Becoming Jamaica's Rabbi: Looking Back and Moving Forward

Rabbi Dana Kaplan's Version of Jewish History in Jamaica and how he came to lead the Shaare Shalom Synagogue in Kingston

The history of the Jews in Jamaica is fascinating, stretching back hundreds of years. Allow me to give you a taste.

The first Jews came to the island with the Spanish in 1494. Of course, they were not practicing Jews since the entire Jewish community of Spain had been given the choice of converting to Catholicism or going into exile -- a double exile -- just two years earlier. During that period, large masses of Jews "converted" to Christianity in order to escape expulsion and persecution. They became Conversos, also derogatorily called Marranos, practicing their Judaism in secret. Some of these Conversos managed to leave Portugal for Jamaica, hoping to escape from the constant pressure of the inquisitors. We know relatively little of their inner lives. Presumably many, but certainly not all, tried to practice their faith privately, very discreetly.

Many of the Spanish Jews traveled by land across the Iberian peninsula into Portugal where they were offered freedom of religion. But that freedom was revoked just five years later. The Portuguese king made plans to forcibly convert many Portuguese Jews, particularly younger ones, while expelling the others. Once he realized that many Portuguese Jews would still leave, he changed course and forcibly converted every single Jew in the country. Fortunately, the inquisition was not introduced into the country in the beginning, giving the Conversos time to adapt to a pressurized and schizophrenic existence.

Although prohibited from emigrating, many still found ways to leave the country, moving to Portuguese Jewish communities in Hamburg, London, Livorno and especially Amsterdam. Over the next 150 years, some of these former Conversos came from Amsterdam to the Caribbean.
Many of them settled in Port Royal and later Spanish Town andKingston as well numerous smaller towns throughout the island, including Falmouth, Montego Bay and Alligator Pond.

Another wave of Jewish immigrants came to Jamaica after the 1655 British colonization of Jamaica. Although archaeologists have not positively identified its remains, a small synagogue was apparently constructed in Port Royal, a hustling and bustling commercial center known for pirates and crime. Much of the city literally sank into the ocean after a massive earthquake in 1692. The bulk of the Jewish community shifted to Spanish Town and then, after it became the capital in 1872, to Kingston. The separate Sephardic and Ashkenazi congregations merged in 1921 to form the United Congregation of Israelites.

Read More @ PHOTO LINK:
www.huffingtonpost.com/rabbi-dana-kaplan/becoming-jamaicas-rabbi-l_b_1435685.htm l?ref=religion

A-Side Reading: Judaism & Rastafarianism:
http://debate.uvm.edu/dreadlibrary/ebardfield.html