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History of the Jews of the Netherlands Antilles

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  • Subtitle:  [None]
  • Authors:  Rabbi Isaac Samuel Emmanuel and Suzanne Amzalek Emmanuel
  • Publisher:  American Jewish Archives, 1970, – 2 vols, 1165 pp.
  • LOC Permalink:  http://lccn.loc.gov/74108296
  • Availability:  out of print and very expensive; recommend finding in a library

Review

This is an encyclopedic survey of Jewish life on Curaçao over more than three hundred years of its existence.  Rabbi Emmanuel was the spiritual leader of Mikve Israel during much of the extensive research phase, so he had first-hand experience of communal life on the island.  Drawing on documents in half a dozen languages that were stored in archives on three continents, the couple issued the definitive work on the Curaçoan community, which has stood unsurpassed for nearly fifty years in spite of its limitations.

Once the biggest Jewish community in the Western Hemisphere,
Curaçao was the "Mother Community of the Caribbean" in whose footsteps every New World congregation aspired to follow.  Until the 19th century, it loomed large in the affairs of all the Jews of the region, and its storied colonial synagogue still attests to the island's halcyon days.

The first volume provides a fascinating account of the community's rise to prominence, its accomplishments and setbacks, and its fading into modern obscurity.  Rabbi Emmanuel's treatment of the creation of Temple Emanu-El is particularly revealing, and his sense of piercing loss is evident as he mourns the 1963 merger with Mikve Israel that effectively ended 314 years of Western Sephardic civilization on the Island.  The introduction relates the extreme tensions over this chapter that existed between him and the post-merger Parnassim, who significantly censored the text only after giving up a multi-year campaign to suppress it entirely.

The second volume consists of a massive appendix that is as long as the entire narrative portion of the work.  It includes translations of every communal constitution issued prior to the book's publication, more than 150 pages of marriage records that are invaluable for genealogical research, and numerous other supplementary tables and documentation.


Contents – Vol I

Preface, etc.
Earliest attempts to colonize Curaçao
Foundation of Congregation "Mikve Israel"
Economic activity
Advances and setbacks
Relations with government & the Company
Religious zeal, 1717-1740
Oppression and injustices, 1726-1745
Mother community of all the Caribbean
Bitter conflicts of 1744-1750
Economic structure, 1730-1765
Jewish life, 1730-1765
Haham Jacob da Fonseca, 1764-1815
Chaos and conflict, 1764-1815
French oppression & English rule, 1797-1816
Communal strife over Hazan Piza, 1816-1822
The assessors, 1816-1855
The community before the schism of 1864
Dutch Jewish Reform Community, 1864-1963
The Mikve Israel after the division, 1864-1905
Attachment of the community to
Curaçao
Doctors, Surgeons, Dentists, & Pharmacists
Cultural life
Jewish contribution to
Curaçao
Contemporary Period, 1904-1965
Merger of Mikve Israel and Temple Emanu-El
Jews in other Islands of the Dutch West Indies
    7
  37
  51
  62
  84
  99
116
132
151
181
213
231
253
267
283
304
329
353
370
393
411
417
439
465
489
502
518

Contents – Vol II

Hascamoth
Plantations, gardens and "cunucus"
Navigation, 1652-1919
Misc notes on the early Jews of
Curaçao
Marranos in Curaçao
Terra Santa
Licensed brokers
Jewish income tax payers in 1709
Jewish homeowners in Willemstad, 1715
The oath administered to Jews
Immigrants aided by Amsterdam Parnassim
Parnassim and Hatanim, 1671-1969
Representatives of the Jewish Nation, 1719-1808
Docs concerning the synagogue and schools
Contracts for building the synagogue of 1732
Settlement of Jews in the Antilles and mainland
Marriages
Extracts from manuscripts by Mikveh Israel rabbis
The David Aboab
chronicle, 1745-46
Family heads and yehidim, 1746 and 1759
Newport Parnassim's
fundraising request
List of
Curaçoan slaveholders, 1764-1765
Items listed in Curaçoan Jewish estates
St. Eustatuis
St. Martin
Aruba
Document with relation to the Piza affair
Jews in the national guard
Petition of Daniel L. M. Peixotto to practice med.
Community assessment, 1862
Usages and customs
Personalia
Glossary
Bibliography
Index
  541
  618
  681
  747
  750
  752
  757
  763
  769
  773
  774
  781
  814
  815
  818
  822
  841
1008
1020
1024
1035
1036
1046
1048
1069
1070
1071
1075
1076
1078
1084
1095
1104
1111
1117