The Jewish Nation of the Caribbean: The Spanish-Portuguese Jewish Settlements in the Carribean and the Guianas
- Book Review,
by Mordechai Arbell
Yitzhak Navon, 5th President of Israel, October 1, 2002
An enlightening and soulful book, that reveals previously hidden, fascinating periods Jewish history...High quality wine in a beautiful bottle.
Schelly Talalay Dardashti, City Lights, The Jerusalem Post
...very readable and truly fascinating... For those researching Sephardim, the book is a gold mine of names
Book Description
In this detailed and intriguing book, author Mordechai Arbell explores the fascinating individual histories of 14 of the Jewish communities of the Caribbean that were once the economic lifeblood of the region, but have long since diminished or even vanished. The earliest British settlers at Surinam were surprised to find that a Dutch Jew, by the name of Jacob Enoch, was already living there, maintaining peaceful relations with his Indian neighbors. Years later, Surinam was to become known as the ‘Jewish Savannah’, alluding to its vibrant Jewish community. In addition, a 1665 document shows that the Jews of Surinam were granted full and equal rights; an exceptional gesture that was denied the Jews in Jamaica or Barbados for another two hundred years. A chapter on the Jewish community of tiny St Eustatius desrcibes their mercantile and agricultural activities and accomplishments, and vividly retells the terrible physical destruction of the Jewish way of life during the British occupation in 1781. Indeed, the Spanish-Portuguese Jewish communities were so shocked to learn of the suffering of the Jews of St Eustatius, that the Mahamad (lay leadership) in Surinam ordered a day of fasting and solemn prayer in their support. Samuel Hobeb, an elderly Jew, was severely mistreated by the English and even petitioned the English Parliament for indemnification of hardship and losses, which the parliament refused in principle to consider. Curacao, also named the "Mother of Jewish communities in the New World", is particularly noteworthy. Arbell describes a prosperous Jewish community that comprised nearly half of Curacao’s non-slave population and was the center of Jewish life in the region. Jewish life in Curacao remained robust well into the 20th century, however today the Jewish community numbers no more than 200. For all their economic and local political power, the Jews were little more than pawns in the 200-year struggle for control of the Caribbean by Holland, Great Britain, France and Spain. Eventually growing tired of this chess game, the Jews of the Caribbean drifted into assimilation or immigrated to the United States, where life was more secure. The Jewish Nation of the Caribbean is an ideal resource and captivating read for those travelling to the region or people with an interest in Jewish history. Arbell has produced an exceptional book, as it not only provides a detailed chronicle of the Jewish communities of the Caribbean, but also brings them to life, with intensity, and with a heartbeat so strong as to secure their proper and rightful place in recorded Jewish history.
About the Author
Mordechai Arbell was born in Bulgaria and immigrated to Israel with his family during the Second World War. After studies at Hebrew University, he joined the Foreign Ministry of the State of Israel, including posts as Consul in Bogota and Ambassador to Panama and Haiti. He has devoted much of his life to documenting the story of Jews in the southern part of the New World. He is currently a Research Fellow at the Ben-Zvi Institute for the Study of Jewish Communities in the East at Hebrew University, and is an advisor to the World Jewish Congress.
Excerpted from The Jewish Nation of the Caribbean: The Spanish-Portuguese Jewish Settlements in the Caribbean and the Guianas by Mordechai Arbell. Copyright © 2002. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Preface In 1655, Rabbi Menashe Ben-Israel, one of the outstanding personalities of Amsterdam's Jewish community, arrived in London to urge Oliver Cromwell, the "Lord Protector" of England, to look favorably upon the return of the Jews - who had been expelled from that country in 1290 - to England. Ben-Israel (whose portrait is said to have been painted by Rembrandt), explained to Cromwell that although the Jews had been condemned to wander, "if one pursues us, another accepts us... and do we not see that those communities that have taken the children of Israel in do flourish, and their wages rise greatly." He emphasized to Cromwell that the dispersal of the Jews had not made them inferior, but rather that they were compared to "a tree that gives the tastiest fruit, and brings profit." Speaking about dispersion and economic prosperity, Rabbi Menashe Ben-Israel no doubt also had in mind the Jewish experience in the Caribbean. In seventeenth-century Amsterdam, a time and a place in which Jews were freed from the oppression of the Inquisition and from generations of life as "New Christians," they could strengthen their community ties both inside and outside the city. Their growing international activity could openly rely on connections with fellow Jews in Central and Eastern Europe, Italy, North Africa, the Ottoman Empire, Asia and the Caribbean. At the end of the seventeenth century one quarter of the shares of the Dutch East India Company were held by Jews. This archetype of an international trading company illustrates once more the historic role of the Jews as harbingers of globalization. It is precisely in the Dutch colonies of the Caribbean that the Jews, for the first time in their Diaspora history, received full emancipation and equal rights. This emancipation was fully recognized in Dutch Guiana (today's Suriname) in 1667, when the Dutch gained control over the colony. By this time, some of the Caribbean Jews had already arrived in New York, which until 1664 had been known as New Amsterdam. These initial immigrants helped build the most remarkable adventure of globalization the world has seen. In the Caribbean, as this book demonstrates, the Jews helped transform some of the impoverished islands into sugar and cocoa industrial centers, and created major centers of global commerce later termed the "shopping mall of the Americas." As explained by Edward Long, the governor's secretary of Jamaica in 1774, "The Jews' knowledge of foreign lan- guages and intercourse with their brethren, dispersed over the Spanish and West Indian colonies, have contributed greatly to extend trade and increase the wealth of the island."
It is difficult to find a person more fitting than Mordechai Arbell to undertake the complex task of investigating and compiling the history of the Jews in the Caribbean. Combining both the experience of a businessman and that of an historian, Arbell is well suited to evaluate the economic aspects of the Jewish experience in the region. Above all one can easily detect the "love story" between Arbell and his research subjects: the Jews of the Caribbean. The Jewish experience in the Caribbean serves as an important lesson and reminder of the challenge that emancipation poses to Jewish identity. The good relations that the Jews had with their gentile environment, which occasionally included special privileges as well, often created conditions that were conducive to assimilation, and led to the danger of the community's disappearance. The Caribbean experience demonstrates that in order to preserve and cultivate Jewish identity in the post-emancipation era, and in the absence of antisemitism, Jews must explore the positive forces in Judaism. Only in this way can they hope to maintain a strong and vibrant community in the Diaspora. Dr. Avi Beker Secretary-General World Jewish Congress
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