https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/423742
The Jews in Curaçao: A remarkable story
A tiny Caribbean island once had more Jews than all thirteen American colonies combined, and quietly saved thousands from the Holocaust.
This is the story of Curacao.
Curacao was conquered by a Spanish expedition in 1499 and remained under Spanish control until 1634. At that time, the Dutch decided to capture Curaçao from Spain in response to Spain’s seizure of Saint Martin from the Dutch West India Company (WIC).
In April 1634, the WIC sent Admiral Johannes Van Walbeeck to take Curacao and Bonaire from the Spanish. These islands were important for their location near the American continent and for their role in trade and shipping.
Beth Haim Cemetery
In May 1634, Van Walbeeck departed from Holland with a fleet of four ships, 180 sailors, and 250 soldiers. To their good fortune, the Spanish had mostly abandoned Curacao, which facilitated the Dutch conquest. During this time, Curacao’s first known Jew, Samuel Cohen, arrived to serve as an interpreter for the Dutch. On August 21, the Spanish forces surrendered, and Van Walbeeck was appointed the first governor of the Netherlands Antilles.
Arrival of the First Jewish Settlers
At first, the Dutch used Curaçao as a naval base against Spain. After the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, the island lost its strategic value, so the WIC encouraged Dutch settlers to farm there. In 1651, Joao d’Yllan, a Portuguese Jew, and 12 Jewish families from Amsterdam’s Portuguese community moved to Curacao. They were promised religious freedom, land, tax breaks, exemption from guard duty on Shabbat even during war, and government protection. This was the earliest charter of its kind for Jews in the New World.
The families established a plantation called Plantation De Hoop (Plantation of Hope).
A larger group of Jewish settlers came in 1659, bringing a 14th-century Torah Scroll from the Amsterdam community. This Torah is still used today at the Mikveh Israel-Emmanuel Synagogue. Most of these settlers were refugees from the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions. After first moving to the Netherlands or Northern Brazil, they now settled in Curacao, starting a new chapter for the Jewish community there.
Farmers? Not Quite. Financiers-Absolutely!
The settlers first tried to farm, but the dry soil made it difficult. By 1660, the Jewish community moved to Willemstad and began trading between Northern Europe and South America. They found great success in this new focus.
Once trade routes connected Curacao with Northern Europe and South America, business on the island grew quickly. The Jewish community became the largest and wealthiest in the Americas. From 1670 to 1900, Jews in Curacao owned over 1,200 sailing ships, with at least 200 Jewish captains. A 1728 report said, “the lion’s share of shipping is in Curacao Jewish hands."
Due to the risks involved in shipping, marine insurance was invented to help distribute the risk of loss of ships or cargo among the parties involved. Most of the insurance brokers were Jewish, and they eventually also became the bankers of Curacao. By the early 20th century, three commercial banks owned by Sephardic Jews were established in Curacao: Maduro’s Bank, Curiel’s Bank, and Edwards Henriquez & Co.’s Bank. (The first two merged in 1932 to form Maduro & Curiel’s Bank, which is the oldest and most extensive bank in the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba.)
Archived photo inside Maduro’s Bank
In another successful business, Jewish businessmen Haim Mendes Chumaceiro and Edgar Senior started Senior & Co. in 1896 to make Curaçao liqueur. It was first made for medicine but soon became a popular drink. The founders’ families still run the company, and they are the only ones who use Curacao-grown larahas in their liqueur. The product is also Star-K Kosher certified.
The Seniors
Interestingly, the Jews of Curacao also provided refuge and funds to Simon Bolivar, known as the “George Washington of South America" when he was fighting for freedom from Spain. As the Jews of Curacao shared his hatred for Spain, due to their experience of the Inquisition, they were eager to help him. They provided a place for Bolivar and his family and Curacao’s Jews even served in his army.
In short, over the years, the Jewish community in Curacao gained great wealth and influence, and, as we will see, they used it to strengthen their own community and support other communities throughout the Americas.
Building The Community
While still in its early years, in 1659, the Jewish community of Curacao created Haskamos, defining how the community would be governed. A key component of rulership was a Machamad (the equivalent of a board) that would govern the community for years to come.
The Machamad was a mixed blessing. They had control over all that went on within the community, and in good times, this was positive, but in times when the members of the Machamad were more concerned with their own power than the good of the community, this led to divisions and strife that would ultimately lead to the demise of the proud Curacao community.
The Haskamos of the Curacao community were patterned after those of the Portuguese Talmud Torah Kehillah in Amsterdam, from where most of them had come, and to which they would remain deeply connected. Over the coming centuries, Rabbis for Curacao would be sent from Amsterdam, and Amsterdam would continue to lead and direct the Jewish community from across the ocean.
In 1651, the community established itself as Congregation Mikveh Yisrael. By 1674, the community had grown enough in size and finances to buy its first shul building in Willemstad. In 1703, they rebuilt it with a larger structure, and in 1730, they tore it down and constructed a magnificent edifice that remains in use to this day. It was built by a master carpenter brought in from Amsterdam and was completed by Pesach of 1732. The beautiful shul is called the Snao (which means synagogue in Papiamentu, the language of Curacao). It has 50-foot-high ceilings and 18th-century copper chandeliers, and it was built to resemble the shul in the Amsterdam community from which most Jews in Curacao had come. The shul is large enough to seat 600 people. Today, it is a major tourist attraction in Curacao.
Mikveh Israel-Emmanuel Synagogue
The shul is unique for its sand-covered floors. Some believe the sand is to remember the forty years the Jewish people spent in the desert. Others say it recalls God’s promise to Abraham that his descendants would be as many as the stars and the sand. Another idea is that it comes from Jews who prayed in secret during the Inquisition and used sand to quiet their footsteps and prayers.
By the late 1740’s, the Jewish community had expanded beyond Willemstad into its neighboring Otrabanda, where a new shul, Neve Shalom, was founded in 1746. Over the next few years, disagreements arose over whether Mikveh Yisroel shul should make decisions for the new community or whether Neve Shalom was now an independent community. The conflict grew to such an extent that it affected the island’s economy (indicating the Jewish community’s importance to Curaçao’s economy), and the government got involved.
In 1750, the Prince of Holland ordered the two communities to make peace. His royal order required Neve Shalom to follow the leadership of the Machamad and the board of Mikveh Yisroel, and to obey the directives of the Portuguese community in Amsterdam.
Inside the shul with sand covered floor
The Curacao community had many organizations that helped the poor and the sick. In fact, the community was so renowned for taking care of the needy that the Kehillah of Amsterdam would pay the travel expenses for poor members to go to Curaçao and settle there, knowing they would be well cared for. This occurred so frequently that by 1736, Governor Juan Pedro van Collen asked the West India Company to stop giving passports to poor Jews because he worried that they would become a burden to Curacao.
The Rabbis of Curacao
The Jewish community in Curaçao was deeply committed to their faith. In the 1600s, Jews there had more rights and freedoms than anywhere else in the Western world. While more rights often led to assimilation in other places, this was rare in Curaçao. For the next two centuries, the community remained strong. Unlike other Jewish communities in the Americas, they made Jewish education a top priority and worked hard to give their children a strong religious foundation.
In 1674, Chacham Josiau Pardo arrived from Amsterdam to become Curacao’s first rabbi. He came from a family of rabbis, and in fact, his father had served as a judge in the Amsterdam Jewish court of law alongside the famous Rabbi Menashe ben Israel. Rabbi Pardo’s focus was on the Torah study of the community. He set up a medras (beit medrash study hall) for the children of the community.
With Chacham Pardo as leader, the community required boys to attend the medras from age five to sixteen, showing their strong commitment to Torah study. In Europe then, only wealthy or very dedicated boys continued learning after bar mitzvah, yet in Curacao attendance was mandatory. Families that did not send their sons to the medras could be fined or even forced by the government to comply.
Chacham Pardo also started the Yeshiva Eitz Chaim v’Ohel Yaakov to train teachers, Chazzanim, and those who wanted to study Torah for additional years. This was the first yeshiva-like school in the Western Hemisphere, and many of its graduates would go on to lead Jewish communities in the Americas.
In 1683, after Rabbi Pardo moved to Jamaica, there was no rabbi for the community until 1696 when Rabbi Eliau Lopez arrived in Curacao. He had previously served as the Chacham of Barbados and as the leader of the Curacao community until his passing in 1713.
Rabbi Raphael Jesurun, a student of the Eitz Chaim Yeshiva in Amsterdam, served as rabbi from 1717 to 1748. Rabbi Raphael Mendes de Sola, who had been a rabbi in Amsterdam, came to Curacao in 1744 to serve as an assistant Rabbi to Rabbi Jesurun. After his passing, he served as the Chacham until his passing in 1761.
The next rabbi was Rabbi Isaac Henriquez Farro from Amsterdam. Tragically, he passed away just a few days after arriving in Curacao in July 1762. At this point, the community persuaded Rabbi Raphael Chaim Yitzchok Karigal, who was a Torah scholar and a fundraiser for the community of Chevron, to serve as rabbi until the native Curacaon Rabbi Jacob Lopez da Fonseca would return with semicha from the Eitz Chaim Yeshiva of Amsterdam, as he was expected to become the next rabbi of Curacao. Rabbi Karigal agreed and stayed for two years. He later became a rabbi in Newport, Rhode Island, and New York City.
Rabbi Jacob Lopez da Fonseca returned to Curacao in 1764 and served as the Chacham until his passing in 1815. He was the first Chacham born in Curacao to serve the community.
Mother Congregation of the Americas
With strong leaders, the Curacao Jewish community grew both spiritually and financially. By 1750, about 2,000 Jews lived on the island, likely more Jews than in all thirteen American colonies combined.
During the 1700s and 1800s, the rabbis encouraged the community to share their wealth with Jewish communities worldwide, especially in the Americas and the Land of Israel. The community gave generous donations to help build the Touro Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island, the Shearith Israel Synagogue in New York, and shuls in Kingston, Jamaica, Charleston, and Philadelphia.
Until today, every Yom Kippur, the Touro Synagogue and Shearith Israel in New York say a prayer of thanks to Curacao for the help they gave over 200 years ago. Because of their generosity during this period, Curacao became known as the “Mother Congregation of the Americas."
Signs of Assimilation
After 200 years of a strong Jewish community, things began to weaken. When Chacham Jacob Da Fonseca died in 1815, the community chose Jacob Hain de Abraham Curiel, a 60-year old merchant who was not knowledgeable of Jewish law, to replace him.
After some time, the community realized that his lack of knowledge was a problem, and they asked the Amsterdam community to send them a chazzan who would also serve as a temporary rabbi. Rabbi Jeosuah Piza, a student of Yeshivas Eitz Chaim, arrived in 1815. However, minor issues regarding things Rabbi Piza did (such as using a different wording to end kiddush) upset some in the community, and in December of 1818, Piza was honorably suspended from his position.
This suspension created a deep divide in the community, and a large group left. The separatists organized their own services and bought land to make their own cemetery. At the behest of the Machamad, which wanted to retain control over the community, the government once again became involved, trying to force the community to reunite, but the peace was very shaky.
The situation kept getting worse.
At the time, the Reform movement was spreading amongst German Jews in America, and the Curacao community, already weakened by strife, began to copy them. In 1864, one-third of the Jewish community broke away because they wanted to use an organ in shul on Shabbat. They built a new building that they called Temple Emanuel, and they established their own cemetery at Berg Altena.
Looking to cut his losses and appeal to the masses, the Chacham of Mikveh Yisroel, Rabbi Aron Mendes Chumaceiro, decided to make changes as well to liberalize the congregation.
Rabbi Isaac Leeser of Philadelphia, a prominent and vocal fighter against Reform, strongly criticized these changes in his periodical “The Occident." He wrote, “We deeply regret that the rabbi should have found himself compelled to yield to the introduction of instrumental music in the synagogue…and it is futile to have this work done by a non-Jew."
By 1964, due to assimilation, intermarriage, and emigration, neither Mikveh Israel nor Emmanuel could gather a minyan. They decided to reunite as Mikveh Israel-Emmanuel.
Today, Mikveh Israel-Emanuel still holds 18 Torah Scrolls that are centuries old. They are kept in the beautiful shul, built with great devotion. However, the strong Torah community that once thrived here, rooted in Spanish-Portuguese tradition, is now gone.
The Ashkenazi Community
Ashkenazi Jews started coming to Curaçao in the 1920s and 30s. Many did not plan to settle there, but when their ships stopped in Curacao, some decided to stay. Most were poor and earned a living by selling goods in rural areas, often buying from the Sephardi Jews already on the island. Over time, they opened shops and later larger stores.
As the Ashkenazi Jews became more successful, they formed their own community \called Shaarei Tzedek. In 2006, they dedicated a new shul with a stunning glass dome. Today, the shul follows Ashkenazi customs, but Sephardim also pray there. The Chabad of Curacao uses the shul for its services and programs.
No Visa Required: Escaping Lithuania for Curacao (Sort of)
In 1939, two-thirds of Poland had been conquered by Germany, and one-third was under the rule of the Soviet Union. For a brief period at the end of 1939 and in early 1940, Lithuania was a neutral country. Recognizing a window of opportunity, Reb Chaim Ozer Grodzensky, leader of European Jewry, sent urgent telegrams to the yeshivas he could make contact with in Soviet-controlled Poland, urging them to escape to Lithuania en masse, hoping they would be saved in that manner. They followed his directive. However, when the Soviets invaded Lithuania in June of 1940, the haven of Lithuania was no longer safe for Jews.
Nachum Zvi (Nathan) Gutwirth, originally from Holland, was a student at Telshe Yeshiva and he joined the yeshiva as it fled to Lithuania. After the invasion, he too was desperate to escape Soviet rule, yet he could not return to his native Holland, because the Nazis had already taken it over. Nachum Zvi remembered from his school years that the Dutch owned an island called Curacao, 60 miles north of Venezuela. He thought that, as a Dutch citizen, he might be able to travel there and find freedom.
To leave the Soviet Union, a person needed an exit visa from Russia, a transit visa through Japan or another country, and a final destination. Knowing he could only get the first two if he had a destination, Nachum Dovid wrote to the Dutch Ambassador in Riga to ask for a visa to Curacao. The Ambassador replied that he did not need a visa for Curacao, just permission from the island’s governor, and only the governor could give that.
After thinking it over, Nachum Dovid had an idea that would later save thousands, including the students and teachers of the famed Mir Yeshiva. He asked the Ambassador to write on his passport, “No Visa to Curacao required," hoping this would help him get the Russian exit visa and the Japanese transit visa.
To his great joy, the Ambassador was amenable to that and wrote to Nachum Dovid that he could go to the Dutch honorary consul, Jan Zwartendyk, based in Kovno, to have the words written on his passport.
On July 24, Zwartendyk, who was an acquaintance of Nachum Dovid, wrote “No visa to Curacao required" on Nachum Dovid’s passport. (Interestingly, just two days before, on July 22nd, another Dutch native who was stranded in Lithuania, Peppy Lewin, had the same idea and received “Curacao visas" for herself and her husband.) When two of the teachers of the Mir Yeshiva, Rabbi Leib Malin and Reb Lazer Portnoy, heard about Nachum Dovid’s idea, they approached him and asked if he could get the statement stamped on the passports of the 300 members of the Mir Yeshiva. Assisted by five Mir students, Zwartendyk was more than happy to help.
With the Curacao “visas," Nachum Dovid, the Mir Yeshiva, and about 2,000 others received transit visas from Chiune-Sempo Sugihara to travel through Japan. After also getting exit visas from Russia, they managed to escape Nazi and Soviet Europe.
The Curacao Connection
In a remarkable turn of history, Curacao, once called “The Mother Congregation of the Americas" and home to about 2,000 Jews at its peak, played a key role in saving Jews who escaped Europe with the 2,000 “Curacao" visas. Among the refugees, the Mir Yeshiva stood out, later rebuilding Jewish life and Torah institutions in America and Israel after the Holocaust.
Perhaps there is a spiritual connection between the Curacao community’s dedication to Jewish community and Jewish education, and the fact that it was the destination that enabled the Mir Yeshiva and hundreds of other Jews to escape the Holocaust and rebuild Jewish communities in America and Israel after the war.
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