Encyclopaedia Judaica
Jews in Haiti
Jewish immigration from Brazil - French rule - French expulsion in 1683 - revolution and massacres in 1804 - Jewish immigration since 1830 - emigration to the "US" 1915-1934 - immigration from Europe
from: Haiti; In: Encyclopaedia Judaica 1971, vol. 7
presented by Michael Palomino (2008)
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<HAITI,
republic on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, with a Jewish population of less than 50 persons (1970).
[Jews since 17th century under French rule - anti-Jewish French policy - no development - 1683: Jews expelled, only few can stay]
Columbus landed there during his first voyage in 1492. The first Jewish settlers arrived in Haiti from Brazil shortly after the island was conquered by the French in the 17th century. Many (col. 1141)
were employees of French sugar plantations and some acquired their own land, but French policy tended to divest Jews of their colonial possessions and thus obstructed the development of the community.
Individual Jews arrived with French commercial enterprises, and there seems to have been a group of *Crypto-Jews in the city of Jeremie as well.
In 1683 Jews were expelled from all French colonies in the West Indies, including Haiti. Those few who remained served as officials in French trading companies, especially in Jeremie.
[1804: Revolutionary wars and massacres against Frenchmen - Jewish settlements destroyed]
No vestiges of the first Jewish settlement were left after the revolutionary wars which were accompanied in 1804 by the massacre of nearly all the French population.
[since 1830: Jewish immigration from Europe and Middle East - cloth trade]
Around 1830, in the wake of the Polish rebellion, several Jewish families arrived in Haiti. These new immigrants were quickly absorbed in the upper echelons of Haitian society. Jewish life in Haiti began in 1890 with the arrival of about 30 families, mainly from Lebanon, Syria, and Egypt. They engaged primarily in the cloth trade. The Jewish population in Haiti in 1915, at the time of the American occupation, is considered to have been less than 200 persons.
[since 1915: Jewish emigration to the "USA" - 1930s: new Jewish emigration from Europe]
During the 20 years of the occupation [[1915-1934 by the "USA"]], many of these Jews immigrated to the United States and to South American countries. In the 1930s new Jewish immigrants arrived from Germany, Austria, Poland, Rumania [[Romania]] and Hungary. Although the Haitian government has traditionally frowned on white immigration, asylum was granted to refugees.
[[...]]
Until 1938 immigration laws were benign, the only prerequisite being the possession of $100; as of that year the sum was raised to $ 1,000 and a government permit was required in addition.
[[...]]
At the Beginning of World War II the newcomers numbered about 100; after the war the Jewish population numbered about 35 to 40 families.
By 1957 there were about 200 Jews in Haiti, but steady emigration during the next decade diminished the community to about ten families, most of whom lived in the capital, Port-au-Prince.
[Only private community life]
The Jews of Haiti were never able to organize any communal institutions. Neither a school nor a synagogue has been established, and rabbis and cantors have been brought from abroad for the High Holidays and special occasions. The ambassador of Israel in Panama is accredited as nonresident ambassador of Israel to Haiti. An Israel Technical Cooperation Mission is located in Port-Au-Prince and is engaged in a project of agricultural and cooperative development.
Bibliography
-- J. Beller: Jews in Latin America (1969)
-- A. Tartakower: Shivtei Yisrael, 3 (1969), 130-1
[J.BAR.]> (col. 1142)
Sources
Encyclopaedia Judaica 1971: Haiti, vol. 7, col. 1141-1142
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