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.
