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truetrini

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History of Jews in Trinidad and Tobago
« on: January 06, 2009, 05:54:28 PM »
THE LAST OF THE JEWS IN T&T

 

HANS STECHER TELLS THE STORY OF ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE OF JEWS

 

By Tim McDonald

Trinidad Guardian

September 21, 1999

Page 18

 

The Jewish section tucked away in the corner of Mucurapo Cemetery is normally neat and clean. But weeds and flowers spring up wildly around the stone markers when Hans Stecher is off the island.

Stecher, the lone caretaker, is one of Trinidad's last Jews. From a mid-century high of 700, the community has dwindled to less than a minyan, the ten males traditionally required for Jewish prayer services.

There is no synagogue - nowhere for Stecher to go on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement that begins Sunday evening.

"I'll say my prayers at home," he said. "That's how it's been now for some years."

Like many others, the Austrian-born Stecher and his family arrived in Trinidad after fleeing the Nazis in the 1930s. They spent three years in an internment camp - Trinidad was a British colony at the time - before being released.

"We were regarded as enemy aliens, although we were implacable foes of the Nazis, of course," Stecher said. "Simply because we came out of Germany and Austria the British Empire regarded us as suspect."

Many Jews left Trinidad in disgust. Enough stayed to form a community that held fund-raisers for Israel and had its own soccer team and a drama club that performed plays in Hebrew.

"It was a very vibrant community," said Stecher, who owned a gift store that he sold several years ago.

But, as with most Jewish communities in the Caribbean, assimilation and migration depleted the ranks. Stecher said the black power movement of the 1970s also had an impact.

"It was very unsettling," he said. "There were marches (and) a lot of anti-white sentiment. Having gone through racial discrimination and persecution once, one didn’t want to have to go through it again. A lot of people got fed up and wandered off, to the US and elsewhere."

Stecher, who has no children, now spends his time pursing hobbies like photography, travelling with his wife - they just returned from four months in Europe - and, on a purely voluntary basis, tending the 60-odd Jewish graves.

"I regard Trinidad as my home, having lived here most of my life; this is where I built my business from nothing," he said.

Stecher says many of Trinidad's 1.3 million people are descendants of Spanish and Portuguese Jews who settled here in the 16th century. They likely would have been Marranos, who converted to Catholicism under the Inquisition but secretly practiced Judaism.

Common island surnames such as De Silva, De Lima, Rivera and Nunes are evidence of that, Stecher said.

But while Jews from Spain and Portugal settled elsewhere in the Caribbean, Eli Faber, a historian at New York's City College, disputes Stecher's theory about Trinidad.

"There is no way to prove that," Faber said. "To look for Jews (in Trinidad) prior to the British, during the Spanish period is, frankly, baloney."

Even if the Jews vanish entirely from the island, there will be reminders of them for years to come: Trinidad's police and army have adopted the Star of David as their symbol.

According to legend, a British commander who came to Trinidad from Palestine put a white star against a blue background for the local army symbol, switching the colours of what was to become the Israeli flag. A copper-rumped hummingbird was later added for local flavour.

(AP)


truetrini

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Re: History of Jews in Trinidad and Tobago
« Reply #1 on: January 06, 2009, 05:54:51 PM »
Trinidad


The Jewish presence in Trinidad is at once constant and invisible. There have been several waves of Jewish immigration to this most Southern island of the Caribbean archipelago, yet each one has largely been forgotten by the populace, and few reminders exist in the society of their past and continuing presence.


The first major Jewish immigration to Trinidad was in The Late 1700's and today many last names on the island are living testaments to their presence. However, today none of the descendants of these early immigrants are currently Jewish, and the vast majority are not even aware of their Jewish heritage, a testimony to the high degree of intermarriage between the Jews and the Catholic French of Trinidad in the last two centuries.


In The Late 1800's, another group of Jews made their way to Trinidad, mostly Portuguese in origin although a few also came from Curacao. Many of these also assimilated and/or intermarried. Official records show that at the turn of The 20th Century, the number of Jews on the island numbered just 31 and all were English in origin. They worked mostly as civil servants and as merchants. One of these, Sir Nathaniel Nathan, served as Associate Justice of The Trinidad Supreme Court from 1893 to 1900 and Chief Justice from 1900 to 1903.


However, The 20th Century would see a rapid rise and equally rapid fall in the numbers of the Jewish population in Trinidad.


Of the thousands of Jews who fled Nazism, many found a haven in The Caribbean. From 1936 to 1939, Trinidad was the most welcoming beacon as it had no visa requirement, only a £50 landing deposit. New arrivals were quickly settled in houses rented by a Jewish aid society in the capital, Port of Spain.


Most of the refugees knew very little about The Caribbean before their arrival. As a result, the adjustment was often quite challenging. But it did not take long for the new arrivals to establish small businesses. In the island's two main towns, Port of Spain and San Fernando, new cafes, factories, and shops started to appear.


By 1939, the Jewish community numbered 600. Concerned, colonial authorities enacted a temporary ban on immigration from "specified" European countries. There also existed a sense of ambivalence about the Jewish presence amongst the local population. However, these feelings were more rooted in intense competition for scarce economic resources, among the generally impoverished population, than in Anti-Semitism and the new immigrants experienced no real expressions of hostility.


As they created new economic niches for themselves in their "Calypso Shtetl", "The Calypso Jews", as they now saw themselves, began to turn their attentions to creating a cultural and religious life for themselves on the island. A synagogue and community center were founded in a rented house on Duke Street in Port of Spain (Today one of its Torah scrolls can be found at Congregation Dorshei Emet in Montreal.). There were aid societies for the poor and elderly, and even a dramatic and opera society. Although the community was refused a license for kosher slaughter it was granted a separate section (Bet Olam) of Port of Spain's main cemetery, The Mucurapo Cemetery. Today the cemetery is maintained by the island's only remaining member of this 1930's influx, Hans Stecher. He and his family, left Vienna for Trinidad shortly after the Anschluß when Nazi Germany annexed Austria. There is hope to establish a fund that can relieve him of this responsibility and to ensure the section's perpetual upkeep.


Unfortunately, the relative stability and bliss which the refugees had settled into was not to last. With the outbreak of war, all refugees deemed to be "enemy aliens" were interned in camps throughout The Caribbean. Trinidad was no exception. In addition to captured Italian and German merchant seamen and German U-boat crews, Trinidad's new "enemy aliens" now included, ironically, those Jewish families who came from Austria or Germany.


While an internment camp was being constructed outside of the capital, the Jewish families were housed in barracks on tiny islands off the mainland (Hans Stecher still has a shark's fin saved from the shore during his time on the island.). After a few months in the barracks they were moved back to the mainland. The internment camp, which stood on what are now the residential neighborhoods of Federation Park and Ellerslie Park, is documented at Trinidad's Chaguaramas Military Museum and was surrounded by a tall barbed wire fence with sentry towers and search lights. Although children were given special permissions to attend school outside the camp, understandably, many of the refugees felt deeply insulted by this course of events.


In 1943, they were released with certain wartime restrictions. They had to report daily to the nearest police station, were banned from driving cars or riding bicycles, and were under curfew from 8:00 P.M. to 6:00 A.M.. In disgust, some families left. Others stayed and brought back to light the community life they had started before internment. A soccer team was established, the drama club performed plays in Hebrew and Yiddish, they held fund-raisers for Israel, and a schochet was even brought in from The United States. The community was, in a word, vibrant. As the children grew however, the viability of the community was undermined since there was no local university at the time. Once the children went overseas to study few returned to live. Of those who did, many intermarried or assimilated and the community gradually began to dissolve after it reached its peak of 700 people by The Mid 1900's.


In The 1970's, Trinidad's political and social stability was threatened by a wave of "Black Power" riots. Fearing for their safety, and haunted by bad memories, the majority of the remaining population migrated en masse. Many created new roots in Canada where they remain to this day. Today, pictures and memories are all that remain of "The Calypso Shtetl". It is hard to believe that at one time Passover Seders were so large they were sometimes hosted at The Trinidad Hilton.


Religious artifacts were moved to Barbados in The 1970's to ensure their safety. Currently the Torah scroll resides at Congregation Dorshei Emet in Montreal.


Still, if one looks around, one can find evidence of this brief renaissance of Jewish life in Trinidad. Most notably on every police car, policeman, and police station on the island, is the insignia of the police force which is a hummingbird within a Magen David. A British commander who came to Trinidad from Palestine put a white star against a blue background for the local army symbol, switching the colors of what was to become The Israeli Flag. The hummingbird was later added for local flavor. This makes Trinidad unique in that it is the only police service in The World that does not use its country's Coat of Arms as its official symbol.


Today Bet Olam is still the Jewish section of The Mucurapo Cemetery and there is also a smaller cemetary in San Fernando. There are also places named Albert Einstein Avenue, Theodore Herzl Drive, and Golda Meir Gardens. There are also places that bear the names of local Jews.


Today the community numbers 25-67, depending on who you talk to and who is on the island at any one point, and holds occasional communal observances. Projects are in the works to revitalise the community including the formation of an organizational body.



truetrini

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Re: History of Jews in Trinidad and Tobago
« Reply #2 on: January 06, 2009, 05:57:39 PM »
TRINIDAD & TOBAGO
THE JEWISH COMMUNITY

The Jewish presence in Trinidad has been several waves. This southern-most island of the Caribbean archipelago saw the first major Jewish immigration in the late 1700's. However, none of the descendants of these early immigrants are Jewish.

The vast majority are unaware of their Jewish heritage. In the late 1800's, another group of mostly Portuguese Jews and some from Curacao arrived. Many of these also assimilated or intermarried. At the beginning of the 20th century, only 31 Jews of English origin lived on the island, working generally as civil servants and merchants. Sir Nathaniel Nathan served as Associate Justice of the Trinidad Supreme Court from 1893 to 1900 and Chief Justice from 1900 to 1903.

The 20th century saw a rapid rise and rapid decline in Jewish population in Trinidad. Thousands of Jews fleeing Hitler, found haven in 1936 to 1939 in Trinidad. New arrivals settled in houses rented by a Jewish aid society in Port of Spain. They established small businesses in the island's two main towns, Port of Spain and San Fernando.

By 1939, the Jewish community numbered 600. Ambivalence about the new immigrants resulted from intense economic competition. Calling themselves "Calypso Shtetl" and "The Calypso Jews", they created a cultural and religious life for themselves on the island. A synagogue and community center and its attendant cultural activities began in a rented house on Duke Street in Port of Spain. Bet Olam Section of Mucurapo Cemetery: Refused a license for kosher slaughter, they were granted a separate section of Port of Spain's main cemetery.

Today the cemetery is maintained by the island's only remaining member of this 1930's influx, Hans Stecher, who hopes to establish a fund to relieve him of this responsibility and to ensure the section's perpetual upkeep.

With the outbreak of war, all refugees deemed to be "enemy aliens" were interned in camps throughout The Caribbean. Trinidad was no exception. In addition to captured Italian and German merchant seamen and German U-boat crews, Trinidad's new "enemy aliens" now included, ironically, those Jewish families who came from Austria or Germany.

While an internment camp was being constructed outside of the capital, the Jewish families were housed in barracks on tiny islands off the mainland (Hans Stecher still has a shark's fin saved from the shore during his time on the island.). After a few months in the barracks they were moved back to the mainland.

The internment camp, which stood on what are now the residential neighborhoods of Federation Park and Ellerslie Park, is documented at Trinidad's Chaguaramas Military Museum and was surrounded by a tall barbed wire fence with sentry towers and search lights. Although children were given special permissions to attend school outside the camp, understandably, many of the refugees felt deeply insulted by this course of events.

In 1943, they were released with certain wartime restrictions. They had to report daily to the nearest police station, were banned from driving cars or riding bicycles, and were under curfew from 8:00 P.M. to 6:00 A.M.. In disgust, some families left. Others stayed and brought back to light the community life they had started before internment.

A soccer team was established, the drama club performed plays in Hebrew and Yiddish, they held fund-raisers for Israel, and a schochet was even brought in from The United States. The community was, in a word, vibrant. As the children grew however, the viability of the community was undermined since there was no local university at the time. Once the children went overseas to study few returned to live. Of those who did, many intermarried or assimilated and the community gradually began to dissolve after it reached its peak of 700 people by The Mid 1900's.

In The 1970's, Trinidad's political and social stability was threatened by a wave of "Black Power" riots. Fearing for their safety, and haunted by bad memories, the majority of the remaining population migrated en masse. Many created new roots in Canada where they remain to this day. Today, pictures and memories are all that remain of "The Calypso Shtetl". It is hard to believe that at one time Passover Seders were so large they were sometimes hosted at The Trinidad Hilton.

Religious artifacts were moved to Barbados in The 1970's to ensure their safety. Currently the Torah scroll resides at Congregation Dorshei Emet in Montreal.

Still, if one looks around, one can find evidence of this brief renaissance of Jewish life in Trinidad. Most notably on every police car, policeman, and police station on the island, is the insignia of the police force which is a hummingbird within a Magen David. A British commander who came to Trinidad from Palestine put a white star against a blue background for the local army symbol, switching the colors of what was to become The Israeli Flag. The hummingbird was later added for local flavor. This makes Trinidad unique in that it is the only police service in The World that does not use its country's Coat of Arms as its official symbol.

Today Bet Olam is still the Jewish section of The Mucurapo Cemetery and there is also a smaller cemetary in San Fernando. There are also places named Albert Einstein Avenue, Theodore Herzl Drive, and Golda Meir Gardens. There are also places that bear the names of local Jews.

Today the community numbers 25-67, depending on who you talk to and who is on the island at any one point, and holds occasional communal observances. Projects are in the works to revitalise the community including the formation of an organizational body.

THE CEMETERIES


PORT-OF-SPAIN:

    * Mucurapo Cemetery: Bet Olam Section is reserved for Jewish burials. "The makeshift synagogue has closed and a trust fund established for perpetual care of the Jewish dead." Source: Freedman, Warren. World Guide for the Jewish Traveler. NY: E.P. Dutton Inc, 1984 submitted by Bernard Kouchel koosh@worldnet.att.net.

truetrini

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Re: History of Jews in Trinidad and Tobago
« Reply #3 on: January 06, 2009, 05:58:21 PM »
HOW THE POLICE GOT THE

STAR OF DAVID

By Dionne Jarrette

Express

Section 2

December 1, 1999

Pages 6 & 7

There is no synagogue in Trinidad, and you can count the number of Jews here on one hand, but their influence, and the marks they have left behind, remind us that they once had a bigger presence here.

One of the foremost marks of the Jewish presence is the Magen David (pronounced mah-gain dah-veed), or the six-point Star of David.

This symbol adorns the local Police jeeps, flag, hats and buttons on the blue and grey uniform. In its centre is the copper rumped Hummingbird.

The explanation as to how the star got there will take most historians back to the 1930s. During this time, we were still a British colony, and as such our Police Commissioners were sent here by Britain.

One of these men was Colonel Arthur Stephen Mavrogordato. Mavrogordato was stationed in Palestine in the Middle East, and he was transferred from there to the post of Commanding Officer of the Trinidad Constabulary. Mavrogordato was not himself Jewish, but he was believed to be the one who suggested the Magen David be used as the police emblem, a symbol he had known from the Palestine flag. He reversed the colours of the Palestinian flag; by this he put a white star on a blue background instead of a blue star on a white background. No one is sure why.

Some attribute the use of the Magen David to the fact that the 1930s was the time when it was becoming widely known and its shape was found to be fascinating. Others believed it was a talisman that brought good luck and this was why it was chosen.

The debate surrounding its origin was another reason for fascination, as scholars maintain that the star was not of Jewish origin, but taken from the Twi-San, a people of south, central and east Africa. The Twi-San dates back 30,000 years before the Christian era, and they wee known to traverse the banks of the River Nile. To them, the symbol was known as the Pole Star.

The use of the Magen David as the police emblem makes the Trinidad and Tobago Police Force unique in that it is the only police service in the world that does not use its country's Coat of Arms as its official symbol.

The star was originally encased in a wreath with a crown atop it, to signify that Trinidad was a British colony. When Trinidad became a republic in 1976, these symbols of the former monarchy were replaced with the Hummingbird at the emblem's centre and with the shield from the Coat of Arms at the top where the crown once sat.

truetrini

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Re: History of Jews in Trinidad and Tobago
« Reply #4 on: January 06, 2009, 06:03:00 PM »
Though Few, Trinidad's Jews Keep The Faith
Monday, September 24 2007 @ 05:09 AM AST
Contributed by: ibalgobin
More: 1,273
Larry Luxner,
JTA Wire Service

Port of Spain, Trinidad

Hindu temples, Muslim mosques and Catholic churches can be found all over this oil-exporting island famous for Carnival, callaloo soup and calypso. But don't look for synagogues in Trinidad -- there aren't any.

No more than 55 Jews live here, despite the fact that Trinidad & Tobago's 1.3 million inhabitants make it the second-largest English-speaking nation in the Caribbean, exceeded in population only by Jamaica.

The few Jews who call this twin-island republic home maintain a very low profile because of the country's turbulent racial history and a 1990 uprising by the Jamaat al-Muslimeen, a radical Muslim sect.

Tensions were exacerbated recently when U.S. and Trinidadian authorities arrested four men in a plot to blow up fuel-storage tanks at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport. The four allegedly had ties to an Islamic terrorist cell in Trinidad, and one of the suspects is a former member of the Guyanese Parliament.

Yet Jewish leaders here take pains to emphasize they "have no difficulty" with the established local Muslim community. "We've never had any open conflict with them, we've never felt threatened and they have never targeted us," said Barbara Malins-Smith, who has been nominated as Israel's first honorary consul in Port of Spain, Trinidad's capital. "But bearing in mind the current atmosphere, Jews throughout the world have to be extremely vigilant."

Jews once had strong business and personal ties with Trinidad's small but influential Christian Arab community, which traces its roots to Lebanon and Syria.

Trinidad's ethnic and religious mix is unusually diverse for such a small country: 32 percent of its people are Roman Catholic, 28 percent are Protestant and 24 percent are Hindu. Another 6 percent are Muslim -- a consequence of large-scale immigration from India during the 19th century, when they were imported as indentured servants to work the sugar plantations.

"Ours is a very small community," Jewish community leader Hans Stecher told JTA. "We embrace into our midst people with Jewish roots who are interested in their heritage. We have many sympathizers. Some of our members are Jewish women married to Trinidadians and people descended from Sephardim who have feelings for their origins."

Yet unlike Barbados, Curacao, Jamaica, Nevis and St. Thomas -- where ancient synagogues and Hebrew gravestones attest to a Caribbean Jewish presence stretching back hundreds of years -- Jews have lived in Trinidad only since the 1930s.

Curiously, the six-pointed Star of David is the symbol of Trinidad's national police, and in one Jewish-built housing complex near Diego Martin -- a suburb of Port of Spain -- all the streets are named after Israeli pioneers like Chaim Weizmann, Golda Meir and David Ben-Gurion.

Although St. Vincent Street once had a synagogue, "most of the Jews here in Port of Spain were not really religious. The majority were intellectuals," said Malins-Smith, who was born in Guyana and moved here in 1972.

For years Stecher, who until recently ran a large chain of duty-free retail stores, has been the most prominent Jew in Trinidad. Stecher, 83, recalled how as a 15-year-old boy he arrived in Trinidad as a Viennese refugee with his family following Germany's annexation of Austria. During World War II, he was among about 700 Jews interned as "enemy aliens," though once the war was over most left for the United States, Canada or Venezuela.

The few Jews who stayed, like the Stecher family, prospered and became leaders in the local retailing, tourism and construction industries. They held fund-raisers for Israel, buried their dead in a special Jewish section of the Mucurapo Cemetery and sponsored a drama club that performed plays in Hebrew.

But independence from England in 1962 and the subsequent rise of the "black power" movement unnerved the Jewish community, which at the time numbered 30 or 40 families.

"The revolution was justified and it brought about a number of positive changes for Trinidad, but it was a bit frightening, and a lot of Jewish people didn't want to be in that stew again, having lost everything in Europe," Stecher said. "So they decided to pack up and leave for North America."

Stecher says "the average Trinidadian knows very little about Jews." Malins-Smith jokes that "people in the Caribbean think all Jews look like Chasidim."

Malins-Smith says she rediscovered her own Jewish roots the day her sons, Alex and Philip, came home from school and announced they wanted to be Catholic, like everyone else. "That's when it hit me, that my Judaism would end with me, because I was an only child," she said. "The rest of my family had all married out of the faith. They emigrated to Canada, and a majority of them are no longer Jewish."

This lack of yiddishkeit in Trinidad inspired 31-year-old Web site designer Sarina Nicole Bland in 2003 to establish B'nai Shalom, an informal Jewish organization that meets in members' homes for occasional services and Jewish holidays.

Perhaps the tiny community's biggest success is getting Trinidad's head of state, Patrick Manning, to visit Israel in November 2005 -- the first time a prime minister from any Caribbean country had ever made an official visit to Israel, according to community members. Manning, who is running for re-election this year, has publicly supported Israel, as have various Pentecostal and evangelical churches throughout Trinidad.

But not everyone here is favorably inclined toward Israel or the Jews. A flurry of articles in local newspapers suggested that Israel and the United States are secretly planning to overthrow Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, using nearby Trinidad as a jumping- off point.

An article in the local Mirror tabloid -- headlined "Is Manning a Mossad Agent?" -- suggested that, "After all, with the Middle East in turmoil and with Israel pushing for further chaos by trying to set the stage for a U.S. strike on Iran, Venezuela's supply of oil is critical to the U.S. economy, which incidentally is controlled by the Jews."

Few Trinidadians take those accusations seriously, though Stecher says he and his fellow Jews are concerned. "It's all a callaloo," he said, using the word for a spicy Caribbean dish. "There's always the dilemma of whether one should respond or not to such charges. Sometimes it's better not to respond."

This story reprinted on courtesy of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

Offline Deeks

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Re: History of Jews in Trinidad and Tobago
« Reply #5 on: January 06, 2009, 06:23:58 PM »
Very interesting!!! We are so odd!!!! In a funny kind of way!!

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Re: History of Jews in Trinidad and Tobago
« Reply #6 on: January 07, 2009, 10:52:15 AM »
The community closed ranks upon arriving. As such, the reality that few Trinidadians know anything about Jews is as a consequence of that closing of the ranks.

I wouldn't trade the Black Power movement for the loss of the Jewish presence.

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Re: History of Jews in Trinidad and Tobago
« Reply #7 on: January 07, 2009, 11:07:53 AM »
I wouldn't trade the Black Power movement for the loss of the Jewish presence.

Lol ent?

I read this two days ago and start to post "Good riddance!"... then I thought better of it.

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Re: History of Jews in Trinidad and Tobago
« Reply #8 on: January 07, 2009, 11:18:37 AM »
I cyah say 'good riddance'. Let every creed and race find an equal place ...

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Re: History of Jews in Trinidad and Tobago
« Reply #9 on: January 07, 2009, 11:59:34 AM »
I cyah say 'good riddance'. Let every creed and race find an equal place ...

Which is why I said I thought better of it...

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Re: History of Jews in Trinidad and Tobago
« Reply #10 on: January 07, 2009, 01:09:11 PM »
them people tink they above everybody else.
soon ah go b ah lean mean bulling machine.

truetrini

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Re: History of Jews in Trinidad and Tobago
« Reply #11 on: January 07, 2009, 01:45:00 PM »
Baks yuh sounding like anodder fella who went ot yuh old alma mater.

I hope dat school didnt encourage anti seminal fluids...errrr ooops anti semetic feelings.

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Re: History of Jews in Trinidad and Tobago
« Reply #12 on: January 07, 2009, 01:58:54 PM »
Baks yuh sounding like anodder fella who went ot yuh old alma mater.

I hope dat school didnt encourage anti seminal fluids...errrr ooops anti semetic feelings.
u is not de one tryin to justify why homo like stiff cock in they bamsee,u shouldnt talk bout fluids. ;D
soon ah go b ah lean mean bulling machine.

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Re: History of Jews in Trinidad and Tobago
« Reply #13 on: January 08, 2009, 12:37:38 PM »
That was a nice read
The internment camp info was real interesting...I had no idea

ah jewish pardner tell me it have big ass synagogue in jamaica that they restore and jews from all over does go dong and have dey chirren barmitzvah an ting dey
Little known fact: The online transportation medium called Uber was pioneered in Trinidad & Tobago in the 1960's. It was originally called pullin bull.

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Re: History of Jews in Trinidad and Tobago
« Reply #14 on: January 08, 2009, 01:44:22 PM »
By a couple last names, I know of Jamaican and Trini converts ... names like Stiebel and Henkel for instance. Used to spar with a Bajan bredrin who is Jewish ... nothing was advertised, but I read the fine print.

I've been by the synagogue in Curacao which is incidentally the oldest synagogue in continuous use in the Western hemisphere ... while I had the dubious 'experience' of staying in the house formerly occupied by the Governors of the island ... my hosts (the owners) were the first black family to reside there ... 

I had a moment with a young lady whose family are originally Tunisian Jews.

The Caribbean is a microcosm.


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Re: History of Jews in Trinidad and Tobago
« Reply #15 on: January 08, 2009, 01:47:28 PM »
By a couple last names, I know of Jamaican and Trini converts ... names like Stiebel and Henkel for instance. Used to spar with a Bajan bredrin who is Jewish ... nothing was advertised, but I read the fine print.

I've been by the synagogue in Curacao which is incidentally the oldest synagogue in continuous use in the Western hemisphere ... while I had the dubious 'experience' of staying in the house formerly occupied by the Governors of the island ... my hosts (the owners) were the first black family to reside there ... 

I had a moment with a young lady whose family are originally Tunisian Jews.

The Caribbean is a microcosm.
ah tink ya being "premature" wid dat assertion :devil:

sorry sorry
doh do meh dat nuh :-[
Whatever you do, do it to the purpose; do it thoroughly, not superficially. Go to the bottom of things. Any thing half done, or half known, is in my mind, neither done nor known at all. Nay, worse, for it often misleads.
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(1694 - 1773)

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Re: History of Jews in Trinidad and Tobago
« Reply #16 on: January 08, 2009, 02:03:53 PM »
Repeated moment? :)

Actually,  ... earlier today I inquired of her whais de scene on the ground post-ceasefire and how de kids etc. Izza niceness.


truetrini

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Re: History of Jews in Trinidad and Tobago
« Reply #17 on: January 08, 2009, 03:57:42 PM »
Repeated moment? :)

Actually,  ... earlier today I inquired of her whais de scene on the ground post-ceasefire and how de kids etc. Izza niceness.


yuh was she gardener?

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Re: History of Jews in Trinidad and Tobago
« Reply #18 on: January 08, 2009, 08:05:51 PM »
By a couple last names, I know of Jamaican and Trini converts ... names like Stiebel and Henkel for instance. Used to spar with a Bajan bredrin who is Jewish ... nothing was advertised, but I read the fine print.

I've been by the synagogue in Curacao which is incidentally the oldest synagogue in continuous use in the Western hemisphere ... while I had the dubious 'experience' of staying in the house formerly occupied by the Governors of the island ... my hosts (the owners) were the first black family to reside there ... 

I had a moment with a young lady whose family are originally Tunisian Jews.

The Caribbean is a microcosm.



that thing is a MAJOR tourist attraction now oui.

went there oct 2007.

Offline Pointman

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Re: History of Jews in Trinidad and Tobago
« Reply #19 on: January 09, 2009, 12:03:00 AM »
That was a nice read
The internment camp info was real interesting...I had no idea

ah jewish pardner tell me it have big ass synagogue in jamaica that they restore and jews from all over does go dong and have dey chirren barmitzvah an ting dey

ah bredren ah mine actually used to date ah jamaican jew...she was white/hispanic... nice too but still lil ignorant, yuh know how they stop lol ;D
Trini to de bone; Pointman to de bone.

truetrini

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Re: History of Jews in Trinidad and Tobago
« Reply #20 on: January 09, 2009, 12:29:23 AM »
That was a nice read
The internment camp info was real interesting...I had no idea

ah jewish pardner tell me it have big ass synagogue in jamaica that they restore and jews from all over does go dong and have dey chirren barmitzvah an ting dey

ah bredren ah mine actually used to date ah jamaican jew...she was white/hispanic... nice too but still lil ignorant, yuh know how they stop lol ;D

ah white/hispanic Jew/Jamaican  What next boss..and what she used to eat a non spicy,kosher beef patty?

Offline asylumseeker

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Re: History of Jews in Trinidad and Tobago
« Reply #21 on: January 09, 2009, 11:58:31 AM »
Repeated moment? :)

Actually,  ... earlier today I inquired of her whais de scene on the ground post-ceasefire and how de kids etc. Izza niceness.


yuh was she gardener?

Wha yuh asking? If ah was planting seeds? Ah could tell yuh dey wassn no hoeing involved doh :devil:

Offline Mango Chow!

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Re: History of Jews in Trinidad and Tobago
« Reply #22 on: January 13, 2009, 01:44:31 AM »
I cyah say 'good riddance'. Let every creed and race find an equal place ...

   If they hadda stayed, they woulda find a way to get the usa to exclude muslims from dat list.
They woulda declare Abdul Malick was Hamas.......and Abu Bakr used to pitch marbles wit 'im.


Not because a man ears long and he teet' long dat it make him a Jackass!

Offline Deeks

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Re: History of Jews in Trinidad and Tobago
« Reply #23 on: January 13, 2009, 04:17:17 PM »
I remember Stetchers store on frederick street(the drag at the time). It was next to Kirpsons.

 

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