Looking forward to....

Treasure Beach Forum: TB Runnin's: Looking forward to....
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Rootsinclusive on Wednesday, February 02, 2011 - 07:01 pm: Edit Post

...programs on our multicultural history. I often wonder why the artificial black/white dichotomy is encouraged. It only divides and encourages those who exploit divisions.

I want to hear more on our Taino, Celtic, Sephardic and etc ancestors. Black is beautiful, being human is a miracle.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By JuJu on Thursday, February 03, 2011 - 11:00 am: Edit Post

Just read an amazing novel,The Coffee Trader,which takes place in Amsterdam in 1659.Coffe has not yet become a popular drink,only the Turks and Arabs use it.The main character is a Sephardic Jew,who recently fled Spain,to escape the Inquisition,and becomes one of the first traders in that comodity.The names of many of the Jewish characters are the same that many Jamaicans families carry to this day:the same People who left home for the same reasons.These folks were welcomed to Amsterdam,and were free to practice their religion,and to study the ancient texts which had been forbidden them for so long in their countries of origion.They were not allowed to do Bisiness with the Dutch,however.The Dutch,about that time, established "modern" ways of business which are still used,ie,the stock market,tading in futures etc.This is a very interesting novel,written by David Liss.It gave me real insight into what it must have been like for some of Jamaica's Sephardic settlers.Jamaica was lucky,the Inquisition did not come here,unlike in Mexico,where people fled up into what eventually became parts of the United States,like New Mexico.Some of these people knew nothing of their heritage until recently.As for the Dutch,Rebecca,even then they had the reputation of being very organized,good at business,and super clean!


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Rebecca on Thursday, February 03, 2011 - 06:26 pm: Edit Post

Yes, JuJu, gotta love that Dutch clean! But seriously, hope you are bringing that book with you as I'd love a read off of it.

I was just given the latest Andrea Levy's (a name I'm sure was in The Coffee Trader) new book called The Long Song. No pun intended but I'll trade ya the one book for the other.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By turey on Thursday, February 03, 2011 - 08:00 pm: Edit Post

Thanks JuJu, here is a timeline of the Jews in Jamaica: http://ucija.org/Jamaica/jajews.pdf

I wonder why the Colon-Bragaza family did not
invite the Inquisition to Jamaica?

Seems like they were welcome as long as they kept their religious practices quite.

I havn't read the late Ed Kritzler's Jewish pirates of the Caribbean, has anyone?

http://www.jewishpiratesofthecaribbean.com/


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By turey on Thursday, February 03, 2011 - 08:02 pm: Edit Post

Francis Williams, free black Jamaican scholar in the 18th Century.

http://www.math.buffalo.edu/mad/special/Williams_Francis1700-70.html


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By turey on Friday, February 04, 2011 - 01:40 am: Edit Post

Correction: " Seems like they, the Jews, were welcome....".


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Zed on Friday, February 04, 2011 - 10:24 am: Edit Post

Excellent LINK, turey...some interesting individual stories in the Diaspora section:

Tony MacFarlane: Another diaspora Jamaican Jew... a recently retired doctor and mohel who is now writing his memoirs. Born in 1937 in Falmouth, Jamaica, his paternal grandmother was Agatha Mendes but it was not until he left Jamaica to study medicine in Canada that he had an opportunity to learn about Judaism. A visit to a reform synagogue led to an interest in theology and his conversion in 1961...
“My grandmother was a Jewess. In Jamaica there are a lot of family secrets, people don’t talk about. She was the illegitimate child of a Jewish man. My great grandfather was David Pereira Mendes”.
What was the attraction of Judaism for him?
“If you are brought up without knowledge of your background and find the source of knowledge as an adult its very powerful”.


Jessie Brooks: another black Jamaican with Jewish ancestry....a lecturer in business studies, born in London, has an infectious laugh and lots of enthusiasm. She was introduced to Judaism five years ago when a friend took her along to the Kabbalah Centre. "I'd never seen a torah scroll in my life. I thought it was wonderful, I was so in awe of it, so emotional. I went every Friday night. I loved everything, the people, the food... I decided I wanted to convert....

At that time I didn't even know there were Jews in Jamaica. It was only 18 months ago that I found I had Jewish forbears. Rabbi Ginsbury gave me books about the history of the Jews and I discovered there were Jews in Jamaica. 'Are you sure?' I said "Synagogues. Where? 21 cemeteries, where? I've never seen one.' I became so engrossed that I couldn't even sleep. It all started to make sense. There is so much in Jamaica that was influenced by the Jews.
The mourning period for instance. We have a "Nine Night" which is quite similar to the shiva. And red pea soup, a Jamaican version of cholent, is cooked slowly over the fire on Friday to provide for the rest days over the weekend.

I started to look into my family history. My grandfather on my mother's side, Papa Levy, had a Hebrew book, which no-one was allowed to touch. There is another Jewish Jamaican lady in our congregation and her name is Clarke – and so was my father's: my grandfather was Santander Clarke, so we are looking into that. When the British took over the island from Spain in 1967 and people got naturalised they often took British names.


Ed Kritzler: A Jamaican resident and author (Columbus' Gold)... It's all about survival. In the face of the Inquisition and always on the run from it, we settled in Jamaica and the New World, and we survived. Jamaican Jews have a strong ego that says, ‘We are Jamaican Jews, we have a stake in this country and we were here before the English.’

Ainsley Henriques:...asked why those who remained stay Jewish? He replied “Old habits are hard to shed...This is a pluralistic society that respects everyone’s religion, and it will be Jamaican economic opportunity and tolerance that will ensure our survival for at least another generation”.

Out of Many Cultures: The People Who Came::The Jews in Jamaica

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/pages/history/story0054.htm

The imposing Jewish synagogue (Sharei Shalom) on Duke Street is definitely worth a visit as a symbol of the laying down roots and a anchor of belonging.

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. (Marilyn Delavante: "beautiful white Jamaican sand")
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.


We've also heard the conjecture that during periods of persecution, hidden chambers were constructed under the main synagogue floor to hide the "wanted", with the sand from above sifting through cracks in the floor as a warning that "others" were motioning in the building.

The synagogue “Shaangare Shalom” – Gates of Peace – in downtown Kingston is cited by Olive Senior in 2003 as “now the only Jewish place of worship in Jamaica". It was built in 1912 replacing an earlier 1881 building that was destroyed in the earthquake of 1907. The later construction was built in reinforced concrete but in the style of the earlier synagogue, with roof, gallery and pillars belonging to the original model.

There were originally two Jewish congregations in Kingston – the Sephardim and the Ashkenazim, representing Jews of Mediterranean and Middle European origins respectively. Olive Senior notes that the first Jewish people in Jamaica were Sephardi of Spanish, Portuguese and Northern African origins from areas including Brazil, Holland, England, Guyana an Suriname who were present before 1665.

After the 1770’s, the Ashkenazi Jews arrive from Germany and Eastern Europe. Senior dates unification of Sephardi and Ashkenazi in 1883; however, L. Emile Martin (1995) states that this was an unsuccessful attempt with separate synagogues consequently built in Kingston in Orange Street (by Ashkenazim) and in East Street (by Sephardim). Final amalgamation of Jewish congregations took place with the United Congregation of Israelites in 1921.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Stu Ward on Friday, February 04, 2011 - 11:23 am: Edit Post

Just as JuJu celebrates David Liss's The Coffee Trader, turey's Link to the Jews of Jamaica uncovers The Art of Anna Ruth Henriques:

Anna Ruth Henriques "probably encapsulates better than anyone the nature of Jamaican Jewish identity. Her father is from a Jewish family that goes back to 15th century Spain. Her mother represents two other strands of Jamaican ethnicity – Afro-Carribean and Asian.
Her achievement is to have used all aspects of her background in artworks that have intense Jewish content but have also been acclaimed as having much to say about Jamaican identity as a whole. In the words of the Canadian academic, Diana Cooper-Clark... she expresses "the dynamism of displacement and fluidity, found in the many nations, races, sexual orientations and cultures, that constitutes Caribbean identity... Unlike many North Americans and Europeans who narrate Caribbean identity primarily in terms of the African legacy, Henriques foregrounds aboriginal Tainos, Sephardic Jews, and gay men, groups largely invisible in contemporary thought and art ".


We are holding in our hands this remarkable little treasure, The Book of Mechtilde, described as a "modern-day illuminated manuscript" from Anna that "weaves together the words and paintings the story of her mother's life and death."

The book came to life at the kitchen table of her grandparents house outside Kingston, where she grew up. Twenty one years young when the 'devotion" began, she worked on this weaving of the biblical with the personal for seven years, as an "act of love" to both celebrate and mourn her mother, Sheila Mechtilde Henriques (nee Chong), who had died of breast cancer when Anna was eleven years old.

She, like, Job, lived a virtuous life but was afflicted by pain, suffering and loss. In the book, the historical journey of Jamaica, the Land of Jah (the Rastafarian God) is intertwined with Mechtilde's cancer-ridden body. “It addresses issues of undeserved human suffering and the apparent silence of God on the one hand, and the restoration of freedom, spontaneity and loyalty on the other. These concerns are seminal to the history of Jamaica, Mechtilde, and the Book of Job that is Israel's history up to the Exile." (Diana Cooper-Clark)

The flyleaf from The Book of Mechtilde flourishes it as a story "in the form of a fable, sometimes in prose, sometimes in poetry.
Each scene is illustrated with a painting encircled with calligraphy and set in a gold border of flowers, fruit or symbolic creatures.
Both the story and the paintings are enriched by Anna's remarkable family heritage--Jewish and Christian, European, African, Chinese, Indian, and Creole--and her amazing drive to use her enormous artistic gifts to transform loss into a passionate celebration of life."


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By turey on Friday, February 04, 2011 - 01:48 pm: Edit Post

Morales Padron published the Spanish edition in '52. This is the English translation of Spanish Jamaica.

http://www.amazon.com/Spanish-Jamaica-Francisco-Morales-Padron/dp/0974215511

Yamaye through the eyes of a Spanish Roman Catholic. The English are all pirates. The Taino hunted and reduced to slavery. The only Taino boys that swallowed the program were those educated by the 'fathers'. Shudder....

I was touched when an ecclesiastic described Jamaica as "My wife". One wonders what heresies may have crept in among them when among our Indios (In Dios!). Redbway and I conjectured that 'going native' may have been the reason for the move to Spanish Town, not the swampy air.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Stuck in a Snowbank on Friday, February 04, 2011 - 06:12 pm: Edit Post

Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean is a very good read, although I am very aware of the Spanish Inquisitionhaving learned about it in hebrew school, I did find that I needed to make myself more familiar with the intricacies of the political history of Spain during that time. Many of the pirates were known as "conversos". Conversos were Jewish people who had been baptized into Christianity but they and their descendants practiced Judaism in secret while in Spain.
Shalom


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By turey on Friday, February 04, 2011 - 08:12 pm: Edit Post

White slaves in the West Indies.

http://wvwnews.net/story.php?id=396


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Stew on Friday, February 04, 2011 - 10:04 pm: Edit Post

JuJu counting her coffee beans ju-liciously

According to the Source-erer:
• Coffee, as a world commodity, is second only to oil.

• French writer and philosopher Voltaire (1694-1778) is said to have drank 50 cups of coffee per day.

• Bach wrote a coffee cantata in 1732


• Dennis still roasting coffee stooped over an open fire near Section in the Blue Mountains?

• By 1814 there were 600 coffee plantations on the island (of Jamaica). In the 1830s with the abolition of slavery came a shortage of labour and a decline in coffee production. The harvesting of coffee is labour intensive because the beans are handpicked when ripe, one at a time.
By 1850 only 186 coffee plantations were still in operation. Close to 100 years later, in 1943, the coffee industry nearly collapsed due to labour shortages, mismanagement and a lack of organization....


LINK:
http://jamaica-gleaner.com/pages/history/story0029.html


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Gladys Finlason on Monday, February 07, 2011 - 06:58 am: Edit Post

I read with great interest all of the above. I read the articles and see pictures of the Jewish people in Jamaica. The Henriques', The Matalons', etc.

My Grandfather and his 5 brothers were in Panama building the Canal when the earthquake took place in 1907 in Jamaica. They were called back to Jamaica to help build back Kingston.The Ward Theatre was built back by Henriques Brothers. In fact, the main one of the brothers, his name was Dossie won 100 pounds as having the best design. It still stands today. Then they built the synagogue. There are only three synagogues in this part of the world with sand on the floor.

I remember old man Vernon Henriques say that none of them went to school. He said he went two days. One day it rained and the second day the teacher did not come. The five brothers were Owen Karl, Horace (he died at a young age from TB), Vernon, Rudolph (Dossie), Fabian and one sister, Rebecca.

Owen Karl married and had one child. A girl name Rosa.

Horace married and had several children. Kenneth (was a dentist) Horace (a doctor in Mandeville), Emanuel and two girls. Ainsley's grandfather. Anna Ruth Henriques' Great Grand Father.

Vernon married Gladys Simons from Panama and they had six children. Daniel, who died as a baby, Verna, (Marilyn Delevante's mother), Yola (my mother), Vernon (who we called Brother), Rudolph, (Dossie) and Samuel.

Rudolph married and had three children.

Fabian married and had two children.

I am the daughter of Yola, she married Ivan Delevante. They also fled from Nothern Italy. Some went to America and some to Jamaica.

Marilyn Delevante (my first cousin) has written two books all about the Jews in Jamaica as well as one about the Hunt's Bay Jewish Cemetary.

I could go on and on as it is a subject very near and dear to my heart.

The Jewish people have a saying, "if you do not know where you are coming from, you will never know where you are going".


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Zed on Monday, February 07, 2011 - 11:31 am: Edit Post

Thank You Gladys (Delevante) Finlason for that fascinating personal history, especially your little "aside" of the Delevante's fleeing from Northern Italy.

Do we not associate the Explorer of a Fresh Start, Christopher Columbus (or Cristoforo Columbo...or Cristobal Colon) with the commercial city of Genoa, also in Northern Italy...thought to be a "refuge" port in his father's life?

The Question of whether Columbus was Jewish from a family of converts (conversos) has been tossed around throughout history:

On March 31, 1492 the Edict of Expulsion (also called the Alhambra Decree) was signed. Every Jew in Spain was forced to choose between conversion to Christianity or leaving the country forever without their possessions. 150,000 Jews left Spain, many first went to Portugal, and following expulsion to the Ottoman Empire.
On July 31st (7th of Av), the last Jew left Spain according to some sources and August 2nd (9th of Av), according to others. Columbus sailed on August 3, 1492. He did insist, however, that all of his crew be on board August 2nd, which was the not only the day all Jews had to leave Spain but also the 9th of AV.

Small wonder, Columbus's Jewish roots, if genuine, are obscure. If he were known to be a Jew, he could not have received support at the Court of Isabelle and Ferdinand. If he were known to be a Converso, his fate might have been worse. It is tragic that so many Jews gave up so much hoping to be spared persecution. It is ironic that they were rewarded with a higher level of persecution. Worst of all, Queen Isabelle, responsible for such persecution, torture and death is revered and admired by many.


www.fortunecity.com/millenium/southwater/113/was_christopher_columbus_jewish.htm

Italy asserts that Cristoforo Colombo was born in Liguria of humble means. They claim his father, Domenico Colombo, was a tower sentinel in Genoa and later a weaver in Savona.

Spain insists that Cristobal Colon was the son of Domingo Colon, a wool trader, and Susanna Fontanarossa, both of Pontevedra, Spain.

Other sources present the view that Columbus' family were Spaniards who lived in Italy but later returned to Spain, resuming their original family name of Colon.

Fifteenth century Portugal was Europe's dominant sea power, with Lisbon, its ocean-port capital, the center of navigational science and nautical speculation.

Arriving in Lisbon in 1476, Columbus engaged in cartography as well as working in his brother's book business. It was from the interchanges with scholars that Columbus crystallized his La Empresa de la Indies, his Enterprise of the Indies.

He felt predestined, chosen for a mission. His name, Christ-Topher ("Christ-bearer"), he felt was evidence of his destiny.

Columbus was more driven by prophecy than astronomy. He compiled a collection of Biblical passages in his Libro de las Profecias, Book of Prophecies: Proverbs 8:27, which speaks of the earth's surface as being curved;Isaiah 40:22, the spherical earth; and the ocean currents in Isaiah 43:16.5

He would later describe his discovery of the New World as "the fulfillment of what Isaiah prophesied," from Isaiah 24:15, "Isles beyond the sea," and Isaiah 60:9.6

He also would have at least suspected the existence of the American continent. In his personal library was the 1472 edition of Bibliothecae Historicae, written by Diodorus Siculus, a first century b.c. Greek historian who spoke of "a very great island many day's sailing from Africa."

Many Portuguese cartographers were aware of the "Isle of Seven Cities," Antlia, located in the Western Atlantic. Also, a passage by Roger Bacon, "the sea between the end of Spain on the west and the beginning of India on the east is navigable in a very few days if the wind is fav-orable," was cited by Columbus in a letter to Ferdinand and Isabella in 1498 as one of the suggestions that had inspired his voyage in 1492.

In 1483, Columbus' plan was rejected simply because they felt that the distance was too great.

In 1487, Columbus left Portugal for Spain, and in 1489 he gained an audience with Queen Isabella, and built his arguments on evangelistic aspects. She was so impressed theologically she submitted it to a special commission at the University of Salamanca, but in 1490 it was again rejected as the distance being too great.

However, the Queen assured Columbus that he could petition her again after the Reconquista was completed. When Granada, the last Muslim stronghold, fell in January of 1492, Columbus was summoned and the issue was reopened.

When asked what he required to complete his plan, Columbus, to ensure the well-being of his now impoverished family, included 10% of all treasure and trade resulting. The extent of his requirements, along with the cost of the war, made it impossible for Spain to underwrite the expedition.

Soon after Columbus was dismissed, three men, Juan Cabrero, Luis de Santangel, and Gabriel Sanchez approached the monarchs. Aside from their being Conversos, these were not ordinary Spaniards.
Santangel was a member of one of the wealthiest and most influential families in Spain, as well as the King's personal advisor. Juan Cabrero was Ferdinand's intimate friend who had fought by the King against the Muslims. Gabriel Sanchez was the Chief Treasurer of Spain. They offered to finance Columbus' project and it was accepted.


Some scholars believe that Santangel and his associates were willing to finance Columbus in the hope of finding a new Promised Land to which they might emigrate and escape the pressure of the church.
(Chuck Missler--from the Koinonia)


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By turey on Monday, February 07, 2011 - 11:35 am: Edit Post

Thanks Gladys. Whenever I want my Jewish family history, I go to Marilyn, Ainsley or yourself.

My African and Celtic history is probably hidden deep in some archive or burnt in a Great House fire. My Tainos show themselves through their cohoba trance inspired stone carvings. Watch your step, they have left their reminders everywhere.

The Spanish Inquisition, the clearances in Ireland and the Scottish rebellions should all be taught early on, unless we consider our pickney dem incapable of understanding such things. The consequences of tribalism and the tetse fly in Sub Saharan Africa and the ancient migrations to the Middle East are important parts of out history. Why leave it to be spun by some that would weave facts to suite their questionable ends?


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Zed on Monday, February 07, 2011 - 01:54 pm: Edit Post

Jewmaicans

Miss Gladys, you may recognize some scenes and persons (perhaps a relative or three) from this slide show:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKkfkJgEQdg&NR=1

One of the most endearing prayers derived from Jewish philosophy is Tikkun olam from the Aleinu which translates "to heal, repair and transform the world". The principle is followed not out of obligation to Biblical itexts solely, but to avoid social chaos.

As interpreted by some Jewish scholars, "tikkun olam means that Jews are not only responsible for creating a model society among themselves but also are responsible for the welfare of the society at large." (Wiki)

New Torah-Scroll Celebration At Sharei Shalom (Gates of Peace) Synagogue
Notice the white sand floor and the unique sensations of sacredness and nature enmeshed...on the shores of...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIY6p7zcDp4
Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me...Let me walk with my brother in perfect harmony!

Heal Jamaica
www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDX14fmED4E&feature=relate


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By z on Monday, February 07, 2011 - 03:07 pm: Edit Post

On Another Tangent:
Ed Kritzler, who wrote Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean: How A Generation of Jews Carved Out an Empire in the New World in Their Quest for Treasure, Religious Freedom--and Revenge, died September 20, 2010 in Jamaica, at age 69, after a long bout of cancer and stomach surgeries.
He had been married to his Jamaican "sweetheart", Marcia Shade, in a Jewish ceremony in Kingston barely a year ago, with a serenade by the great Bob Andy.
He was described variously in eulogies as a "warm and principled free spirit...a life force, a spinner of stories and a great dancer".

Ed's website portrayed him as "a recognized authority on Jamaica... authored hundreds of articles on the island and in his 10 year tenure with the Jamaica Tourist Board, he was in charge of arranging and touring members of the foreign press and broadcast media. Serving as Jamaica’s film liaison officer he was responsible for over a dozen feature films and network documentaries."

Here he is discussing the subjects of his book on VIDEO:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFSjKaiN47I&NR=1

Pirates (Ed Kritzler)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpMU-3co6j8&feature=related

Kirkus Review of Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean:

At the dawn of the Age of Discovery, writes Jamaica-based historian Kritzler in his debut, Jews had been compelled by the Inquisition to convert to Christianity or suffer the auto-da-fé, but many of these conversos secretly maintained their ancient faith.
By the 17th century, some headstrong descendants of the Jews banished by Spain in 1492 emerged as navigators, corsairs and pirates. These adventuresome Hebrews were an interesting lot. They were politicians, international adventurers and licensed privateers in geopolitical competition as much as mere robbers on the high seas.

Covert Jews who never really converted, code-named "Portugals" by those with whom they dealt, sailed with Columbus and da Gama and plundered with Cortés and Pizarro.
Under Barbarossa, a Portugal named Sinan commanded a fleet of 100 ships. Rabbi Palache kept a kosher cuisine aboard his privateer.
Seafaring Jews operated from Holland in its Golden Age and practiced international intrigue from Jamaica, where religion was of no consequence. They settled in Curaçao and New Amsterdam (to the consternation of Peter Stuyvesant.
Portugal conquistadores looted Mexico, and converso traders connived with Cromwell and the King of Spain at the same time.
Cutlasses at the ready together with the occasional holy text, they traded in the sugar of Brazil and the silver of Peru, with some intentions noble and other motives base.

Kritzler ….believes that the fabled gold mine of Columbus is actually on the island of Jamaica, and he and a sponsor have already staked a preemptive mining claim.

Surprising adventures on the high seas with some rogues of the Diaspora.


Ahoy Vey, Ed!

Gleaner Background on Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean includes these observations:
•The Jewish community observed 350 years of Jewish presence in Jamaica in 2006.
• The first Jews in Jamaica settled in Spanish Town, then Port Royal. Most were merchants.
• Jacob and Joshua de Cordova, founders of The Gleaner Company, were Jewish.
• Island Records founder Chris Blackwell is Jewish. His family, the Lindos from Portugal, settled in Jamaica during the 17th century.


• Miss Lou, Jamaica's most renowned storyteller, has written a poem about her Jewish grandfather.

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20081111/ent/ent3.html


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By z on Tuesday, February 08, 2011 - 09:14 am: Edit Post

Sorry, turey...I didn't click on to your link for Ed Kritzler, until just this moment, with the same youtube VIDEOs which I put into my basket. You, having introduced Ed's The Jewish Pirates of Jamaica story, there was little need for my posting....Except, Ed's own website, which you referenced, claims he passed away September 19, 2011.

How supernatural!


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By provocateur on Tuesday, February 08, 2011 - 11:52 pm: Edit Post

z, I think there may be an elephant in the room. Your mention of seafaring Jews "from Holland in its Golden Age" begs the question: were any of them involved in the lucrative trade of human cargo that made Holland one of the powerhouses back then; and were any of these merchants residing in Jamaica at the time? Shakespeare has been villified for "The Merchant of Venice" (different country I know), but could he have been reflecting realities of the times?
Before I'm accused of being a kill-joy, let me say that I readily admit that it was Africans who often captured and delivered the "merchandise". I ask this question out of educational interest and not out of malice.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Zed on Wednesday, February 09, 2011 - 02:25 pm: Edit Post

Read a good deal of Ed Kritzler's Jewish Pirates of Jamaica on-line... especially those intriguing footnotes at the end, which show that he found his way to the stacks of some dusty libraries for research.

http://books.google.com/books?id=Z3M6xn93xYEC&printsec=frontcover&dq=holland+%26 +jews+age+of+discovery&source=bl&ots=FG_AXG2eZb&sig=suTQpLqw2JvCM7yl4Dvpu8gcNGs& hl=en&ei=6uZSTfjIMYSglAe6v9DfCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CB0Q 6AEwAg#v=onepage&q&f=false


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By provocateur on Thursday, February 10, 2011 - 10:19 pm: Edit Post

Thank you Zed. There is much here to peruse but I will do my best in time. I've always been interested in this genre. My wife and I are planning a trip to Cartagena Colombia and look forward to seeing and learning more.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Zed on Saturday, February 12, 2011 - 06:55 pm: Edit Post

provocateur...more than an elephant in the room when you post: seafaring Jews "from Holland in its Golden Age" begs the question: were any of them involved in the lucrative trade of human cargo that made Holland one of the powerhouses back then; and were any of these merchants residing in Jamaica at the time?

That is more like disturbing a hornets nest and controversies which have not entirely been put to rest and swirls around a Nation of Islam (Black Muslim) tract called The Secret Relationship Between Blacks & Jews. This narrative which laid heavy blame on the Jews having a disproportionate role in the African slave trade was taken up and taught by Professor of African Studies, Tony Martin, a Trinidadian, at the esteemed Wellesley College near Boston, Massachusetts. (US Secretary of State was a graduate). Racist, anti-semitic motives were attributed, with no less David Duke, wizard of the white-supremacist Ku Klux Klan, spreading its message.

All hell broke loose, at the time, in the 1990s, with argument and counter argument, with some current historical perspective and scholarship catching up. Perhaps, a range of opinions from the American Historical Association might lend some credibility to the polemic.

Jews, Slaves, and the Slave Trade: Setting the Record Straight
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2005/is_3_33/ai_61372270/

Wikibias:Jews and the Slave Trade
http://wikibias.com/2010/10/jews-and-the-slave-trade/

provocateur...my blessed mom used the term you provoker when she felt we were "getting on her nerves" or trying to tease something out of her that she might not particularly want to give up...perhaps out of uncertainty.

You mentioned the Merchant of Venice (subtitled in Shakespeare's day: With the Extreme Cruelty of Shylock the Jew Towards the Said Merchant, in Cutting a Pound of His Flesh..

Shylock was a moneylender, who normally would have charged interest, but in the case of the Venetian merchant, Antonio, who had insulted and spat upon him for being a Jew, possibly from pride or revenge required a "pound of flesh" if the terms of the debt were not honoured.

One of the fascinating experiences of walking around Venice, today, is the strong existence of the Jewish Quarter, where Jews were segregated. The very word, ghetto, which spread to Europe as a sector for isolating minorities, originates from a nasty industrial site for a cannon "foundry" (geto).

Your question suggests that since Jews were attracted to "skilled" professions, (banking, insurance, accounting, trading) that some involvement in shipping must be assumed.

But there is much to suggest to suggest that the great premium that Jews place on education, learning and argument within highly social and religious networks has guaranteed success.
We only have to think of young children preparing for their Bar/ Bat Mitzvahs (a confirmation), studying the Torah & Talmudic interpretations, learning Hebrew as a preview for life-long learning and guide to ethical living, law and tradition.

A Paper: Jewish Occupational Selection: Education, Restrictions, or Minorities? by Maristella Botticini & Zvi Eckstein/ May 2004) asks:
Why since the ninth century have the Jews been engaged primarily in urban, skilled occupations, such as crafts, trade, finance, and the medical profession?
Why were the Jewish people a minority in many urban centers and towns? Why did this occupational selection and demographic characteristics become the distinctive mark of the Jews?


The distinctive occupational and residential structure of the Jews has been one of the central questions studied by scholars of Jewish history.


The paper stresses the primacy of literacy in the Jewish population, who were moving away from failing agriculture in the Moslem Empire to which many emigrated after the Destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem.

Why were Jewish farmers literate whereas the rest of the rural population was illiterate at the beginning of the eighth century? Our main contribution is to provide the historical evidence of the implementation of a religious and educational reform within Judaism that had started at the beginning of the first millennium. After the Destruction of the Temple in 70 CE, the power in the Jewish community shifted from the priests in the Temple (the Sadducees) to the group that promoted learning and speaking Hebrew (the Pharisees).

The new religious leadership changed Judaism from a religion based on sacrifices to a religion whose main rule required each male Jewish individual to be able to read the Torah and to teach his sons the Torah. This reform was implemented in Eretz Israel, Babylon, and other locations where most Jews were farmers who would not gain anything from investing in education. In other words, this educational reform was not prompted by economic motives but was the outcome of an exogenous change in the religious leadership after the destruction of the Temple.

...because of the implementation of the religious and educational reform within Judaism, Jewish farmers invest more than non-Jewish farmers in their children’s education, and given that, they always prefer to become merchants. Yet, the demand for urban, skilled occupations restricts the proportion of Jews who can engage in these occupations. When the demand for skilled occupations expands, literate Jewish farmers move to the cities.



The Jewish Nation of the Caribbean: The Spanish-Portuguese Jewish Settlements in the Caribbean and the Guianas (Excerpted)
http://books.google.com/books?id=T3t__sdb_SkC&printsec=frontcover&dq=arbell+jewi sh+nation+of+the+caribbean&source=bl&ots=qHTCFNHOuv&sig=EbcNhT3rbN_TozPpPuFG1zgo thk&hl=en&ei=6fZWTdGQOYH7lwf6haChBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0 CCIQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false

Pro-Voca...: Have a great trip to Cartagena, Columbia...bring us back a treasure trove of stories!


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Zed on Sunday, February 13, 2011 - 03:54 pm: Edit Post

Jamaican Jewish Family Surnames (A Partial List):
www.sephardim.org/jamgen/index.html

The Jamaican Courant and Public Advertiser (Sept. 19, 1831)
The Rights of Jewish Citizens in Jamaica:

...Now the Jews are our equals in every capacity---eligible to every office--subject to no degradation, We, of Jamaica cease to have a State religion, and conscience is no longer manacled by politics...the Legisalture of Jamaica has set a noble example of liberality towards the long-oppressed Jews, by restoring them to their rights as freemen....We view the completion of this measure not of liberality, but of mere justice, with unmeasured delight...
The perseverance of the Jamaican Legislators have at last forced, or rather shamed the liberals of England into a measure of justice--mere justice, to the Jews of Jamaica, which is still denied to the Jews of England....the good times for lawyers and bigots are gone forever...Men, now-a-days, pore not over the absurdities of (such men) when they seek to administer justice: they invoke no aid from a bigot of two centuries ago---they ask not what was the opinion of their fellow-man, with a white whig, and a scarlet gown; but they consider what is just, and what is true, with reference to unadorned reason, and naked right---the only powers whose dictation they allow....People were put in pillories in the olden time, for their opinions.

Oh, it is delightful to see reason and liberality exercising their legitimate sway over the human race.
(1831)

When being a Liberal was something not to make excuses for!

www.sephardim.org/jamgen/news/1831/JewishRightsSep191831.gif


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Zed on Monday, February 14, 2011 - 09:47 am: Edit Post

Jewmaica: Mincha at the Blue Lagoon:
http://talesofawanderingjew.blogspot.com/2007/08/jewmaica-mincha-at-blue-lagoon. html

Mary Delevante chats about Island of One People... and the Jewish Community in Jamaica
www.yardedge.net/interviews/yardedge-talks-to-marilyn-delevante-about-her-work-o n-the-jewish-community-in-jamaica


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By provocateur on Tuesday, February 15, 2011 - 03:05 pm: Edit Post

Thank you for accepting my inquiry in the spirit it was meant Zed. I believe we learn more by asking questions than by being afraid to ask.
I have lived across the street from a synagougue; adjacent to a block that was 100% populated on both sides of the street by observant Jews (and sometimes lit their lamp after sunset if they were unable to do so in time); had a best friend that was Jewish; and have always been interested in people, culture, and history.
You yourself are a treasure trove of information. Give thanks.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By David deCordova, Jr. on Saturday, October 06, 2012 - 09:39 pm: Edit Post

Dear Ms. Finlason:

Please let me first introduce myself. My name is David de Cordova, Jr. My great-great-great grandfather was Jacob deCordova, one of the co-founders of The Gleaner. I presently live in Beaumont, Texas, where I practice law and work in a family real estate business. For years, I have been passionate about my family's Jewish roots as Jacob was Jewish and were many of family's into the deCordovas married, e.g. Ashenheims, Henriques, etc.

I ran across your post on the Treasure Island Forum:

I read with great interest all of the above. I read the articles and see pictures of the Jewish people in Jamaica. The Henriques', The Matalons', etc.

My Grandfather and his 5 brothers were in Panama building the Canal when the earthquake took place in 1907 in Jamaica. They were called back to Jamaica to help build back Kingston.The Ward Theatre was built back by Henriques Brothers. In fact, the main one of the brothers, his name was Dossie won 100 pounds as having the best design. It still stands today. Then they built the synagogue. There are only three synagogues in this part of the world with sand on the floor.

I remember old man Vernon Henriques say that none of them went to school. He said he went two days. One day it rained and the second day the teacher did not come. The five brothers were Owen Karl, Horace (he died at a young age from TB), Vernon, Rudolph (Dossie), Fabian and one sister, Rebecca.

Owen Karl married and had one child. A girl name Rosa.

Horace married and had several children. Kenneth (was a dentist) Horace (a doctor in Mandeville), Emanuel and two girls. Ainsley's grandfather. Anna Ruth Henriques' Great Grand Father.

Vernon married Gladys Simons from Panama and they had six children. Daniel, who died as a baby, Verna, (Marilyn Delevante's mother), Yola (my mother), Vernon (who we called Brother), Rudolph, (Dossie) and Samuel.

Rudolph married and had three children.

Fabian married and had two children.

I am the daughter of Yola, she married Ivan Delevante. They also fled from Nothern Italy. Some went to America and some to Jamaica.

Marilyn Delevante (my first cousin) has written two books all about the Jews in Jamaica as well as one about the Hunt's Bay Jewish Cemetary.

I could go on and on as it is a subject very near and dear to my heart.

The Jewish people have a saying, "if you do not know where you are coming from, you will never know where you are going"

I've been working sometime on the deCordova genealogy, and more recently on this branch of the Henriques family, specifically some of the family members you named above (I was unaware of some of them.). My work on the deCordova tree is online at ancestry.com, and I would be happy to share my work with you. My goal is an accurate and complete (as far as is possible) genealogy, for the sake of those that come after us. We enjoy a very rich family history, something we should be proud of and preserve. I am mist interested in obtaining your cousins book about the Jews of Jamaica. As a side note. The Gleaner hosted me for a day in February 2012, and asked me to write a brief article from the deCordovas on Jamaica's anniversary. What a pleasure! I do intend to return to Jamaica, where I hope to spend many weeks in research and hoping to meet relatives.

Thank you for your kind consideration, and please do not hesitate to contact me. I would most welcome the contact!

Kind regards,

David de Cordova, Jr.
Beaumont, Texas