is one of the largest in the city. It was so intimate there. Corey will never forget it."

Julie Borish's daughter Isabel celebrated her bat mitzvah at the Curaçao synagogue last March. "I'm not that observant, but the walls speak to you," Ms. Borish said. "I mean, my daughter used a Torah that is one of the three oldest in the world, from 1320. Isabel didn't even want a bat mitzvah, but after 45 bar and bat mitzvahs in New York, from Tavern on the Green to the Pierre, she decided hers was the best."

The maize-colored synagogue, which was consecrated in 1732 and is modeled after the Portuguese Synagogue in Amsterdam, stands behind a wall. Inside, a tiled courtyard leads to a soaring room with azure stained-glass windows and a mahogany ark.

"It's a shrine, in the Jewish sense," Rabbi Gerald Zelermyer, the American-born spiritual leader of the congregation since 2002, said. (There is a smaller Orthodox synagogue, Shaarei Tsedek, on the island as well, attended mainly by Ashkenazi Jews, who descend from Jewish communities in Central and Eastern Europe.) Rabbi Zelermyer estimates that tourists, most of whom are American, outnumber community regulars two to one during Friday night services during the tourist season. He believes that the persistence of Jewish life on a remote island that helped introduce Jewry to the Western Hemisphere summons unique feelings of spirituality among Jewish visitors, however unobservant.

"When the cruise ship people come to the synagogue, I see them mouthing prayers to themselves, assuming a very worshipful posture," Rabbi Zelermyer said. "I was eavesdropping on this one conversation where a woman said, 'I'd like to come to Friday night services here,' and her son said, 'Why, you don't even belong to a synagogue in the U.S.' And she just looked at him and said, 'This is different.' "

Bernice Kaufman, a Houston retiree, has visited the Curaçao synagogue. "There are members of the congregation who trace their roots to the 1700's," she said. "I'm of Ashkenazi descent. My history in America begins in the 1920's, when my mother came from the shtetl to the United States. The experience of Jews in the Caribbean has been so different."

Subjected to forced conversion and the Inquisition in Spain and Portugal, Sephardic Jews sought refuge among the relatively tolerant Dutch and on their even more liberal island outpost in the Caribbean, which Holland seized from Spain in 1634. Jews settled on Curaçao in 1651, three years before the first Jews reached America. They dominated the island's shipping and trade, and by the 18th century formed more than half of Curaçao's white population.

The community grew so wealthy that its contributions sustained fledgling Jewish communities in Colonial America. To this day, Yom Kippur services at Shearith Israel, a Sephardic synagogue on Manhattan's Upper West Side, and the oldest congregation in the United States, features a special prayer of gratitude to the Curaçao community.

"It's a powerful lesson, which I try to give to every kid who celebrates a bar or bat mitzvah here," said Rabbi Arthur Starr, a transplant from New Hampshire who is the leader of the Congregation of Blessing and Peace and Loving Deeds in Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, which in 1996 celebrated its 200th anniversary.

The St. Thomas community also originated with fleeing Sephardim, and the synagogue likewise features a sand floor to symbolize its covert preservation of the Jewish faith back home. "They risked their lives to keep Judaism alive so you could have it, I tell them. When putting a statue of the Madonna by the front door of their house, they'd hollow out the bottom of the foot to put a mezuza there, so that when they kissed the Virgin Mary, they were really kissing the mezuza."

Rabbi Starr performed twice as many bnai mitzvah in 2004 as the year before, and at least 60 weddings since his arrival in the summer of 2002, most among the crystal chandeliers, mahogany pews and brass candelabra of the synagogue, whose fixtures mainly date to its last reconstruction, in 1833.

"I've done more weddings here in two and a half years than in 31 years in New Hampshire," he said. He is already receiving calls for life-cycle events in 2008.

On Curaçao, the tourism authorities have noticed the trend, and have been promoting the destination within the American Jewish community. Though there are no figures on the travel of American Jews to the Caribbean, Joel Grossman, the director of the Curaçao Tourist Board's United States branch, estimated that nearly 15 percent of American tourists to Curaçao were Jewish, and that their numbers had kept pace with a general rise in American travel to the island, which had increased by about 20 percent since 2002, to some 45,000 visitors a year. Gigi Scheper, who directs a Jewish heritage tour through Willemstad for a company called Taber Tours, said the number of participants had more than doubled in 2004.

"Probably 20 percent of the informational calls we get are American Jewish tourists looking to find out about Jewish aspects of a trip to Curaçao," Mr. Grossman said. The office has been working with such theme-travel operators as Kosher Expeditions, based in Atlanta, which will inaugurate a Curaçao trip in August, though the scarcity of kosher food on the island means the company has to take along a chef and a mashgiach, the religious figure who certifies kosher food.

Though some operators of kosher holiday tours tend to choose Caribbean destinations because of the warm weather, the Jewish heritage of some of the islands enhances the religious experience.

"You're in a place where you don't expect to find Jewish history," said Stanley Bernstein, a New York lawyer who has taken Passover trips to Aruba eight times with Presidential Kosher Holidays, which schedules a tour of Jewish sites on the island, as well as a day trip to Curaçao. "It allows you to connect."

Heightened Jewish interest in the islands, however, can be a little overwhelming. For instance, until several years ago, the Curaçao Jewish community, wary of trivializing its birthright, resisted requests for use of the synagogue by those outside the congregation. Even now, it requires that certain aspects of life-cycle ceremonies reflect Sephardic practice. At weddings, a glass must be pitched by the bridegroom into a large silver tray rather than crushed underfoot, which is the typical Ashkenazi Jewish practice; bnai mitzvah must chant the Torah in a tone and rhythm particular to Sephardic Jews.

"It's always been our congregation; we're not renting out the space," René Maduro, a past president of the congregation and the descendant of one of Curaçao's early Jewish families, said. "If you want to do it, you have to do it according to our customs."

On St. Thomas, Rabbi Starr is similarly stringent. He does not officiate at interfaith weddings and will not perform a life-cycle ceremony unless the celebrant belongs to a synagogue back home.

Steve Gottlieb, a mortgage loan officer in Smithtown, on Long Island, whose son, Jeremy, was bar mitzvahed on Curaçao, said his son was obliged to produce monthly progress reports on his Hebrew recitation, adding that the degree of devotion only made the experience more meaningful. As for the ceremony, Mr. Gottlieb said, "It was so overwhelming. It felt like you were walking through time."

And Jeremy's reaction?

"He wants to get married there," Mr. Gottlieb said.


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Re: mzungu jews aff de caribbean

When the Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492, many fled over the border to Portugal. But in 1497 the Portuguese government banished Jews from that country as well. Many of the Jews fled to other more hospitable European countries, such as Holland, but some sailed to Brazil to start over in this Portuguese territory.<span style="font-weight: bold"> They set up trade routes between Portugal and its
colony, started farming, and became wealthy plantation owners. With the Inquisition still in effect, they were forbidden to practice Judaism but set up secret societies so they could continue their faith. Back in Portugal, authorities were separating the children of remaining Jews from their parents and sending them to Brazil to be raised as Catholics. The crypto-Jews already in Brazil used their secret groups to teach these children about their true heritage thereby sustaining the Jewish faith in Brazil. During the time the Jews were creating their large plantations in Brazil, they provided their most lasting benefit to the Caribbean economy. Sugar cane was imported from Madeira in Portugal, and it became the basic foundation of the entire Caribbean economy until the 18th century. Sugar cane could be easily grown in the hot climates of South America and the Caribbean, then converted to sugar to be shipped to Europe.</span>

History of the Jews of the Caribbean

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Re: mzungu jews aff de jamaica

The Jews In Jamaica


1978: A group of Jews at worship in the Jewish Synagogue on Duke Street, Kingston. At the altar, Mr. Ernest deSouza, acting spiritual leader of Jewsih community in Jamaica, conducts the service.

























1984: Ainsley Henriques (right) conducts Solomon deSouza to install him in his seat as President at the annual induction of warden and directors of the Jewish community








THE ARRIVAL
The Spanish Inquisition was introduced in 1480. At its height during the reign of the devout catholic King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, it was implemented as a result of their desire to make Spain one nation, united under one religion. All non-catholics (mainly Jews and Moors) were therefore termed heretics. They were also known as Marranos, (the Spanish term for 'swine') as well as Moslem 'converts' known as moriscos. The identity of their accusers were rarely revealed to them, and once arrested, the accused were not allowed legal counsel, subjected to unimaginable physical and emotional torture to gain confessions, and their properties were seized and administered first by the Crown and later by the General Inquisitor.

By the late 1490s, however, King Manuel I of Portugal decided that Jews must be Christianized. They gathered in groups to leave for locations such as Amsterdam, Hamburg, London, and the lands of the &quot;New World&quot; where they could practise their religion of choice more openly.

Jamaica, where Columbus landed in 1494, was one such location. Jews of Portugese-Spanish ancestry first landed on the island some 40 years later in 1530. They made their homes in Spanish Town, then known as St. Jago de la Vega the only operating town on the island at the time. After many years, groups of Jews approached their Spanish governor and requested permission to settle on the island. Permission was duly granted.

JEWISH JAMAICA SPANISH TOWN
For the Jamaican Jews, practise of their religion and recognition of their identity remained a struggle under Spanish rule. Yet, genealogical records show Jews as having managed to live into their eighties and nineties. Jamaica's revered historian Edward Long described the Jews in 17th century Spanish Town thus:

&quot;The Jews here are remarkably healthy and long-lived....I think they owe their good health and longevity, as well as their fertility, to a very sparing use of strong liquors, their early rising, their indulgence on garlic and fish, Mosaic Laws, sugar, chocolate and fast&quot; (as quoted in Arbell, 2000, p. 29).

In addition to a Jewish market and a good number of Jewish shops, the Neveh Shalom Synagogue was established on Spanish Town's Monk Street in 1704. This place of worship largely serviced Jews of Sephardic (Spanish-Portugese) descent and so another synagogue was built in 1796 on Young Street to serve Jews of Ashkenazi (English and German) descent. The two Spanish Town congregations united in 1844. Many families had begun to relocate to Kingston as that town grew in economic and political importance. Today, the site of the Sephardic Synagogue and its adjacent cemetery replete with gravestones featuring names such as Henriques, De Souza, de Pass, Melhado and Nunes, lie largely in ruins, but the Neveh Shalom Institute, a foundation that exists to preserve Jewish Remains in Colonial Jamaica, has plans for its restoration. Archival work is already under way.

In 1655, following the English Conquest, Amsterdam Rabbi Ben Israel visited Lord Protector Cromwell and requested permission for Jews to settle in England (which Cromwell welcomed in the hope that the Jews would bring capital and mercantile knowledge). This implied permission in English colonies, which led to another influx of Jewish settlers to Jamaica from places like Amsterdam. All Jewish settlers had to be naturalized as British citizens and as such they were entitled to own property a right denied to Jews in Medieval Europe.





JEWISH JAMAICA PORT ROYAL
The Jews, many of whom were merchants and money changers, not planters, flourished in Port Royal. Trade between commercial centres inhabited by Jews such as Amsterdam, the Dutch colonies of Curacao, St. Eustatius and Saba, the Danish St. Thomas, Genoa, Venice, North America, London, Turkey and India was brisk. The ability of Jamaican Jews to speak Spanish also propelled their success in trade with Spanish America. Goods traded included pepper, cocoa, vanilla, pimento, cocoa and sugar. By the 19th century, some Jewish merchant families moved into shipbuilding and construction. (Arbell, 2000, pp. 48-49).

Jamaican Jews were limited by law to ownership of two slaves only, unless they owned plantations, and few did. In addition, they were charged with only using Jewish indentured servants although this restriction was loosely imposed and therefore largely ignored (Arbell, 2000, p. 50). It should be noted, however, that the Jews, having introduced sugar cultivation technology to Brazil in the 1520s, are largely credited with doing the same in Jamaica circa 1530.

Sadly, there is little documentation of Jewish life in Port Royal, but earthquake survivor Edmund Heath's account of the infamous 1692 event, notes the existence of a Jew's street and synagogue which records locate on New Street running parallel to Cannon Street. The Jewish legacy in Port Royal also includes a cemetery at Hunt's Bay (Arbell, 2000, p. 20). During the 17th century it was not unusual to see Jewish families carrying their loved ones by boat across the harbour to be buried (www.jnht.com/kingston/jew_cem/html).

Most Jews who survived the 1692 disaster left Port Royal and joined their brethren in Spanish Town, Kingston, Montego Bay and other locations islandwide. In general, Jews tended to favour major towns, but in Jamaica they spread out all over the island. Ruins of Jewish cemeteries in places as far from Kingston as Savanna-la-Mar, Clarendon and Port Maria testify to this fact.

By 1700, although recognized as second-class citizens as a result of their religion, the Jews, generally prosperous merchants, are noted as having borne the weight of the majority of the island's taxes. It was not until the 1740s after the hearing of numerous petitions, that King George II lifted undue taxation on the community. Less than a century later, Jamaican Jews were given the right to vote and they quickly began to acquire local political power. By 1849 eight of the 47 members were Jewish and that year the Assembly decided not to meet on Yom Kippur. It was the first modern political body to do so (Miami Herald, 1999).

JEWS IN JAMAICA KINGSTON
With the decline of Spanish Town as the seat of government and business, the Jews turned their attention to Kingston towards the middle of the 18th century. The first synagogue is said to have been built in 1744 (Arbell, 2000, p. 29), and perished in the Great Kingston Fire of 1882. Another, an Ashkenazi Synagogue, appeared in 1787.

It too, was subsequently lost in the great Kingston fire of 1882 and replaced in 1887. During the mid-end of the 19th century, groups of Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews came together to found the United Congregation of Israelites and they built their own synagogue on Duke Street. In 1907, however, all synagogues and many other buildings were destroyed by the Great Kingston Earthquake. The Sharei Shalom Synagogue, the United Congregation Synagogue, was rebuilt on Duke Street in concrete instead of brick by Henriques Brothers in 1912. A dramatic sight, standing serenely in white, it is still in use today. Its floor, like that of only a few others in the Western Hemisphere, is made from sand to commemorate the idea that Jews were forced to practise their religion in secret the sand muffles the sound of footsteps and leaves no trace of footprints. Other interesting symbols include the Ark of the Covenant and the two perpetual lights that burn on either side to commemorate the 1921 union between the two different Jamaican congregations, Ashkenazi and Sephardic.

Today, unlike in the past, where services and practice were largely Orthodox, the service is best described as Liberal-Conservatist, parts are read in English although some hymns are sung in Hebrew. &quot;Bendigamos,&quot; however, is sung in Spanish. Part of a worldwide Sephardic tradition after meals, in Jamaica the hymn is traditionally on the night of Sukkoth, the holiday that marks the expulsion of the Jews from Spain.

As 2005 approaches the Jewish community is preparing to celebrate 350 years of free religious practice in Jamaica. Today the numbers have dwindled to close to 200
practising Jews. However, that number would be much larger if it were a measure simply of religious bloodlines, as many Jamaicans are descendants of Jews although they do not officially practice Judaism.

Sources: Arbell, M. (2000). The Portugese Jews of Jamaica. Kingston: UWI Press. Curtin, M. (2003). &quot;Historic Kingston churches Some places of worship in the old city of Kingston,&quot; in A tapestry of Jamaica The best of Skywritings. Kingston: Creative Communications, Ltd and Oxford: Macmillan Publishers. pp. 93-96. Depass-Scott, R. Spanish and Portugese Jews of Jamaica mid 16th mid 17th century. In Jamaica Journal, 43, p. 91-100. Miami Herald. (1999, September 10). &quot;Jamaica - A dwindling Jewish community celebrates Rosh Hashana.&quot; www.jnht.com/kingston/jew_ cem.html, www.sephardim.org/jamgen/BenZviBook.html, www.bibletopics.com/biblestudy/64.htm

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Re: mzungu jews aff de jamaica

Well-known Jamaican Jews:
* Poet Daniel Lopez Laguna, 1635-1730, a survivor of the Inquisition who converted biblical Psalms into poems. A book of these poems, &quot;Espejo Fiel de Vidas,&quot; The True Mirror of Life, was published in 1720 and holds the distinction of being the first book to be published in Jamaica under British rule.

* 19th century painter Isaac Mendes Belisario, whose famed &quot;Belisario&quot; prints of Jamaican characters are cultural icons, now featured on a series of Jamaican stamps.

* Newspapermen Jacob and Joshua de Cordova, who founded the &quot;Gleaner&quot; in 1833. Jacob went on to found the city of Waco, Texas.

* Ward Theatre architect <span style="font-weight: bold">Rudolph Henriques, a noted artist whose firm Henriques and Sons </span>was awarded the
commission in a competition. The majestic landmark was built in 1912.

* Jorge Ricardo Isaacs, 1837-1895, author of Maria, considered the &quot;national novel&quot; of Columbia.

* Sir Neville Noel Ashenheim, a member of a family known as legal luminaries, served as Jamaica's first ambassador to Washington, 1960s.

* Richard Stern, the Hon. Ernest Altamont da Costa and Councillor Senator Hon. Eli Matalon, served as Mayors of Kingston in 1896-97, 1925-27 and 1971-73 respectively.

* <span style="font-weight: bold">The Matalon family, known as one of Jamaica's longstanding captains of industry and supporter of the arts.</span>

* The first Jews to settle in North America as a group are said to have landed in New Amsterdam (now New York) in 1654 after having sailed from the northern Brazilian town of Recife via Jamaica. In Jamaica still a Spanish island they were kept under house arrest. They managed to escape and reach New Amsterdam where then Governor Peter Stuyvesant wanted them out. As a result of letters from Jews in Barbados and Holland, they were allowed to stay and they founded the Shearith Israel congregation, one of New York's first. It is slated to celebrate its 350th anniversary in 2004.


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[Q3210]

Re: mzungu jews aff de jamaica

They travelled mightily risking persecution every step of the way.

Why are Jews so feared?

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Re: mzungu jews aff de jamaica

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><span style="font-weight: bold">Was Christopher Columbus Jewish? A new book by Edward Kritzler reveals the famed explorer's role in protecting persecuted Jews in the New World</span></div></div>






Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean
How a Generation of Swashbuckling Jews Carved Out an Empire in the New World in Their Quest for Treasure, Religious Freedom - and Revenge
By Edward Kritzler


The title of Edward Kritzler's period history seems to imply something surprising about those who follow the Jewish faith finding employment as seafaring pirates - more surprising, apparently, than Catholics or Lutherans.

Despite the stereotypes of Jews as merchants and intellectuals, plenty of them have swashbuckled their way through life. After all, Jews have been persecuted for no logical reason in society after society for thousands of years. Naturally, some of them would become aggressive in return.


The major attraction of Kritzler's fast-paced history is not the fact of Jewish pirates, but rather the saga of their persecution, especially in Spain, that led to their pirate ways, including liaisons with Christopher Columbus.

Set mostly in the late 1400s, the 1500s and the 1600s, the book conveys numerous tidbits perhaps unknown to non-Jews and Jews alike. Kritzler's intellectual odyssey that resulted in the book also began in unknowing. It was 1967, and he had moved from New York to Jamaica. While studying the island's history at the national library, he noticed an entry in a British pirate's journal from 1642. William Jackson wrote that he found the capital city deserted except for &quot;divers Portuguese of the Hebrew nation who came unto us seeking asylum, and promised to show us where the Spaniards hid their gold.&quot;

Kritzler knew that early explorers of the New World hailed from Spain and Portugal, but he had assumed they were &quot;all devout Catholics carrying the cross.&quot; So, he asked himself, &quot;what were Portuguese Jews doing on a Spanish island, seeking asylum with an English pirate?&quot;

Digging further, Kritzler learned that before the British empire conquered Jamaica in 1655, the island had been owned by descendants of Columbus and that those descendants &quot;provided a haven for Jews otherwise outlawed in the New World.&quot; Some of the Jamaican Jews whom Kritzler met during his research labored to persuade him that Columbus himself had been Jewish. So much of this history had been hidden, Kritzler determined, because Jews sailing with Columbus and others hid their religious identity in order to escape the persecution of Europe during the Inquisition.

Rulers far away from Europe - in South America, North America and the Caribbean islands in between - did not want Jews around either. But many of them set aside their religious prejudices as long as the closeted Jews proved useful, setting up trade across the ocean using commodities such as sugar, coffee, tea, grains, plus metals such as gold and silver. After the trade networks became established, however, the rulers sometimes turned on the Jews. As Kritzler notes, &quot;In Mexico and Peru, where Jewish merchants controlled the silver trade, Holy Inquisitors were called in to purify the bottom line: Jewish leaders were burned, their wealth was confiscated, and Christians took over the fabulously rich silver trade.&quot;

Desperately seeking refuge, Jews in Holland, mostly in Amsterdam, found a tolerant society, led by rulers who considered Spain and Portugal enemies. The Dutch did nothing to discourage Amsterdam Jews from journeying to the West Indies to become buccaneers in battle against the nations that had become persecutors.

Having set the stage with historical context, Kritzler shares various sagas of individual Jews who took to the sea as pirates, or masterminded the pirate operations from land. The narrative comes across as disconnected at times, but the material is so rich that the book is never boring.

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Re: mzungu jews aff de jamaica

Many of the episodes in Kritzler's compelling book will be truly startling to the non-specialist reader. When the original Spanish settlement in Jamaica turned out to be a dismal failure, for example, a decision was made to repopulate the island with Jewish conversos: &quot;Jamaica for the Jews,&quot; as Kritzler puts it, &quot;or the colony goes under.&quot; What's more, the success of the settlement was essential to the task of ridding the sea lanes of pirates who preyed on Spanish treasure ships: &quot;If it meant dealing with converted Jews to ensure their safety and prevent the strategic colony from becoming a pirate base, so be it.&quot;

But Jews were to be found among the pirates too. Kritzler introduces us to more than one Jewish buccaneer, including a remarkable man named Samuel Palache, a &quot;pirate rabbi&quot; who sent a flotilla of privateers to operate against Spanish shipping in the Mediterranean under the flag of Morocco in 1611 even as he served as the rabbi of the first synagogue in Holland. &quot;Carved on the bow of his ship was a phoenix,&quot; writes Kritzler. &quot;It was his way of saying that the Inquisition might burn individual Jews, but could not destroy their ancestral faith.&quot;

Although Kritzler seeks to cast his characters in a heroic light, he is willing to describe some of their less appealing exploits. The Jewish community in the Brazilian town of Recife, for example, owed much of its prosperity to the local slave trade: &quot;Jewish merchants, as middlemen, also had a lucrative share, buying slaves at . . . auction and selling them to the planters on an installment plan -- no money down, three years to pay at an interest rate of 40-50 percent.&quot; But he also takes care to point out that &quot;Arabs controlled the East African slave trade,&quot; and, in West Africa, &quot;men from Sweden, France, Denmark, Portugal, Germany, Holland, England and Spain sailed slave ships and manned the slave forts.&quot;

The unfortunate title of &quot;Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean&quot; understates the scope of Kritzler's book and the scale of his achievement. Not all of the Jews we meet were pirates, not all of the pirates were Jews, and not all of them operated in the Caribbean. What Kritzler has actually written is an ambitious and expansive history of a mostly unexamined aspect of the Jewish expulsion from Spain and Portugal during an especially active era of the Spanish Inquisition. And, to his credit, the author often pauses to provide the complex and highly nuanced back story -- political, diplomatic, economic and religious -- to the colorful personalities and exploits that he describes.



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[Marielle]

Re: mzungu jews aff de jamaica

Interesting thread. Never even knew they had a synagogue in Curacao, I know the one in Amsterdam, it is still lit by candles, they don't have electricity. It's also part of the Jewish Historical Museum, so you can go in there to see it.

A group of Jewish people landed in Dominican Republic during WWII, escaping Nazi Europe, after being refused entry to USA.
They set up a dairy company which today still supplies all the dairy products on the island.

One of them, from Austria, started a hotel there which is still operating today.

There is a small synagogue in Sosua, near Puerto Plata on the north coast.

Incidentally, a friend of mine from Surinam also has Jewish ancestry (as well as a host of others).

Yes, indeed, why are they feared? Is it because they are successful at just about whatever they do? Therefore creating jealousy....? Or is it just fear of the unknown?

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Re: mzungu jews aff de caribbean

The first Jew to arrive in Curaçao was Samuel Cohen. He served as an interpreter on board the Dutch fleet under the command of Johan van Walbeeck, which conquered the island from the Spanish in 1634.

A few years later, in 1651, Joao d’Ylan brought 10 to 12 Jewish families from the Amsterdam Portuguese community to Curaçao and established Congregation Mikvé Israel; they lived on Plantation ‘De Hoop’ (‘The Hope’) and worked the land.

A second group of settlers followed in 1659 under the patronage of Isaac da Costa and brought with them a gift from the Amsterdam synagogue: a Torah scroll that is still used today in the Mikvé Israel-Emanuel Synagogue.

Most of these settlers were originally from Spain and Portugal. They had fled the Inquisition and found refuge first in Holland and Northern Brazil and later in Curaçao.

The settlers originally attempted to work in agriculture, but their efforts were frustrated by the arid soil. As a result, the Jews concentrated in the walled city of Willemstad by 1660 and established trade between Northern Europe and the South American Coast. In 1674 they constructed the first of four synagogues in Willemstad; some Jews also built plantation houses scattered around the island.

Through the centuries the Jews of Curaçao flourished in trade, shipping, commerce and banking, and left their mark on practically all facets of life on the island.

Cultural History

By the end of the eighteenth century the Jews constituted more than half of the white population in Curaçao. While their principal language had been Portuguese, many Jews spoke Papiamentu amongst themselves, which enriched the native language of the island with Portuguese and Hebrew words.

At the turn of the nineteenth century, the Jews of Curaçao became involved with Simon Bolivar and his fight for the independence of Venezuela and Colombia from their Spanish colonizers. Two Jewish men from Curaçao distinguished themselves in Simon Bolivar’s army, while another supplied moral and material support to Bolivar, as well as refuge for him and his family.

Even today the Senior Curaçao liqueur is still manufactured by a Jewish family, as are many of the other main businesses on the island, like Maduro and Curiel's Bank and Gomez Enterprises.

The Jews of Curaçao also left their mark on the architecture of the island. The two synagogues which were established (and still stand) in town are prime examples of the monumental Jewish buildings. Many of the buildings in Willemstad were built by Jewish businessmen, as were several of the monumental mansions in Scharloo and Pen. These buildings testify to the elaborate lifestyle of the Jews at the turn of the twentieth century. The Jewish families built homes here so they could easily sail to town. Later the Jews moved to the suburbs where they continue to be innovative in architecture.

Throughout their history in Curacao, Jews have been involved in practically all facets of life, from pioneering efforts in commerce, industry and tourism, to activity in social causes, community service, politics, academics and the arts.
Economic History

The agriculture practiced by the first Jewish settlers in the seventeenth century was not an economically viable activity, and soon the Jews of Curaçao pursued opportunity in trade. The Spanish colonizers were not providing well for their territories on the South American coast, and the Jews started a continuous trade between the region and the European continent. Soon thereafter, Jews opened up shops in Willemstad where they traded the goods from both continents.

In this underdeveloped region, the Jewish community managed to excel with their knowledge of international trade, shipping and maritime insurance, and transportation. Their family and ethnic connections with Jewish businessmen, financiers and industrialists in the world centers of the time, such as Amsterdam, Hamburg, London, Bordeaux, Lisbon, Madrid and New York, allowed them to capture most of the trade in the Caribbean. <span style="font-weight: bold">It should be noted, however, that very few Curaçao Jews were involved with the slave trade which was in essence the domain of the Dutch.

Shipping became a mostly Jewish domain, as did insurance and insurance-brokering. </span>During the first half of the nineteenth century, several Jewish firms were incorporated, providing a combination of commercial, maritime, industrial and financial services internationally. Three commercial banking institutions evolved out of these early commercial firms.

Today, Jewish firms and commercial shops continue to be forerunners in the island’s economy, though the number of Jewish commercial entities has diminished over the years.

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[blugiant]

Re: mzungu jews aff de caribbean

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">In this underdeveloped region, the Jewish community managed to excel with their knowledge of international trade, shipping and maritime insurance, and transportation. Their family and ethnic connections with Jewish businessmen, financiers and industrialists in the world centers of the time, such as Amsterdam, Hamburg, London, Bordeaux, Lisbon, Madrid and New York, allowed them to capture most of the trade in the Caribbean. It should be noted, however, that very few Curaçao Jews were involved with the slave trade which was in essence the domain of the Dutch.

Shipping became a mostly Jewish domain, as did insurance and insurance-brokering.</div></div>

international trade, shippinn, transportation, maritime insurance ann dem draw cacluesham dat few curacao jews were invalved in slaveree