Curaçao, an island off the coast of Venezuela, is home to the oldest Jewish community in the Americas still in existence. Portuguese Jews from Amsterdam and Brazil settled there in the 1650s, and their synagogue in Willemstad, Mikvé Israel-Emanuel, consecrated in 1732, is the oldest synagogue in continuous use in the Western Hemisphere. In the 18th century Curaçao had the largest Jewish community in the Americas, and its merchants helped found communities across the Caribbean and North America. See also Western Sephardim and Jamaican Jews.
Founding
The Dutch took Curaçao from Spain in 1634, and a Jewish interpreter, Samuel Cohen, arrived with the fleet. In 1651 João d’Ylan brought about a dozen Jewish families to farm land granted by the Dutch West India Company. Portuguese Jews fleeing Brazil after the Portuguese reconquest of 1654 followed, and in 1659 about seventy settlers arrived under Isaac da Costa, bringing a Torah scroll from the Portuguese Jewish congregation of Amsterdam. That year the community consecrated its cemetery, Beth Haim, probably the oldest Jewish cemetery in the Americas.
A Caribbean center
Farming failed on the dry island, and the Jews moved into Willemstad, turning to trade and shipping between Europe, the Caribbean and the Spanish Main. The community engaged its first rabbi, Josiau Pardo, in 1674, and built synagogues in 1690 and 1703. In 1746 it opened a second synagogue, Neve Shalom, across the harbor in Otrobanda, and in 1748 it reached its peak of about 280 families, some 1,500 people, the largest Jewish community in the Americas. By the late 18th century Jews made up about 40 percent of the island’s white population. Some Curaçao Jews moved to Newport, Rhode Island, as early as 1694, and the community supported young congregations in North America.
Mikvé Israel-Emanuel
The present synagogue of Congregation Mikvé Israel was consecrated in 1732, modeled on the Portuguese Synagogue of Amsterdam. Its floor is covered in sand, a tradition explained as recalling the Israelites’ years in the desert or the secret prayer of conversos who muffled their footsteps. In 1864 about a third of the members founded a Reform congregation, Temple Emanuel; the two reunited in 1964 as Mikvé Israel-Emanuel. The Jewish Cultural Historical Museum beside the synagogue holds eighteen historic Torah scrolls. Read more about the synagogue and visiting it.
The 19th and 20th centuries
- Bolívar. In 1812 Simón Bolívar took refuge on the island, sheltered by the Jewish community of Otrobanda.
- Emigration. As trade declined, many families moved to Venezuela, Colombia, Panama and the United States, where Curaçao Sephardim helped found communities in Coro, Barranquilla and Panama City.
- Ashkenazi arrivals. From 1926 Ashkenazi Jews, mainly from Romania, settled in Curaçao; their congregation, Shaarei Tsedek, has had a Chabad rabbi since 2017.
- Curaçao visas, 1940. In Lithuania, the Dutch consul Jan Zwartendijk issued about 2,200 “Curaçao visas” stating that no entry visa was needed for the island; with Japanese transit visas from Chiune Sugihara, they let thousands of Jews escape. Almost none of the holders ever reached Curaçao.
The community today
About 350 Jews live in Curaçao, in the Sephardi congregation Mikvé Israel-Emanuel and the Ashkenazi Shaarei Tsedek. The synagogue, the museum and Beth Haim cemetery draw visitors from around the world, and the congregation holds Shabbat services that are open to visitors.
Notable people
- George Maduro 1916–1945 · Willemstad Dutch army officer of a Sephardi family who joined the resistance and died at Dachau; Madurodam, the miniature city in The Hague, is named for him.
- Daniel De Leon 1852–1914 · Curaçao Born to a Sephardi family on the island; American socialist leader, editor of The People and a founder of the Industrial Workers of the World.
Sources and further reading
- Isaac S. Emmanuel and Suzanne A. Emmanuel, History of the Jews of the Netherlands Antilles (American Jewish Archives, 1970).
- “History of the Jews in Curaçao”, Wikipedia.
Published October 2026.
