Jews in The New World – Part Four

This is a random look at various Jewish communities in the New World

United States of America

Most people do not know that there were very few Jews in the United States until the 1700s, when
many went from the Caribbean to South Carolina, as the Constitution of that State specifically
protected Jews.

Until about 1830 Charleston, South Carolina had more Jews than anywhere else in North America.
Most of these were Sephardi Jews who arrived before the Revolutionary War. 

Large scale Jewish immigration to America did not commence until the late nineteenth century, when
secular Ashkenazim from Germany arrived. This immigration was a result of persecution in parts of
Eastern Europe.

It is estimated that between 1880 and 1920 over 2,000,000 Jews reached America and more would have followed if America hadn’t passed the National Origins Quota in 1924 which restricted immigration.

Most of those who arrived in this great wave settled in New York City and its immediate environs.

In other parts of the New world, immigration of Jews was a bit different.

Brasil

Discovered by a Jew, the first community of Jews were Conversos, that is Jews who had pretended to convert to Christianity.  The first synagogue in the New World was built in Recife in 1636.

Moroccan Jews began to arrive In 1810 and settled in the Amazon region in the North. 

Immigration fell between 1891 and 1900, however, as immigration became a bit difficult for Jews in North America, Russian Jews began to arrive at Rio Grande do Sol.

Despite the fact that   Jews were the earliest arrivants there are only about 86,000 to 96,000 Jews remaining in Brasil.

Many are the Ashkenazim who arrived from Eastern Europe or Russia, or and Egyptian Jews, few are of the original settlers.

The major problem of Jewry in Brasil is intermarriage.

Barbados

Jews arrived in Barbados in 1654. These were Sephardic Jews as refugees from Dutch Brazil.
They brought expertise in the production and cultivation of sugarcane which resulted in Barbados
becoming a major producer of sugar.

Unlike the case in Suriname, few of the Barbadian Sephardim were plantation owners. Given the small size of Barbados, all the arable land was already occupied by the 1660s.

As in Jamaica, the Jews of Barbados settled in the city as merchants. Many of the descendents of these arrivants still remain although they are no longer practicing Jews.

The original Jewish population in 1929 when the last of the practising descendants of the Brazilian Jews left the island.

A Jewish presence returned to the island in the aftermath of World War II, in the form of Ashkenazi Jewish refugees from Eastern Europe.

Jews who were freed from concentration camps also settled in Jamaica. Some remained, but others migrated as soon as they were able.

Suriname

Suriname has the oldest Jewish community in the Americas.  During the Inquisition in Portugal and Spain many Jews fled to Holland. The Dutch government offered the opportunity to travel to Brasil. The Portuguese forced many Jews to move to the northern Dutch colonies of the Guyanas.  Jews reached Suriname in 1639.

Today, as in Jamaica, only about 200 Jews remain, again, this is due to immigration and assimilation.