Ezekiel 37:16 (House of Judah & House of Ephraim)
"And you, son of man, take for yourself one stick and write on it, 'For Judah and for the sons of Israel, his companions'; then take another stick and write on it, 'For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim and all the house of Israel, his companions.'
"Then join them for yourself one to another into one stick, that they may become one in your hand.
"When the sons of your people speak to you saying, 'Will you not declare to us what you mean by these?'
say to them, 'Thus says the Lord GOD, "Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel, his companions; and I will put them with it, with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they will be one in My hand."'
"The sticks on which you write will be in your hand before their eyes.
"Say to them, 'Thus says the Lord GOD, "Behold, I will take the sons of Israel from among the nations where they have gone, and I will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land;
and I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel; and one king will be king for all of them; and they will no longer be two nations and no longer be divided into two kingdoms.
"They will no longer defile themselves with their idols, or with their detestable things, or with any of their transgressions; but I will deliver them from all their dwelling places in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them. And they will be My people, and I will be their God.
"My servant David will be king over them, and they will all have one shepherd; and they will walk in My ordinances and keep My statutes and observe them.
Ezekiel 37:16-24.
THE LOST TEN TRIBES OF ISRAEL
The Messiah Yeshua ('Jesus') told us that the first time He came, He came only for the Lost Sheep of the House of Israel (Matthew 15:24.) But what did He mean by that remark?
Scripture speaks of two 'Houses.' While the Southern Kingdom was called the 'House' of Judah (who we know as the Jews of today), the Northern Kingdom of Israel was called by three names: the 'House of Israel,' the 'House of Ephraim,' and the 'House of Joseph'
These three names are all one in the same, and all of them refer to what are commonly known today as the 'Lost Ten Tribes' of Israel.
Since Yeshua's followers are the 'Christian' peoples, and since He said He came the first time only for the House of Israel, then that logically means that the 'Christians' are essentially the prophetic (if not the literal) descendants of the Lost Ten Tribes (and are also rightful heirs to the Land of Israel.)
The Kingdom of Israel was broken into two parts after the reign of King Solomon (1st Kings 11), and the Northern Kingdom of Israel (the 'House of Israel') was then taken into captivity by the Assyrians, in what came to be known as the 'Great Dispersion' (the Diaspora, or 'the Great Sowing.')
The Prophecies in Hosea, Deuteronomy, and elsewhere foretold that the Lost Sheep of the House of Israel would be taken into captivity for disobedience to the Covenant, but that they would come back to Israel one day. However, until recent times, no one has known either where these Lost Sheep are, or how they could possibly get called back into the commonwealth of Israel.
Today, however, scholars have been shown the answers as to where the House of Joseph is, and how they will return: Exhaustive research has shown that the Christian peoples are the prophetic (if not also the literal) descendants of the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel; and that as such, they have a prophetic destiny, as foretold in the prophets.
The Jewish writers of the Renewed Covenant called the Lost Ten Tribes 'gentiles,' because that was how the Jews referred to the Lost Ten Tribes in that day (since they no longer lived in the Land, spoke Hebrew, or kept the Torah of Moshe; as recorded in the Talmud, at Tractate Yevamot 17A.)
The apostle Paul (aka Shaliach Shaul), however, tells us at Romans 9 through 11 that the 'gentiles' are actually the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel, because he speaks to these 'gentiles' about their role in the prophecies in Hosea, which foretold that the Lost Ten Tribes would be scattered for a time, only to be regathered one day. Note also that the apostles James and Peter write their epistles not to 'gentiles' as we think of them, but to 'gentiles' who are also referred to as the 'Dispersed of the Twelve Tribes' and 'the Twelve Tribes which are scattered abroad.' (James 1:1, 1 Peter 1:1, respectively.)
The 'gentiles' of Scripture, then, are both the Lost Ten (or Twelve) tribes, and their descendants, the Christian people: And their destiny is one day to return to the Land of Israel.
One of the great secrets of Scripture is that while the Messiah Yeshua really did come to bring division between the Two Houses (the Jews and the 'gentiles'), the Jews were not truly cast away; but that it was needful that it appear that way, for a time. The Two Houses (the Jews and the 'gentiles') had to remain separate for some two thousand years because they each had separate missions to fulfill, in order to work the Divine Plan of Redemption for fallen seed of Adam; and if there was not temporary enmity put between them, they would not have gone their separate ways: But all this was only ever meant to be temporary, and for a purpose.
The apostle Paul tells us that he wishes us not to be ignorant of this great secret: That while it appears the Jews were cast away, they really were not, because the gifts and election of the Almighty are irrevocable (Romans 11:25-30):
Romans 11:25-30
25 For I do not desire that you should be ignorant of this secret, brothers, lest you should be wise in your own estimation: that blindness in part has happened to (both Houses of) Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles (the House of Joseph) has come in.
26 And so ALL Israel will be saved, as it is written:
"The Deliverer will come out of Zion,And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob;
27 For this is My covenant with them,When I take away their sins."
28 Concerning the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but concerning the election they are beloved for the sake of the fathers.
29 For the gifts and the calling of Elohim are irrevocable.
That is not to say that one does not need to accept Yeshua as one's personal Savior and Master: It is only to say that the election and calling of Elohim (G-d) can never be undone: And therefore the Jews are still a covenant people, even in their un-saved state.
The Nazarene Israel movement is the ultimate fulfillment of the Protestant Reformation, because it is the restoration of the original faith of the apostles.
The our goal is simultaneously:
1. To fulfill prophecy by restoring the original faith of the apostles; and
2. To fulfill prophecy by restoring the Lost Ten Tribes to the Land of Israel.
Prophecy tells us that there was to be a great restoration some two thousand years after some great event (Hosea 6:2), and other prophecies tell us that this great event is the birth of Yeshua the Messiah (circa 4 BCE.) And, as we look about us in the world today, we see that the Father really is finally restoring the original faith once delivered to the saints.
If you would like to be a part of the Father's plan for the restoration of fallen mankind, there are many things you can.
May it serve His people: Shalom.
http://hilleljm.com/index.phphttp://www.sephardim.org/Neveh_Shalom/main.htmlhttp://ujcl.org/jamaica/http://books.google.com/books?id=3Re_MOU-S6YC&pg=PA306&lpg=PA306&dq=jews+in+jamaica&source=web&ots=HV8or60_B0&sig=vWE6rXUZ-sa8kZc2aHpwziV2OgA#PPP1,M1
Monday, November 5, 2007
JEWS & BLACK ARE ONE FAMILY (JUDAH & EPHRAIM) YISRA'EL
Curacao
General
A Jew, Samuel Cohen, served as an interpreter to the Dutch army which captured Curacao from the Spanish in 1634. Congregation Mikveh Israel was founded officially in 1651. The Jews were granted land outside the city of Willemstad, and a cemetery was opened in 1656 and a small building rented for worship. A synagogue existed Willemstad by 1671. This was subsequently replaced by a synagogue, the Punda Synagogue, built in 173-32, which is still in use. From 1926 onward, a number of Ashkenazi Jews, many from Rumania, settled in Curacao.
Punda Synagogue
On May 12, 1970, a series of stamps was issued in the Netherland Antilles depicting the interiors of religious buildings, one of which depicted the interior of the Punda Synagogue. The stamp and first day cover are depicted below. Also depicted below are postcards (postmarked May 12, 1970) of the exterior and interior of the Punda Synagogue.
Reform Temple Emanuel
In the 1800's, frictions developed within the Mikve Israel congregation, and in 1864, a group split off and formed Reform Temple Emanuel. The synagogue depicted in the postcard below (postmarked May 20, 1970) was opened in 1866.
http://www.edwardvictor.com/CuracaoFrame2Source1.htm
References
Encyclopedia Judaica, CD-Rom Edition, Keter Publishing
The Caribbean: The Jewish gateway to the Americas
Copyright © 1996 Nando.netCopyright © 1996 Cox News Service
WILLEMSTAD, Curacao (Apr 5, 1996 5:30 p.m. EST) -- The year was 1492.
It was the eve of Christopher Columbus' Aug. 2 voyage to the New World and the Spanish port was engulfed in panic by Jews desperate to flee Spain.
One of Columbus' Jewish crew members was hurriedly converted before the voyage left.
Those still in Spain at dawn faced a choice: convert to Christianity or face a slow torturous death at the hands of the Holy Inquisition. When the sun rose, not a single self-professed Jew remained on Spanish soil.
The many who refused to convert embarked on a worldwide search for religious freedom frustrated in the New World by centuries of laws forbidding those of Jewish ancestry to enter Spanish colonies.
For these Jews, known as Sephardics, Curacao and other Dutch colonies in the Americas were more than simply a port in a storm. They were the key that unlocked a closed door to the Americas.
Today, the islands that once served as a precious haven are scrambling to hang on to their Jewish heritage, just as American Sephardic -- whose largest colony of 110,000 is in South Florida -- are struggling to pass on their language and traditions to the next generation.
"Jews from Curacao not only kept the flame alive, they contributed to the spread of Jews throughout America," said Rene Maduro, 54, the scion of one of an old, prosperous Jewish family that owns banks and businesses in Curacao. He is acting rabbi of its synagogue. "We are preserving the cradle of Judaism in the Americas. This was the mother congregation of the Western hemisphere."
Time has not been kind to the Curacao Jews' historic 17th century Bet Hayim cemetery, one of the oldest European burial grounds in the hemisphere. Its gravestones' elaborate carvings are slowly being eaten away by fumes from the smokestacks of a nearby oil refinery on the outskirts of Willemstad.
"It's beyond repair. There is nothing to be done," Maduro said, shaking his head.
The Jewish community on the island has shrunk to less than 500 as youngsters go away to college in the United States and don't come back.
"The numbers are dwindling. Families are much smaller," said Charles Gomes Casseres, 75, a leading historian for the Jewish community and a member of its Council of Elders. "If you become too few you can hardly maintain the institutions. It becomes much harder to survive."
What can never be erased, however, is the legacy these families left.
Over the centuries, wealthy Jewish shipping families from Curacao have donated millions of dollars to build synagogues, schools and Jewish communities from South America to Charleston, Rhode Island, Philadelphia and New Amsterdam, now New York.
The Nephutsay Israel synagogue in Newport still says an annual prayer for the Curacao Jews in commemoration of their help building a house of worship in 1763.
That is why for many here, the Mikve Israel-Emmanuel synagogue of Curacao, a tiny cactus-covered island ringed by kaleidoscopic reefs and some of the most beautiful beaches in the Caribbean, is a symbol for a tradition that spans the hemisphere.
Built in 1732, the arching yellow Dutch building is the oldest synagogue in continuous use in the Americas. Its congregation dates back nearly a century more.
The sand on the floor of Mikve and the other old Caribbean synagogues is said to recall Moses' flight out of Egypt. It also recalls the need to muffle the sound of the feet of Jews meeting secretly under the Inquisition in Spain.
The synagogue on windswept Curacao is a lingering reminder of winds of tolerance that have blown throughout the history of the Caribbean, where centuries of multinational rivalries for tiny but lucrative islands left behind a modern patchwork of colors, creeds and cultures whose modern coexistence provides a striking contrast to an intolerant world.
"The Caribbean has been a haven for Jews," Mark Kurlansky wrote in his book on the region, "A Continent of Islands." "Caribbeans are accustomed to diversity and, like other forms of racism, anti-Semitism appears here only in subtle forms."
The Curacao Jews left their mark in the Dutch West Indies, turning Willemstad into a major hemispheric shipping center and even influencing the eventual lingua franca of the Dutch West Indies.
The Jews, who had spent several generations in Portugal, were the first Europeans to adopt Papiamento, the language created by African slaves from the tongues of Portuguese slavers, Dutch traders and West African tribesmen. Like Haitian Creole, Papiamento may soon gain recognition as the native language of the Dutch West Indies.
Jews reached Curacao via Holland, which opened its doors to Sephardics after their 80-year war with Spain and welcomed Jewish settlers in the deserted, cactus-studded West Indian islands Holland wished to control.
The first Jewish settler, Samuel Coheno, reached Curacao in 1634, just after Dutch forces wrest the island from Spain, on an expedition of the Dutch West Indies company.
"The Dutch, of all the European countries, have been extremely good to the Jews. They've remained extremely tolerant and much more accommodating than other European countries," said David Siman, president of the Sephardi Association of Palm Beach County in Florida.
International jousting with the Spanish Armada slowly turned the tide of European anti-Semitism, opening the way for enemies or victims of the Catholics in Protestant countries.
Anti-Catholic Oliver Cromwell followed Holland's example and reopened England to Judaism in the late 1600s.
Denmark also hosted Jewish congregations who moved north from Holland and Germany but restricted them and other foreign religious refugees to two cities until the late 1700s. After that they were free to move on to Danish West Indies colonies, like St. Thomas.
"This ethnic cleansing was going on in Europe," Maduro said. "But after the 1600s these northern countries began to look at Jews in a different way. They began to bring them back in for economic development."
At the time Spain, attempting to enforce Catholic hegemony after driving Moorish conquerors out of southern Spain in 1492, required immigrants to Cuba and other New World colonies to prove "cleanliness of blood" by demonstrating no ancestors of Jewish or Moorish blood for four generations.
The Dutch-Jewish bond has lingered in the Caribbean.
Another member of the Maduro family, George, a son of one of Curacao's wealthiest families, was studying law at the University of Leiden when the Nazis invaded Holland. He became a lieutenant in the Dutch cavalry, was taken prison and died at the Dachau concentration camp.
In the 1960s, Dutch diplomats helped arrange a Dutch commercial flight from Curacao to spirit Jews out of Cuba, where a crackdown against religion was under way. Many of them still reside in South Florida today.
Like most forms of xenophobic intolerance, the demonization of non-Christians exacted a high price from Spain.
While most of Europe was being transformed by the Reformation, the Enlightenment and the Renaissance, Spain's counter-reformation turned it into a backwater deprived of the intellectual currents that nourished advances in theology, philosophy and the arts sweeping through the rest of Europe.
While European history moved forward, Spain -- and many of its colonies in Latin America -- was held back for hundreds of years.
"The measures against secret Jewry led to a profound intolerance which prevented the emergence of a real Spanish Renaissance," wrote Hugh Thomas, the distinguished biographer, in "The Conquest."
General
A Jew, Samuel Cohen, served as an interpreter to the Dutch army which captured Curacao from the Spanish in 1634. Congregation Mikveh Israel was founded officially in 1651. The Jews were granted land outside the city of Willemstad, and a cemetery was opened in 1656 and a small building rented for worship. A synagogue existed Willemstad by 1671. This was subsequently replaced by a synagogue, the Punda Synagogue, built in 173-32, which is still in use. From 1926 onward, a number of Ashkenazi Jews, many from Rumania, settled in Curacao.
Punda Synagogue
On May 12, 1970, a series of stamps was issued in the Netherland Antilles depicting the interiors of religious buildings, one of which depicted the interior of the Punda Synagogue. The stamp and first day cover are depicted below. Also depicted below are postcards (postmarked May 12, 1970) of the exterior and interior of the Punda Synagogue.
Reform Temple Emanuel
In the 1800's, frictions developed within the Mikve Israel congregation, and in 1864, a group split off and formed Reform Temple Emanuel. The synagogue depicted in the postcard below (postmarked May 20, 1970) was opened in 1866.
http://www.edwardvictor.com/CuracaoFrame2Source1.htm
References
Encyclopedia Judaica, CD-Rom Edition, Keter Publishing
The Caribbean: The Jewish gateway to the Americas
Copyright © 1996 Nando.netCopyright © 1996 Cox News Service
WILLEMSTAD, Curacao (Apr 5, 1996 5:30 p.m. EST) -- The year was 1492.
It was the eve of Christopher Columbus' Aug. 2 voyage to the New World and the Spanish port was engulfed in panic by Jews desperate to flee Spain.
One of Columbus' Jewish crew members was hurriedly converted before the voyage left.
Those still in Spain at dawn faced a choice: convert to Christianity or face a slow torturous death at the hands of the Holy Inquisition. When the sun rose, not a single self-professed Jew remained on Spanish soil.
The many who refused to convert embarked on a worldwide search for religious freedom frustrated in the New World by centuries of laws forbidding those of Jewish ancestry to enter Spanish colonies.
For these Jews, known as Sephardics, Curacao and other Dutch colonies in the Americas were more than simply a port in a storm. They were the key that unlocked a closed door to the Americas.
Today, the islands that once served as a precious haven are scrambling to hang on to their Jewish heritage, just as American Sephardic -- whose largest colony of 110,000 is in South Florida -- are struggling to pass on their language and traditions to the next generation.
"Jews from Curacao not only kept the flame alive, they contributed to the spread of Jews throughout America," said Rene Maduro, 54, the scion of one of an old, prosperous Jewish family that owns banks and businesses in Curacao. He is acting rabbi of its synagogue. "We are preserving the cradle of Judaism in the Americas. This was the mother congregation of the Western hemisphere."
Time has not been kind to the Curacao Jews' historic 17th century Bet Hayim cemetery, one of the oldest European burial grounds in the hemisphere. Its gravestones' elaborate carvings are slowly being eaten away by fumes from the smokestacks of a nearby oil refinery on the outskirts of Willemstad.
"It's beyond repair. There is nothing to be done," Maduro said, shaking his head.
The Jewish community on the island has shrunk to less than 500 as youngsters go away to college in the United States and don't come back.
"The numbers are dwindling. Families are much smaller," said Charles Gomes Casseres, 75, a leading historian for the Jewish community and a member of its Council of Elders. "If you become too few you can hardly maintain the institutions. It becomes much harder to survive."
What can never be erased, however, is the legacy these families left.
Over the centuries, wealthy Jewish shipping families from Curacao have donated millions of dollars to build synagogues, schools and Jewish communities from South America to Charleston, Rhode Island, Philadelphia and New Amsterdam, now New York.
The Nephutsay Israel synagogue in Newport still says an annual prayer for the Curacao Jews in commemoration of their help building a house of worship in 1763.
That is why for many here, the Mikve Israel-Emmanuel synagogue of Curacao, a tiny cactus-covered island ringed by kaleidoscopic reefs and some of the most beautiful beaches in the Caribbean, is a symbol for a tradition that spans the hemisphere.
Built in 1732, the arching yellow Dutch building is the oldest synagogue in continuous use in the Americas. Its congregation dates back nearly a century more.
The sand on the floor of Mikve and the other old Caribbean synagogues is said to recall Moses' flight out of Egypt. It also recalls the need to muffle the sound of the feet of Jews meeting secretly under the Inquisition in Spain.
The synagogue on windswept Curacao is a lingering reminder of winds of tolerance that have blown throughout the history of the Caribbean, where centuries of multinational rivalries for tiny but lucrative islands left behind a modern patchwork of colors, creeds and cultures whose modern coexistence provides a striking contrast to an intolerant world.
"The Caribbean has been a haven for Jews," Mark Kurlansky wrote in his book on the region, "A Continent of Islands." "Caribbeans are accustomed to diversity and, like other forms of racism, anti-Semitism appears here only in subtle forms."
The Curacao Jews left their mark in the Dutch West Indies, turning Willemstad into a major hemispheric shipping center and even influencing the eventual lingua franca of the Dutch West Indies.
The Jews, who had spent several generations in Portugal, were the first Europeans to adopt Papiamento, the language created by African slaves from the tongues of Portuguese slavers, Dutch traders and West African tribesmen. Like Haitian Creole, Papiamento may soon gain recognition as the native language of the Dutch West Indies.
Jews reached Curacao via Holland, which opened its doors to Sephardics after their 80-year war with Spain and welcomed Jewish settlers in the deserted, cactus-studded West Indian islands Holland wished to control.
The first Jewish settler, Samuel Coheno, reached Curacao in 1634, just after Dutch forces wrest the island from Spain, on an expedition of the Dutch West Indies company.
"The Dutch, of all the European countries, have been extremely good to the Jews. They've remained extremely tolerant and much more accommodating than other European countries," said David Siman, president of the Sephardi Association of Palm Beach County in Florida.
International jousting with the Spanish Armada slowly turned the tide of European anti-Semitism, opening the way for enemies or victims of the Catholics in Protestant countries.
Anti-Catholic Oliver Cromwell followed Holland's example and reopened England to Judaism in the late 1600s.
Denmark also hosted Jewish congregations who moved north from Holland and Germany but restricted them and other foreign religious refugees to two cities until the late 1700s. After that they were free to move on to Danish West Indies colonies, like St. Thomas.
"This ethnic cleansing was going on in Europe," Maduro said. "But after the 1600s these northern countries began to look at Jews in a different way. They began to bring them back in for economic development."
At the time Spain, attempting to enforce Catholic hegemony after driving Moorish conquerors out of southern Spain in 1492, required immigrants to Cuba and other New World colonies to prove "cleanliness of blood" by demonstrating no ancestors of Jewish or Moorish blood for four generations.
The Dutch-Jewish bond has lingered in the Caribbean.
Another member of the Maduro family, George, a son of one of Curacao's wealthiest families, was studying law at the University of Leiden when the Nazis invaded Holland. He became a lieutenant in the Dutch cavalry, was taken prison and died at the Dachau concentration camp.
In the 1960s, Dutch diplomats helped arrange a Dutch commercial flight from Curacao to spirit Jews out of Cuba, where a crackdown against religion was under way. Many of them still reside in South Florida today.
Like most forms of xenophobic intolerance, the demonization of non-Christians exacted a high price from Spain.
While most of Europe was being transformed by the Reformation, the Enlightenment and the Renaissance, Spain's counter-reformation turned it into a backwater deprived of the intellectual currents that nourished advances in theology, philosophy and the arts sweeping through the rest of Europe.
While European history moved forward, Spain -- and many of its colonies in Latin America -- was held back for hundreds of years.
"The measures against secret Jewry led to a profound intolerance which prevented the emergence of a real Spanish Renaissance," wrote Hugh Thomas, the distinguished biographer, in "The Conquest."
WHO ARE THE EPHRAIMITES?
Out Of Many Cultures:
The People Who Came The Jews (Judah) and 10 lost tribe of Israel (Ephraimites) 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.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/jamaica.html
By Dr. Rebecca TortelloSpecial thanks to Ainsley Henriques and Marc Goodman for their invaluable help with this piece. THE ARRIVALThe 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 "New World" 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:
"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" (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.
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. File Photo.
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. "Bendigamos," 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). "Historic Kingston churches Some places of worship in the old city of Kingston," 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). "Jamaica - A dwindling Jewish community celebrates Rosh Hashana." www.jnht.com/kingston/jew_ cem.html, www.sephardim.org/jamgen/BenZviBook.html, www.bibletopics.com/biblestudy/64.htm
Please note that starting today, the 'Pieces of the Past' series will appear on the first Monday of each month, instead of twice a month. Thank you for your support.
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, "Espejo Fiel de Vidas," 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 "Belisario" prints of Jamaican characters are cultural icons, now featured on a series of Jamaican stamps.
* Newspapermen Jacob and Joshua de Cordova, who founded the "Gleaner" in 1833. Jacob went on to found the city of Waco, Texas.
* Ward Theatre architect Rudolph Henriques, a noted artist whose firm Henriques and Sons was awarded the commission in a competition. The majestic landmark was built in 1912.
* Jorge Ricardo Isaacs, 1837-1895, author of Maria, considered the "national novel" 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.
* The Matalon family, known as one of Jamaica's longstanding captains of industry and supporter of the arts.
* 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.
http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/pages/history/story0054.htm
http://www.haruth.com/JewsJamaica.html
http://www.jewsofjamaica.com/
The People Who Came The Jews (Judah) and 10 lost tribe of Israel (Ephraimites) 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.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/jamaica.html
By Dr. Rebecca TortelloSpecial thanks to Ainsley Henriques and Marc Goodman for their invaluable help with this piece. THE ARRIVALThe 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 "New World" 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:
"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" (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.
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. File Photo.
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. "Bendigamos," 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). "Historic Kingston churches Some places of worship in the old city of Kingston," 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). "Jamaica - A dwindling Jewish community celebrates Rosh Hashana." www.jnht.com/kingston/jew_ cem.html, www.sephardim.org/jamgen/BenZviBook.html, www.bibletopics.com/biblestudy/64.htm
Please note that starting today, the 'Pieces of the Past' series will appear on the first Monday of each month, instead of twice a month. Thank you for your support.
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, "Espejo Fiel de Vidas," 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 "Belisario" prints of Jamaican characters are cultural icons, now featured on a series of Jamaican stamps.
* Newspapermen Jacob and Joshua de Cordova, who founded the "Gleaner" in 1833. Jacob went on to found the city of Waco, Texas.
* Ward Theatre architect Rudolph Henriques, a noted artist whose firm Henriques and Sons was awarded the commission in a competition. The majestic landmark was built in 1912.
* Jorge Ricardo Isaacs, 1837-1895, author of Maria, considered the "national novel" 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.
* The Matalon family, known as one of Jamaica's longstanding captains of industry and supporter of the arts.
* 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.
http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/pages/history/story0054.htm
http://www.haruth.com/JewsJamaica.html
http://www.jewsofjamaica.com/
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