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Jews Trinidad Tobago - Trinidad, Tobago / Caribbean - Posted: 7th Mar, 2014 - 11:12pm
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Jews In Trinidad And Tobago
As a foreigner, many times I wondered where are the Jews in Trinidad and Tobago? Upon inquiring to several locals, the answer was always the same: There are none, we do not have Jews. It was quite amazing to me because after World War II, Jews were known to migrate to different countries, why Trinidad was the exception? Upon research, I discovered many interesting facts.
* One, that in Trinidad we had (by 1939) 600 Jews living in the island.
* Two, there was a synagogue erected on Duke Street in Port of Spain.
* Third, during the Nazi regime there was "camp" for Jews right here in Trinidad.
Please feel free to post your comments/views:
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| The first major Jewish immigration to the islands of Trinidad and Tobago occurred in the late 18th century. Then a second wave of Portuguese Jews arrived in the late 19th century, with a few also arriving from Curacao. Nevertheless, many of these Jews assimilated and intermarried with locals. By the beginning of the 20th century, only 31 practicing Jews remained on the island. One of the most recognized Jews was Sir Nathaniel Nathan who served as Associate Justice of the Trinidad Supreme Court from 1893 to 1900 and Chief Justice from 1900 to 1903. During the 1930s, many Jews fled to Trinidad from Europe escaping Nazi persecution. These new immigrants found housing rented by a Jewish aid society in the capital, Port of Spain. By 1939, the Jewish community had soared to 600 people. These Jews began to call themselves "Calypso Shtetl" or "The Calypso Jews," creating a distinct cultural and religious life in Trinidad. It was during this time that the first synagogue was erected on Duke Street in Port of Spain. Also, a separate section of the Mucuapo Cemetery was reserved for Jewish burials, called Bet Olam. Today, the cemetery upkeep is maintained by Hans Stecher, one of the few remaining Jews in the country. |
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| Unfortunately, the relative stability and bliss which the refugees had settled into was not to last. With the outbreak of war, all refugees deemed to be "enemy aliens" were interned in camps throughout The Caribbean. Trinidad was no exception. In addition to captured Italian and German merchant seamen and German U-boat crews, Trinidad's new "enemy aliens" now included, ironically, those Jewish families who came from Austria or Germany. While an internment camp was being constructed outside of the capital, the Jewish families were housed in barracks on tiny islands off the mainland (Hans Stecher still has a shark's fin saved from the shore during his time on the island.). After a few months in the barracks they were moved back to the mainland. The internment camp, which stood on what are now the residential neighborhoods of Federation Park and Ellerslie Park, is documented at Trinidad's Chaguaramas Military Museum and was surrounded by a tall barbed wire fence with sentry towers and search lights. Although children were given special permissions to attend school outside the camp, understandably, many of the refugees felt deeply insulted by this course of events. In 1943, they were released with certain wartime restrictions. They had to report daily to the nearest police station, were banned from driving cars or riding bicycles, and were under curfew from 8:00 P.M. to 6:00 A.M.. In disgust, some families left. Others stayed and brought back to light the community life they had started before internment. A soccer team was established, the drama club performed plays in Hebrew and Yiddish, they held fund-raisers for Israel, and a schochet was even brought in from The United States. The community was, in a word, vibrant. As the children grew however, the viability of the community was undermined since there was no local university at the time. Once the children went overseas to study few returned to live. Of those who did, many intermarried or assimilated and the community gradually began to dissolve after it reached its peak of 700 people by The Mid 1900's. In The 1970's, Trinidad's political and social stability was threatened by a wave of "Black Power" riots. Fearing for their safety, and haunted by bad memories, the majority of the remaining population migrated en masse. Many created new roots in Canada where they remain to this day. Today, pictures and memories are all that remain of "The Calypso Shtetl". It is hard to believe that at one time Passover Seders were so large they were sometimes hosted at The Trinidad Hilton. |
Interesting Fact:
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| Still, if one looks around, one can find evidence of this brief renaissance of Jewish life in Trinidad. Most notably on every police car, policeman, and police station on the island, is the insignia of the police force which is a hummingbird within a Magen David. A British commander who came to Trinidad from Palestine put a white star against a blue background for the local army symbol, switching the colors of what was to become The Israeli Flag. The hummingbird was later added for local flavor. This makes Trinidad unique in that it is the only police service in The World that does not use its country's Coat of Arms as its official symbol. |
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Tobago Trinidad Jews
Actually there were quite a few but by now most may have immigrated to US or Canada, or even Israel.
I heard that a few were Sepharad from the Dutch Antilles who intermarried with the locals.
There was the Averboukh family who used to own land in Diego Martin/Petit Valley and they used to live in a big house where the Diego/Four Roads Community Center was located (if I remember the name of the place) just before the DM river.
There was also some Jews from Germany who migrated to T&T because they were kicked out and the British at the time granted them sanctuary.
There was also a show about twins that I saw where where there were 2 brothers who were born in Germany but during the war, one brother stayed in Germany because he looked like a Nordic German?! but the other brother (twin) left because he would have been killed. He found his way to Trinidad and he was profiled a few times in the newpapers! He married a local woman!
Post Date: 9th Dec, 2011 - 11:34am / Post ID: #
Tobago Trinidad Jews
Name: Barry
Country: 
Comments: For the Jew who wants to go back to Israel saying that he feels safer there. Boo! Maybe you should go back. But leave the Trinidadian money behind. When last have a Jew come out into the open and support anybody else except them-self. I have some serious opinion for how Jews go about acting like the world is always out to get them. I normally hear about that in America but you are saying that about Trinidad.. Please. "Ketch yourself"
And for the others about this race thing in Trinidad as if its all glitz and glamor all over the world please. So what people don't get killed in Canada too. What makes you think some "white Man" over there will not kill you a white looking man too. Do you think when someone kills its because of race.
And for the other people who want to go all over the world and run from Trinidad please go. Someone else will take your place in the business world or wherever you were. I hope you don't feel that you will be a 100% safe there. You'd have to be foolish to think so.
Importantly though. If the question about how whites are treated here is asked and it is a shallow question to ask at that, would it not get a shallow response? Human being have complex faculties that sometime for simplicity sake gets clumped to form simple designation of being such as black, white, hispanics, reds, local white and whatever. But is done for just that simplicity. How could one who's intelligent receive it as the overarching determinants of state of being.
You say your from Canada and America and Israel with pomp and splendor as if to impress somebody by the region you find yourself in. And funny enough the Trinidadian here, who ought to be smart enough, falls for this doltishness. Saying, as they do, that you shouldn't come here.. Live in west moorings.... Don't walk around certain places... Go to some clubs... breath through your nose...walk using your feet... are you people for real. What in Francis fashions are you suppose to do you own country, the opposite?
[..]ow about trying to appreciate others on common grounds. Making good friends. Or the same thing you ought to be teaching your children. How are you raising your children if within yourself you have not discovered certain levels of banality to overcome?
Post Date: 28th Jul, 2012 - 2:50am / Post ID: #
Tobago Trinidad Jews
Name: Public
Country:
Title: Jews have one enemy
Comments: For my dear 'brother' and all those who struggle to understand why some people hate the Jews - simply because they represent 'The Apple of God's Eye'- God's own words. I recommend that you take up that issue with Jesus personally. It's a Supernatural thing. Again, Satan is real and he can influence people to carry out his plans against 'The Apple of God's Eye', but they don't believe that he is doomed to fail against God - our God. So as God influences for Good, Satan influences for bad. People who hate the Jews can't effectively explain it. It's as if they are possessed with a supernatural hatred for the Jews. It's too easy to hate the Jews, you should leave them to God if you don't understand them, don't stand against... 'The Apple of God's Eye'. With Love...between I am also a Christian.
Post Date: 4th Aug, 2012 - 5:27am / Post ID: #
Jews In Trinidad And Tobago
For my good friend Barry who does not know what in the world he is talking about I think he needs some information to wipe away the ignorance from his mind which seems clearly to be there. This is why I often have the complaint about Trinidadian males since I am a nonwhite Trinidadian male that they indeed do suffer from cultural myopia which represents itself sometimes in an inability to understand other cultures or do proper research before they speak or talk.
1. Firstly the Jews do not want to go back to Israel because they feel "safer." Wrong. It is because Israel historically for a couple thousand of years never was a nation since many of the people groups were scattered to different nations all over the globe. Only in 1948 did they actually become one. It was a fulfillment of Biblical prophecy that the nation of Israel would indeed be reborn. Jewish people want to go back to Israel because they want to be part of the continuation of Israel's history by being part of a nation that never was in existence for thousands of years.
2. Jewish people also want to go back to Israel because it has been spoken about also in Biblical prophecy that the Jews would be regathered from all nations around the world and would one day return back to their original homeland which even till this day is being fulfilled and is astonishingly taking place.
3. For my dear friend Barry who told you that all Jews are white anyway? On the contrary there are in fact black Jews who have been found in the region of Ethiopia and did migrate several years ago from Ethiopia to live in the nation of Israel.
4. Jews deserve to be given equality in the land of Trinidad because I have always believed that the Jews should have a synagogue here in this land just like every one else has their own "place" of worship. If there were no Jews then they could not influence one major part of our protective services because the symbol on the uniforms and police vehicles of Trinidad and Tobago bears the emblem of the star of David which is the very emblem found on the flag of Israel. This therefore makes Trinidad and Tobago and Israel linked because both countries have the symbol of the star of David in their societies.
5. There is still somewhat of a Jewish presence here in Trinidad because there is in fact a Messianic congregation that I know of that practices the Jewish customs here such as the seven feasts of Israel and such I am happy about because the Jewish presence through their customs adds to the melting pot of the society we live in certainly in a really flavorful way.
In conclusion before one wants to go about talking without researching I suggest they hold off on talking for awhile because only that which is well researched especially in regards to the Jews and their presence and influence will always win out in the end. 
Post Date: 18th Feb, 2013 - 2:46pm / Post ID: #
Jews Trinidad Tobago
Name: Ian
Country:
Title: Jewish roots [in Trinidad]
Comments: Many white and mixed Trinidad people have a Jewish root, amongst other rootings a well. From the earliest migratory times, one encounters sephardic type surnames such as Herrera, almost always the offspring of true conversions in the mother country Spain. Towards the end of the Spanish colonial period, a French migratory period began in which names such as Barcant, Borde, Sicar and other Jewish rooted francophiles began to appear; they too were Catholic. With the advent of British colonial rule, the 19th century attracted Sephardic names from the Netherlands Antilles and Coro,Venezuela such as DeLima, Senior, Pereira and others, some members being Jewish, others Catholic by faith. About 25 Brith civil servants were Jewish at the turn of the 19th into the 20th century; Nathaniel Nathan being the most prominant. The 20th century also encountered migration from other British West Indian islands to Trinidad;thence names such as Moze, Massiah, DePass.All of the aforementioned assimilated readily into the local populace, and consequently did not retain their Jewish individual identity, but in most cases retained a memory of jewish rooting.There are two other groups worth mentioning, one exclusively christian, the other exclusively Ashkenazi Jewish. The mid 19th century experienced a 2 phased migration from the Azores, Madeira, Funcal etc, and many of the the descendents of these migrants claim knowledge of a Jewish rooting.The migration that was in every sense of the word jewish was that which preceded the Nazi Holocaust and gave us such familiar names as Yufe, Stecher, Sturmwasser,Carlsbad, Averbough, Salks etc.Unfortunately, in most cases they and the descendents of this once 600 strong community, left Trinidad shortly after 1970.This latter grouping had at one time, a Synagogue, on Duke street, P-O-S.
Jews Trinidad Tobago Trinidad & Tobago / Caribbean
Some Ultra Orthodox Jews who left Canada en route for Guatemala were detained in Trinidad's Piarco Airport as their papers were questionable according to local immigration officials (TV6). Canadian authorities are in talks with Trinidad over the sect which has matters before the Canadian court.
TOPIC: Jews In Trinidad And Tobago