Netherlands Antilles (Dutch)
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NETHERLANDS ANTILLES - THE JEWISH COMMUNITY http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/Curacao1.html http://www.haruth.com/JewsCuracao.html Select the Netherlands Antilles link at http://www.worldjewishcongress.org/comm_north.html: Jews arrived from Amsterdam in 1651. Jews fleeing Brazil joined them, forming the Jewish community in 1659. The first synagogue dates from 1732. Jews expelled from the French islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe fled here. Curacao 's 1780 Jewish population of 2,000, about 50%. The Curacao community became the "mother community" of Suriname and St. Eustatius and financed the construction of the first synagogues of New York and Newport. In the 20th century, a number of Ashkenazi Jews settled in The Antilles and account for a majority of the Jewish population. Jewish population declined starting in the 1950s due to emigration and intermarriage. [February 2003] |
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