List of Illustrations Note on Transliteration
Introduction - JANE S. GERBER
PART I The Historical Background of the Caribbean Sephardi
Diaspora 1 The Formation of the Portuguese Jewish Diaspora -
MIRIAM BODIAN2 Curaçao, Amsterdam, and the Rise of the Sephardi
Trade System in the Caribbean, 1630–1700 - JONATHAN ISRAEL3 To Live
and to Trade: The Status of Sephardi Mercantile Communities in the
Atlantic World during the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries -
NOAH L. GELFAND
PART II Authority and Community in the Dutch Caribbean
4 Amsterdam and the Portuguese Naçao of the Caribbean in the
Eighteenth Century - GÉRARD NAHON5 ‘A flock of wolves instead of
sheep’: The Dutch West India Company, Conflict Resolution, and the
Jewish Community of Curaçao in the Eighteenth Century - JESSICA
ROITMAN6 Religious Authority: A Perspective from the Americas -
HILIT SUROWITZ-ISRAEL
PART III Material and Visual Culture 7 Jonkonnu and
Jew: The Art of Isaac Mendes Belisario (1794–1849) - JACKIE
RANSTON8 Testimonial Terrain: The Cemeteries of New World Sephardim
- RACHEL FRANKEL9 Counting the ‘Sacred Lights of Israel’: Synagogue
Construction and Architecture in the British Caribbean - BARRY L.
STIEFEL
PART IV Jews and Slave Society 10 The Cultural
Heritage of Eurafrican Sephardi Jews in Suriname - AVIVA BEN-UR11
Shifting Identities: Religion, Race, and Creolization among the
Sephardi Jews of Barbados, 1654–1900 - KARL WATSON12 Sexuality and
Sentiment: Concubinage and the Sephardi Family in Late
Eighteenth-Century Jamaica - STANLEY MIRVIS13 The ‘Confession made
by Cyrus’ Reconsidered: Maroons and Jews during Jamaica’s First
Maroon War (1728–1738/9) - JAMES ROBERTSON14 Jewish Politicians in
Post-Slavery Jamaica: Electoral Politics in the Parish of St
Dorothy, 1849–1860 - SWITHIN WILMOT
PART V Reassessing the Geographical Boundaries of
Caribbean Jewry 15 The Borders of Early American Jewish History
- ELI FABER16 Port Jews and Plantation Jews: Carolina–Caribbean
Connections - DALE ROSENGARTEN
Part VI Personal Narratives 17 The Strange Adventures
of Benjamin Franks, an Ashkenazi Pioneer in the Americas - MATT
GOLDISH18 Daniel Israel López Laguna’s Espejo fiel de vidas and the
Ghosts of Marrano Autobiography - RONNIE PERELIS19 ‘My heart is
grieved’: Grace Cardoze—A Life Revealed through Letters - JOSETTE
CAPRILES GOLDISH
PART VII The Formation of Contemporary Caribbean Jewry
20 Refugees from Nazism in the British Caribbean - JOANNA NEWMAN21
Inscribing Ourselves with History: The Production of Heritage in
Today’s Caribbean Jewish Diaspora - JUDAH M. COHEN
Notes on ContributorsIndex
Jane S. Gerber is Professor Emerita of History and director of the Institute for Sephardic Studies at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. She is a past president of the Association for Jewish Studies. She is author of Jewish Society in Fez: 1450–1700 (1980), The Jews of Spain (1992), winner of a National Jewish Book Award, and Sephardic Studies in the University (1995), and editor of The Jews in the Caribbean (also published by the Littman Library). She has been a visiting professor at Harvard, Yale, Columbia, the Hebrew University, the University of Pennsylvania, and the Jewish Theological Seminary, and has lectured widely in the United States and elsewhere. She headed the Advisory Board of the American Sephardi Federation and served on the Academic Advisory Council of the Center for Jewish History and the Academic Board of the Rothberg School of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Reviews ‘The broadest spectrum of scholars and scholarship on this
subject since the 1993 publication of Sephardim in the Americas,
explaining that book’s US-centred focus with a global perspective .
. . Highly recommended.’
J.L. Elkin, Choice
‘This outstanding collection of papers opens a window into the
world of the Portuguese Jewish diaspora in the Caribbean.
Accompanied by illustrations, notes, and bibliographies, this work
is essential for those seeking to understand the circumstances
which led to the specific patterns of development, communal
organization, and personal life of the Sephardim in this
region.’
Randall C. Belinfante, Interdisciplinary Journal of Portuguese
Diaspora Studies
‘This volume has many strengths, not the least of which are its
wide-ranging scope, attention to new methods, inclusion of primary
sources, and interdisciplinary approach to the field. One of the
joys of the collection is the broad approach it takes to the
Caribbean . . . The volume is similarly expansive in its methods.
Some of the best of the essays in the collection lay out new
theories and provide new archival sources . . . equally rich in its
interest in a broadly defined approach to Jewish life. It includes
essays that draw from religious, cultural, social, political, and
economic history. Credit should go to the publisher for the book’s
beautiful design and for its inclusion of not only rare
translations of archival works but also the colour plates, black
and white figures, maps, and tables that complement the chapters .
. . the essays are strong and well edited . . . an innovative
collection produced by both established and up-and-coming scholars.
It will be invaluable for any scholar of Jewish studies who is
seriously interested in either American Jewish history or Atlantic
world history. The work should also be of interest not only to
researchers but also to students of American and European history
who want to learn new methods and theoretical models.’
Laura Arnold Leibman, Jewish History
‘Monumental . . . The subject matter is diverse and varied, and
ranges from history, culture, politics, to race and Jewish
identity, among many other interesting topics . . . The chapters
are written from a broad range of disciplines and socio-cultural
perspectives, both theoretical/scholarly and creative . . .
Carefully written and well documented . . . this mammoth work is a
huge undertaking and its analysis is truly interesting, since it
illuminates the reader's path to understanding the development of
the Jews in this region, as well as those factors and events that
have shaped them. This book offers a skilful overview of the
history and historiography of these Jews and their environments. It
does not leave many questions unexplored, without reconceptualizing
or analyzing them. It is without a doubt a valuable and important
contribution.’
Paulette Kershenovich Schuster, Sephardic Horizons
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