Even if you’re someone with the most prolific knowledge of Jewish American history, you may not have heard of the small Caribbean island of St. Eustatius. But its Jewish community played an important role in the American Revolution.

The First Salute, a new exhibit at the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia, highlights the important role Jews across the Americas, especially in St, Eustatius, played in the American Revolution.

“When we talk about American Jewish history, most people’s brains immediately go to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty and the turn of the 20th century,” Josh Perelman, a senior advisor at the museum, said in an interview. “However, in the 18th century, there were Jewish communities in North America, in the Caribbean, in South America.”

“Until at least the 19th century, the Caribbean communities were the dominant communities,” Perelman said. “They were the more established, more wealthy, more prominent.”

Jews began living in St. Eustatius in the 17th century, primarily those of Iberian descent who had escaped the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions that lasted from around the middle of the 15th century to the 19th century. As a Dutch colony, St. Eustatius provided Jews with more independence and freedom to worship than they would have had under other European powers.  The population grew and, by 1739, had become large enough to establish a synagogue, Honen Dalim. By the Revolutionary period, approximately 30% of the European population in St. Eustatius were Jews.

Turning the Tide of the Revolution

One of the most prominent ports in the Atlantic at the time, St. Eustatius was also an ideal pace for Jewish merchants to conduct business. Jewish commercial networks developed across Europe, the Caribbean, South America, and North America bound together by a shared faith, ethnic background, and sometimes by marriage. The exhibit, which contains artifacts and documents from early Jewish communities in America, explains that, using this intricate network, Jewish merchants sent gunpowder and other military supplies to American forces, disguising the shipments as tea.

Historian Jonathan Sarna explained at the exhibit’s press opening that Jews were excited by the founding father’s commitments to religious freedom, which was inscribed in the Declaration of Independence.

Although few Americans are taught about the Caribbean’s role in their American Revolution, the area played a central role in the conflict. On Nov. 16, 1776, St. Eustatius became the first international entity to officially recognize the United States of America when the governor greeted the American warship Andrew Doria in the St. Eustatius harbor with a cannon salute.

“The Revolution was an international event that touched people all through the Atlantic world,” Perelman said. “Without the Caribbean, without allies in Europe, and without courage on this continent, the Revolution would have never succeeded.”

In 1781, the British Army captured St. Eustatius and almost instantly, the Jewish population was persecuted. Royal Navy Admiral George Rodney imprisoned more than 100 Jewish men, and, less than 24 hours later, deported nearly a third of them to St. Kitts, an island in the West Indies. He had the homes of Jewish merchants ransacked for personal possessions, and dug up fresh graves at the Jewish cemetery, thinking they contained treasure. The Jews who weren’t deported immigrated to other places and by the early 19th century, the island’s Jewish community had virtually disappeared.

Rodney was so distracted with his antisemitic campaign that his troops failed to stop a French ship headed to join George Washington at Yorktown, costing the British the famous battle that turned the tides of the war.

Keeping History Alive

The First Salute, which was timed to coincide with America’s 250th anniversary, contains numerous artifacts from across the Americas including a cannon from St. Eustatius (it’s unknown if it’s the one that fired the first salute), a spice box from South America, pottery shards from the site of Honen Dalim, and Rodney’s list of St. Eustatians and their belongings, including the Jews he stole from.

Current St. Eustatius governor Alida Francis and other officials from the island attended the exhibit’s press opening and participated in a 13 “cannon” salute with confetti alongside the historians and staff at the Weitzman involved with bringing the exhibit to life. A man playing the role of George Washington oversaw the ceremony.

“The Jewish community of St. Eustatius did not stand in the margins of history,” Francis said in her remarks. “They helped to move it.”

Raimie Ritchson, St. Eustatius’ State Heritage Inspector, who helped coordinate bringing artifacts to the exhibit, told me that the synagogue, which now exists only as a set of windowless walls, and the Jewish cemetery are routinely cleaned and cared for.

“We treat history as if it’s still part of our cultural heritage, even though the descendant community is no longer here,” Ritchson said, noting that the Jews in the exhibit are not just abstract historical figures. “They were all Statian-born, just like me today. So we do not see them as part of a global nomadic Jewish community, but we see them also as Statians.”

Perelman thinks there’s a lesson for everyone to learn from the exhibit, underscoring the risk the Jewish community took to support a fledgling rebellion.

“In the very complicated world we live in today, what would you risk?” Perelman said. “What choices might you make for an unknown but better world?”

The exhibit The First Salute will be at the Weitzman until April 2027.

The post On the small island of St. Eustatius, the Jewish community turned the tide of the American Revolution appeared first on The Forward.

Iran‘s use of a swarm of small, fast boats to seize two container ships near the Strait of Hormuz could undermine suggestions US forces have disabled its naval threat and reveals the challenges facing reopening one of the world’s most important oil export routes.

US President Donald Trump on Monday acknowledged that while Iran’s conventional navy had been largely destroyed, its “fast-attack ships” had not been considered much of a threat.

He said any such vessels coming near a US blockade set up outside the strait would be “immediately ELIMINATED” using the “same system of kill” deployed in the Caribbean and Pacific where US air strikes have hit suspected drug boats and killed at least 110 people.

Those boats were not attacking large, unarmed commercial ships, however, nor nearly as heavily armed, with Iran‘s Revolutionary Guards packing heavy machineguns, rocket launchers and, in some cases, anti-ship missiles.

Speedboat attacks now form part of a “layered system of threats,” alongside “shore-based missiles, drones, mines, and electronic interference to create uncertainty and slow decision-making,” Greek maritime security company Diaplous told Reuters.

Iran was estimated to have hundreds, if not thousands, of these boats before the war, often hidden in coastal tunnels, naval bases, or among civilian vessels, according to maritime security specialists.

Some 100 or more may have been destroyed since the Iran war began on Feb. 28, said Corey Ranslem, chief executive of maritime security group Dryad Global.

CHANGE IN TACTICS

Before this week, Iran had relied on missile and drone strikes to hit shipping traffic around the strait, a route which normally handles 20% of the world’s daily oil and liquefied natural gas supply.

Those attacks had stopped with the April 8 ceasefire.

The seizure of the two container ships by Iran followed Washington imposing a blockade on Iran‘s trade by sea and the start of it intercepting Iran-linked oil tankers and other ships.

“The civilian shipping industry is not equipped to prevent Iranian armed forces from seizing vessels,” said Daniel Mueller, a senior analyst at British maritime security company Ambrey.

Typically, about a dozen boats are used in a seizure operation, he added.

Iran‘s fast boats now serve as the “backbone” of Iran’s naval strategy, able to deploy rapidly as part of its “asymmetrical war against the enemy,” a senior Iranian security official told Reuters.

“Because of their very high speeds, these boats can successfully carry out hit-and-run attacks without being detected,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

FAST BOAT LIMITATIONS

Including this week’s seizures, Iran has used small, fast boats at least seven times going back to 2019, Ambrey’s Mueller said.

High winds and swells in the waters off Iran during summer make it hard to conduct such operations, said one Iranian shipping source familiar with the waters.

“When it is very bumpy, they [armed forces onboard] cannot shoot,” the source said.

They are also ill-equipped to go head-to-head with a warship, and would likely suffer “very heavy casualties” in any direct assault on one, said Jeremy Binnie, a Middle East specialist at defense intelligence company Janes.

“Even if they tried to saturate the ship’s defenses by attacking from multiple directions, they would be extremely vulnerable to the air support that would be called in,” he said.

On paper, guided missile strikes would easily destroy these boats, but shoulder-fired missile launchers would pose a threat to low-flying US aircraft, Binnie said.

“It is going to be much harder to eliminate the small boat threat than it was to destroy Iran’s larger naval vessels, which were big targets that were relatively easy to find and track and, at most, only had a limited ability to defend themselves from air attack,” he said.

The reality for the shipping sector is further disruption as well as elevated insurance costs.

After the so-called “tanker war” of the 1980s, Iran increasingly used asymmetric tactics as the Iranian navy was effectively destroyed, much as it has been in the current conflict, said Duncan Potts, a director with consultancy Universal Defense and Security Solutions and a former British Royal Navy vice admiral.

“When the US Navy and the president say, ‘We’ve destroyed the navy, we’ve sunk a frigate off Sri Lanka’ – you’ve done that before, but you’ve forgotten that your opposition here went asymmetric. And they’ve perfected it.”

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Thursday he was “increasingly concerned” about a growing use of proxies by foreign states to carry out attacks in Britain, pledging to bring forward new legislation following recent attacks.

London has seen a string of attacks – mostly arson – on Jewish-linked sites in recent weeks. Some of these are being investigated by counter-terrorism officers, although police say they are not currently being treated as terrorist incidents.

British authorities have increasingly pointed to hostile state activity as part of the backdrop to recent incidents, warning that foreign governments may seek to operate through criminal networks or proxies to maintain deniability.

“I’m increasingly concerned that a number of countries are using proxies for attacks in this country,” he said, speaking after meeting members of the Jewish community at Kenton United Synagogue, which was the target of an arson attack last Sunday.

The fire caused minor smoke damage to an internal room and there were no injuries. A 17-year-old British boy pleaded guilty on Tuesday to arson not endangering life in connection with the incident.

“We have to deal with malign state actors,” Starmer said, adding that it would require legislation by the government.

“I want this country to be a place where everybody feels safe and secure. This is not just a battle for the Jewish community,” Starmer said. “It is our battle. The Britain that I want is a Britain where people can practice their religion, their faith, in safety and security.”

British counter-terrorism police on Wednesday made two further arrests over an alleged plot to carry out an arson attack on a Jewish-linked site in London.

Detectives arrested two men aged 19 and 26 in Watford, northwest of London, on Tuesday, police said. Both remain in custody.

Police did not name a specific location but said the intended target was connected to the Jewish community.

Seven other people arrested earlier in the investigation have since been released on bail, London’s Metropolitan Police said.

British police have been investigating the string of attacks as part of a wider rise in antisemitic threats and criminal activity since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza in October 2023.