Published: 27 October 2020
Last updated: 4 March 2024
WHEN I FIRST WENT to the Caribbean – to visit a few of its Jewish communities – I made the mistake of thinking it was a place rather than a concept. Naively, I thought I might hop from this island to that, perhaps not quite rowing myself, but with little difficulty.
I wasn’t prepared for plane journeys of several hours, from one island off the coast of Venezuela to another nearer to Washington. And because of my role as CEO of the Commonwealth Jewish Council, I was only going to those with a British heritage.
Add to them the nations with Dutch, French, Spanish, American and even Danish history, and the complex patchwork diversifies and kaleidoscopes still more.
It was the Caribbean that Columbus discovered, not America, and he named his first landfall Hispaniola. The island is now divided into two countries, Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
The latter should be celebrated by Jews because of the 33 countries at the Evian Conference - held in France in 1938 to address the problem of German and Austrian Jewish refugees wishing to flee persecution by Nazi Germany - the Dominican Republic was the only one to offer visas – 10,000 of them – to the Jews.
The conference inadvertently proved to be a useful propaganda tool for the Nazis. Part of the island was set aside for Jewish settlement and each arriving Jew was given some land and livestock – not that they knew what to do with it. In the end only half the visas were taken up.
These Jews, however, were not the first to arrive in the Caribbean.
Go back 450 years and Jews escaping the Iberian Peninsula and its Inquisition crossed the Atlantic and sought refuge in the Spanish and Portuguese colonies of South America. When the Inquisition caught up with them, they moved north, sometimes aiming for North America, still at that time a British colony, or to some of the Dutch possessions in the Caribbean. These Protestant administrations were far more accommodating of Jews, even in the 1600s.
Conflicting claims abound but it is certainly true that the longest standing and operating synagogues in the Western Hemisphere are in the Caribbean. Like so much else when the US tries to play the historical game, its offerings look like recent add-ons.
Some of the first synagogues in, for example, Jamaica, Barbados and Curacao fell down or were burnt down due to earthquakes and less than orderly social arrangements in the early 18th century, but even those that replaced them can claim the “oldest” title for Jewish life in the this part of the world.
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On entering the beautiful 18th century synagogue in Kingston, I already knew it was “sandy-floored”. I assumed the floor was strewn with sand. I was wrong, the floor is sand. Walking in, I took off my shoes and felt my toes sink into the sand as in every proper Caribbean fantasy, except in this instance I was doing it in shul.
Before Jews came to Kingston, Jamaica’s capital, they settled in Spanish Town and Port Royal, the main port of the island and arguably the region. On other Caribbean islands in the 18th century, there were Jewish merchants, Jewish plantation owners, Jewish slave owners and … Jewish pirates and buccaneers.
Some speculate that the opportunity to nick stuff from the Spanish added a certain piquancy to the adventure for these descendants of those forced to flee their homes centuries before being expelled in 1492.
Jews travelling from South America to North America in the 18th century stopped off in Barbados and some decided it was not a bad spot to settle down. They brought with them new technology for processing sugar, the main cash crop of the West Indies. Barbados prospered and they became significant contributors to life on the island.
In recent years, the old synagogue of Bridgetown, the capital of Barbados, has been refurbished, an adjacent mikvah has been excavated and a lovely little Jewish Museum (even Prince Charles thinks so) has been opened in one of the buildings on the site. The Nidhe Israel Synagogue opens every Shabbat for services during the winter tourist season.
Out of season, the small number of resident Jews meet closer to home in a small building in the outlying suburbs. These Jews are mostly descended from immigrants in the 1880s who fled increasingly hostile circumstances in Europe. Meanwhile, in many other countries in the region, while a few Jews kept their Jewishness front and centre, an increasing number either moved away or intermarried.
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Various unprovable claims have been made as to how many people can trace their origins to Jews but it does appear that a good number of Caribbean locals, whether in Suriname, Jamaica, Trinidad or elsewhere will often assert Jewish lineage. Errol Barrow, who became the country’s first prime minister when Barbados gained independence from Britain in 1966, proudly proclaimed his Jewish forebears.
In addition, many Christians in the Caribbean see themselves as “Hebrew Christians” or observe aspects of Torah law and many keep Shabbat to some degree, whether or not they also mark Sundays. Counting Jews in the Caribbean is more difficult than in most other places.
Almost wherever you go in the West Indies you’ll find Jewish history and possibly a small, tenacious Jewish community. Kosher food is hard to come by and finding a Jewish mate is probably a challenge so living a deeply immersed Jewish life is tricky. However, you won’t be surprised to know Chabad is around.
In Grand Cayman, the largest of the three Cayman Islands, Grenada, St Lucia, the Bahamas, Barbados, Jamaica and other islands , it has established itself and though it caters more to tourists and ex pats than to the old, established locals, it brings to many of the islands access to kosher food and a more intensive approach to Jewish life than has been seen for a long time.
But don’t miss the quirky bits because Chabad is so often immediately visible, both online and on the street.
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In Jamaica, for example, in the tourist area of Montego Bay, you’ll immediately find Chabad. But in Kingston, not only is there all this Jewish history and the remarkable shul but also The Hillel School. As far as I know there aren’t more than half a dozen Jewish pupils, but the governors are Jewish and the school’s ethos is, too. And the student “houses” have names such as Masada and Carmel.
Chabad has developed a lovely Jewish community centre in the centre of Grand Cayman. All its members are comparative newcomers to the island. But look a little further afield, to Cayman Brac, and there’s another newcomer. Some decades ago, George Walton arrived with his wife from the United States.
Noting that there were 17 churches, yet no-one knew what a synagogue was, he built one. They can’t get a minyan whatever your counting system, unless there’s a sudden influx of suitable tourists one week, but the shul is open to visitors and does a roaring trade in showing local school children around.
If you visit a Caribbean island, look for its Jewish history, search out its Chabad presence and its less obvious, but determined Jewish community.
And don’t forget to feel the sand between your toes, either on the beach or in shul.
Photo: The synagogue with its sandy floor in St Thomas, US Virgin Islands, 2016 (Michael Visontay)
READ PARTS 1 & 2
The forgotten diaspora - ASIA
The forgotten diaspora - AFRICA
