Published: June 20th, 2016
Ainsley Henriques
Over the last nine years, seventy-seven-year-old Ainsley Henriques
(“Stocking the Embers of Jamaican Jewry,” 6-26-2015), community leader
and Jewish Jamaican genealogist, has been working with Rachel Frankel,
coordinator of volunteers from the Caribbean Volunteer Expedition (a
non-profit organization that recruits people from the United States to
work on historic conservation projects) to catalogue Jamaica’s thirteen
remaining Jewish cemeteries in an effort to preserve the island’s rich
Jewish history. Their current project is the restoration of the White
Church Street Cemetery in Spanish Town, Jamaica’s former capital. This
is the last Jewish cemetery to be catalogued. The plot, which had been a
veritable junkyard filled with broken glass, bricks, rusted metal,
plastic bags, and rubble, now resembles a dignified burial site thanks
to their efforts. Once the restoration has been completed, hopefully
within the year, Jamaicans and tourists will be invited to visit the
island’s “newest” Jewish heritage site.
Where did Jamaican Jews Come From?
Hunts Bay Cemetery
The first Jews came to Spanish-occupied Jamaica between 1494 to1655.
Fleeing the Spanish Inquisition, they arrived from Spain and Portugal
and settled mainly near and in Spanish Town, reportedly bringing the
technique to produce sugar with them. Here, disguised as Portuguese,
they maintained their faith. When the British conquered the island in
1655, General Venables recorded the presence of many “Portuguese” or
Portugals. With their skills in finance and trade, and the network they
naturally shared with European Jews, they played an important economic
role in the sugar trade and the shipping industry.
On the darker side of things, a negligible minority of Jews took part
in the slave trade. Some Jews followed an equally un-Jewish career path
and became pirates – more accurately, “privateers,” state-sponsored
pirates working for the British, motivated by economic reasons and a
desire to usurp Spanish rule.
When Port Royal, a hustling and bustling commercial center, sank into
the ocean after a massive earthquake in 1692 and then suffered terrible
fires in 1704 and 1815, the thriving Jewish community moved to Spanish
Town. By that time there were more Jews in Jamaica than in all of North
America. Ashkenazi Jews began arriving from England and Germany to join
the Sephardi resident Jews. The burgeoning Jewish community saw a drop
in numbers, however, when the British abolished slavery in 1838. The
result of that decision was the decline of the sugar industry and many
Jews left for Australia or to take part in California’s gold rush.
White Church Street Cemetery before work began
In 1872, Kingston Harbor, the seventh-largest natural harbor in the
world, was designated the island’s capital and the Jewish community
moved there. The community continued to shrink as more Jews emigrated;
the influx of Jewish immigrants was minimal. In the early 20
th
century, some Jews arrived in Jamaica after the breakup of the Ottoman
Empire. However, very few Jews fleeing the pogroms of Eastern Europe
chose to make Jamaica their homeland. Similarly, except for Gibraltar
Camp, which the British government set up as a temporary haven for a few
hundred Jews from 1941 until the end of the war, Jamaica was not a
destination for those escaping the Holocaust.
A Genealogist Discovers His Roots
With few records of Jamaican Jewry, Henriques, who remembers over one
hundred guests at his family Seder when he was a child, set out to
catalogue its history. “It’s important to leave a legacy for our
children so that they know where they come from,” he explains. Today, he
has compiled over 20,000 names spanning 350 years. “I was very excited
when I discovered that I was related to Rabbi Isaac Belinfante of
Amsterdam and Rabbi Henry Pereira Mendes of Shearith Israel of New
York,” says Henriques. “Since then, I haven’t stopped researching.”
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