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U. of Vermont agrees to improve antisemitism training, ending federal case and capping a tumultuous year
(JTA) – A year of strained relations between the University of Vermont and its Jewish community has led to the school resolving a federal antisemitism complaint and pledging to do more to protect its Jewish students — including from anti-Zionist rhetoric.
The university and the U.S. Department of Education announced Monday that they had reached a resolution to the complaint, which the department took up last fall after it was filed by students and pro-Israel groups. The complaint alleged that the institution had not properly responded to Jewish students’ allegations of antisemitic discrimination. Investigators determined that the university “received notice, but did not investigate” several claims of antisemitic behavior on campus, and that the steps it ultimately took did not adequately address students’ concerns.
Notably, the department’s office of civil rights determined that one of the ways the university’s Jewish students had been discriminated against was through “national origin harassment on the basis of shared ancestry,” reflecting a controversial argument promoted by pro-Israel groups that anti-Zionist rhetoric is harmful to all Jews because the Jewish people share Israel as an ancestral homeland. The resolution of the complaint also reflects a sharp change in course for the school, which had initially denied wrongdoing and blamed the accusations on an orchestrated external campaign — a response that upset the campus Jewish community.
“This complaint was overwhelmingly dealing with the antisemitism that masks as anti-Zionism, and what the resolution demonstrates is how seriously [the office] is taking that kind of antisemitism,” Alyza Lewin, president of the Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency after the ruling. A pro-Israel legal group that often involves itself in campus disputes, the Brandeis Center was one of the organizations that filed the initial complaint on behalf of mostly anonymous students.
The Department of Education responded to a JTA request for comment by pointing to its letter of resolution with the university. Its civil rights office has fielded several challenges to anti-Zionist rhetoric since the Donald Trump administration expanded the department’s mandate around antisemitism in 2019 under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. The office of civil rights is fast becoming a favorite tool for pro-Israel activists: It also announced this week it would open an investigation into allegations of a professor’s antisemitic behavior at George Washington University, a week after the university’s own investigation cleared the faculty member of charges brought by another pro-Israel group.
In the agreement, the University of Vermont pledged to revise its policies for reporting discrimination and to train its staff on how to specifically respond to discrimination complaints. The Department of Education will also review the university’s records regarding its response to last year’s allegations of antisemitism. One of the areas in which the university said it would train staff is on how to recognize “the Title VI prohibition against harassment based on national origin, including shared ancestry.”
Among the allegations: cases of unofficial student groups denying admission to “Zionist” students (including a support group for sexual-assault survivors); one graduate teaching assistant who had mused on social media about lowering the grades of Zionist students; and a group of students who’d reportedly thrown an object at the campus Hillel building (the complaint claimed it was a rock; Hillel staff told JTA it was a puffball mushroom). More than 20% of the university’s student body is Jewish, according to Hillel International.
Evan Siegel, a Jewish junior at the University of Vermont, poses in his off-campus housing in Burlington, October 13, 2022. Siegel was initially critical of his school for its handling of a federal antisemitism investigation, but praised its eventual resolution. (Andrew Lapin/Jewish Telegraphic Agency)
The agreement marked a sharp change from how the university first responded when the government announced its intent to investigate the complaint last fall. Back then, the university’s president, Suresh Garimella, issued a combative statement in which he said the university “vigorously denies the false allegation of an insufficient response to complaints of threats and discrimination.” He also issued a point-by-point refutation of the allegations in the complaint.
Garimella further charged that the complaint had been orchestrated by “an anonymous third party” that had “painted our community in a patently false light.” In addition to the Brandeis Center, the complaint was filed on behalf of students by the watchdog group Jewish On Campus, whose antisemitism-tracking methodology has been criticized by other groups.
Garimella’s combativeness at the time was an unusual move for the leader of a university accused of violating Title VI law, which prohibits discriminatory behavior at federally-funded programs or institutions, such as public universities. Groups like the Brandeis Center have increasingly leaned on Title VI in federal complaints to argue that pro-Israel students face discrimination. Title VI cases have become a central component of litigating multiple kinds of Israel discourse on campus, ranging from a pro-Israel student body president being targeted at the University of Southern California to a resolution passed by pro-Palestinian law student groups at the University of California, Berkeley.
In Burlington, where the university is located, some liberal Jews were initially dubious of the complaint. Felicia Kornbluh, a history professor on campus who often teaches American Jewish history, told JTA she was concerned about “playing into the narrative” of a conservative, pro-Israel agenda set by the Brandeis Center, whom she described as “allies of the Trump wing of the Republican party.” (The center’s founder, Kenneth Marcus, served as assistant secretary of education for civil rights under Trump.)
But the complaint also landed in the aftermath of a contentious Burlington city council meeting at which, Kornbluh and others said, pro-Palestinian protesters became hostile to Jews. The meeting featured a council resolution to endorse the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions campaign against Israel, and resulted in a raucous scene where pro-Palestinian groups shouted down Jewish students singing prayers for peace. Kornbluh described the atmosphere there as “really scary,” and “a little like Nuremberg.” Vermonters for Justice in Palestine, a local activist group, held multiple rallies on campus in support of the administration after the antisemitism complaint was publicized.
Against this backdrop, Garimella’s dismissiveness left the university’s Jewish community frustrated and angry. During a Jewish Telegraphic Agency visit to Burlington after the president’s initial statement, Jewish students and faculty said they felt like university administration was not taking their concerns seriously.
“I feel like we’re not being supported here,” Evan Siegel, a Jewish junior who is involved with student government, told JTA while sitting in off-campus housing adorned with Jewish summer camp memorabilia. “And that sucks.”
Employed as a campus tour guide, Siegel wondered, “How am I supposed to give tours and be like, ‘UVM is the best,’ when my president is being an ass?”
Other Jewish students told JTA at the time they had no intention of supporting the university financially or otherwise after they graduated, and wouldn’t advertise the fact that they were alums.
Matt Vogel, executive director of Hillel at the University of Vermont, where one of the alleged antisemitic incidents had taken place, also reluctantly played a role in the drama of the last year, after hoping he would be able to keep his focus on Hillel’s student programming. As the fall semester was starting, he sent an email home to parents reading, “Antisemitism keeps me awake at night.” Throughout the semester, Hillel also became more active in calling out antisemitism on social media.
“Just by default, we’re at the center of it,” Vogel told JTA last fall in the Hillel building, as student volunteers chopped vegetables for that evening’s Shabbat dinner in the next room. “I’ve overheard a student saying, like, a Hillel sticker on their water bottle might turn into a political conversation about Zionism in the first two seconds.”
Matt Vogel, executive director of Hillel at the University of Vermont, prepares for Shabbat in his Burlington office, October 14, 2022. Vogel praised the university for ultimately resolving its federal antisemitism complaint in April 2023 after months of tension. (Andrew Lapin/Jewish Telegraphic Agency)
Soon, Kornbluh decided that the administration’s response to the allegations was unacceptable, and penned a local op-ed opposing it that was later shared by her faculty union in a show of solidarity.
“I was stunned by the tone and content” of Garimella’s letter, Kornbluh wrote in the piece. Accusing the university of “gaslighting,” she added, “I do know that one persistent rhetorical strategy of antisemites in Europe and the United States has been to say that there is no antisemitism.”
Garimella reversed course following weeks of criticism, a strongly worded letter from more than a dozen Jewish groups including the Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee and news of several high-profile antisemitic incidents nationally. In October, the university published a website intended to support Jewish students — accompanied by a new statement from Garimella, who now condemned antisemitism unequivocally.
“I have listened to members of our campus community who experience a sense of risk in fully expressing their Jewish identity,” he wrote. ”I want my message to be clear to the entire campus community: antisemitism, in any form, will not be tolerated at UVM.”
This time, Garimella pledged not only to investigate individual reports of antisemitism, but also to work to change the campus community’s approach to the issue. He committed to further anti-bias training and building a streamlined bias reporting system for students, and said the university’s diversity office would work to build and maintain “meaningful actions that ensure our Jewish students and community members feel support and care.”
After Monday’s resolution, Garimella was fully supportive of the findings of the Department of Education’s investigation.
“The resolution reflects an important step in UVM’s engagement with our students, faculty, staff, alumni, and the surrounding community,” he wrote in a message to the campus. “It also reflects numerous conversations we have had with our campus Jewish community and important local and national voices on the consequential and complex issue of antisemitism.”
In response to a JTA request for comment, a university spokesperson sent copies of the letters from the president and provost. (Throughout the year, the president’s office had declined multiple JTA interview requests.)
Jewish groups, including the university Hillel, celebrated the resolution. “The President and senior leadership’s new statements today represent tangible and accountable steps forward,” Vogel told JTA in a statement. “We hope this ensures that no Jewish student or any student at UVM experiences discrimination or harassment because of their identity.”
The Hillel building at the University of Vermont in Burlington, October 14, 2022. Hillel found itself at the center of a federal antisemitism complaint against the university. (Andrew Lapin/Jewish Telegraphic Agency)
Also celebrating the ruling was Jewish on Campus, a subsidiary of the World Jewish Congress and one of the groups that brought the initial complaint. “Today’s announcement is a victory for the safety and security of Jewish students,” Julia Jassey, the group’s CEO and a University of Chicago undergraduate, said in a statement.
Avi Zatz, the only University of Vermont student on the initial complaint who has made their identity public, is himself an employee of Jewish on Campus. Citing antisemitism in Vermont, Zatz recently transferred to the University of Florida — in a state that may soon pass legislation that, critics say, could harm Jewish studies on all its public campuses.
“I can’t have hoped for a better resolution,” Zatz, a junior, told JTA from his new school in Gainesville, Florida. While he said he was still glad to have left Vermont, he added, “I finally feel a sense of closure.”
Kornbluh, for her part, said the resolution was “a start,” but criticized the university for not voicing a stronger commitment to Jewish studies or meeting with Jewish faculty.
Reached by phone from Madrid, where he is studying abroad this semester, Siegel said he was “proud, determined, ready for more” following the university’s agreement.
“This resolution was really, in a respectful way, a slap in the face to the university to do better,” he said. “I, for one, am ready to get back on campus and continue my work as hard as I can.”
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The post U. of Vermont agrees to improve antisemitism training, ending federal case and capping a tumultuous year appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Jewish families and a rabbi ask to join lawsuit to block Oklahoma Jewish charter school
(JTA) — A rabbi, a Jewish mother who invokes her family’s Holocaust history, and a Jewish teenager are among seven Oklahoma residents who have asked a federal court to let them join the fight against a proposed Jewish public charter school in their state.
The group filed a motion Wednesday in federal court in Oklahoma City seeking to intervene in the lawsuit brought by the National Ben Gamla Jewish Charter School Foundation, which is trying to become the nation’s first publicly funded religious school.
Rabbi Daniel Kaiman, the principal rabbi of Congregation B’nai Emunah in Tulsa, says he opposes the mixing of religion and government because of the potential for abuse. His own children attend a public elementary school in Tulsa.
“I am passionate about Jewish education—indeed, I have dedicated my life to it. Kaiman wrote in a declaration filed with the court. “Children in my congregation, including my own children, receive excellent, privately funded Jewish education through our synagogue and at home in accordance with our community values. But the mixing of religion and government creates opportunities for religious coercion.”
The motion was filed on behalf of the seven by the ACLU, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the Education Law Center, the Freedom From Religion Foundation and Oklahoma Appleseed.
Ben Gamla, founded by former Florida congressman Peter Deutsch, applied last year to open a virtual K-12 school in Oklahoma where Jewish religious teachings would be woven into all subjects and employees would be required to uphold Jewish tradition in their personal lives.
The Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board rejected the application twice, in February and March, citing a 2024 Oklahoma Supreme Court ruling that barred religious charter schools. The 2024 ruling stood following a 4-4 vote in the U.S. Supreme Court after Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused herself from the case, reportedly over ties to the Catholic plaintiff in that case.
Ben Gamla filed a federal lawsuit against the board on March 24 arguing that the ban amounts to unconstitutional religious discrimination.
Now, the group opposing the school is asking to join the case as additional defendants alongside state Attorney General Gentner Drummond, who is also against religious charter schools. Their motion argues that neither Drummond nor the charter school board can be trusted to vigorously defend the state’s secular school laws. Drummond’s term ends in January, and it is unknown whether his successor will take the same position. The board, meanwhile, hired First Liberty Institute to represent it — a conservative Christian legal group that has consistently argued that religious charter schools should be legal.
Opposition to Ben Gamla is widespread among Oklahoma Jews. The Jewish Federation of Greater Oklahoma City sent a letter to Drummond opposing the proposed school, saying religious charter schools “risk eroding the constitutional safeguards that protect both religious freedom and government neutrality toward religion.”
Eric Baxter, the attorney representing Ben Gamla and Deutsch, has dismissed local Jewish opposition.
“The Jewish Federation doesn’t speak for all Jews. They have their own perspective,” he recently told Oklahoma’s News 9. “Peter has a much more robust view of how Jews can thrive in Oklahoma and throughout the United States.”
Baxter added that he expects the court to rule in Ben Gamla’s favor based on recent Supreme Court precedents involving religious schools.
“It’s a huge stretch to say that, just because you contract with the government or receive government funding, you’re suddenly a government actor,” he said. “We’re just saying the Oklahoma Supreme Court got it wrong.”
Joining Kaiman in the group seven is Erika DuBose, a social worker for the Cherokee Nation whose grandmother fled Germany during the Holocaust. Her daughter Sydney Gebhardt, a nonbinary high school senior who serves on the steering committee of Keshet, a Jewish organization supporting LGBTQ inclusion, also joined the motion.
“I believe that the separation of church and state helps all religions, particularly minority religions,” Gebhardt wrote. “So while I am passionate about Jewish education and support religious education in general, I believe that public funds should never be used to fund religious education, no matter the religion.”
Kara Joy McKee and her husband Gene Perry, a Jewish couple raising their child in Tulsa, say they want their child to learn about Judaism in their community and not through a government-run school.
“I also doubt that Ben Gamla is authentically committed to our Jewish values,” McKee wrote, “because it seeks to weaken the separation of church and state — which has been a crucial protection for religious minorities in this country.”
Bradley Archer, an atheist social studies teacher at an Oklahoma charter school, noted that Ben Gamla’s requirement that employees “uphold the standards of the Jewish tradition in their day-to-day work and personal lives” would bar him from working there. “I would be precluded from working as a teacher at Ben Gamla, as my atheistic beliefs prevent me from advocating for, embracing, or making life decisions based on any particular set of religious values,” he wrote.
Rachel Laser, president and CEO of Americans United, said opposition to the school has been broad and consistent.
“The courts, Oklahoma public school families and taxpayers, and Jewish leaders in the state all have rejected the creation of the nation’s first religious public school,” Laser, who is Jewish, said in a statement. “We’re proud to represent Oklahomans who won’t let a religious organization backed by Christian Nationalists strong-arm the people of Oklahoma into violating the Constitution’s promises of religious freedom and church-state separation.”
This article originally appeared on JTA.org.
The post Jewish families and a rabbi ask to join lawsuit to block Oklahoma Jewish charter school appeared first on The Forward.
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Murderer of Couple and 9-Year-Old-Son — ‘A Badge of Honor’ for Palestinians
Hamas gunmen stand guard on the day that hostages held in Gaza since the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack, are handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), as part of a ceasefire and hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel, in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Oct. 13, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed
While the world is focused on the war to dismantle the danger to all humanity from the terror state of Iran, the Palestinian Authority (PA), clearly, wants to be the new terror state in the region.
The PA’s official TV station welcomed two terrorist murderers, recently released in the Hamas extortion deal in exchange for Israeli hostages, to its weekly TV program honoring terrorists.
While some naïve observers of the PA were surprised when Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) exposed that the PA supported the Oct 7 atrocities, which included mass murder of families, it should not have been a surprise as PA policy has always been to support and glorify mass murder.
And just two weeks ago, the PA did it again.
On its weekly show to honor terrorists, official PA TV interviewed two murderers. One was serving 7 life sentences, responsible for the deaths of Rabbi Ya’akov Yosef Dikstein, his wife Chana, and their 9-year-old son Shuvel Zion, and others. The terrorists were introduced as “dear brother … We will always view you as badges of honor on the Palestinian chest.”
Since the PA continues to define mass murderers as “badges of honor,” this again confirms what PMW has been insisting. The proper action for the international community is not to grant the PA statehood, but to designate it as a terror organization:
Official PA TV host: “Our two guests will be dear brother Khalil Abu Arram ‘Abu Jihad’ [i.e., terrorist, responsible for murder of 5], who was sentenced to 7 life sentences… Also with us is our dear brother Nidal Amar [i.e., terrorist, murdered 1]. Blessings to him as well. He is a free prisoner after more than 14 (sic, 12) years. His sentence was life imprisonment … We will always view you as badges of honor on the Palestinian chest.” [emphasis added]
[Official PA TV, Giants of Endurance, March 24, 2026]
That terrorist murderers are heroes and role models for the entire society is the ideology that the PA feeds Palestinians from early childhood and through all the years in the PA education system.
A high school in Jenin planted a “Martyrs’ Garden” honoring among others arch-terrorist Abu Jihad, responsible for murdering 125, and Walid Obeidi, responsible for murdering 11. At the inauguration of the Garden of the Martyrs event, at which PA Security Forces officers were also present, a Fatah official explained the rationale behind the Martyrs’ garden: Teaching youth to desire becoming terrorist “Martyrs.” He said: “Whoever honors the Martyr walks in his path,” and also stated that terrorist “Martyrs” are “more noble and precious than all of us”:
Insan National Action Association Chairman Fida Turkeman: “In honor of Palestinian Martyrs’ Day, we inaugurated the Garden of the Martyrs of Palestine here at the Jenin Vocational School…. We are proud of these important and great figures… They sacrificed their lives for Palestine, for the Palestinian cause, for liberation, for the right of return, and for the establishment of the Palestinian state on all national lands, on the occupied Palestinian lands, 1948 and 1967 [i.e., all of Israel]…”
Member of Fatah Jenin branch Osama Bazzour: “As we always say, whoever honors the Martyr walks in his path. We came to plant an olive tree… in the name of all the Martyrs of the Palestinian revolution and our Martyrs, who are more noble and precious than all of us… We will continue to walk in their path until victory, liberation, and return, Allah willing.”
Ahmad Rashid, school principal: “We hope that this [garden] will bring glory and eternity to the Martyrs of Palestine.” [emphasis added]
Some of the same arch-terrorists were honored by Fatah and the PLO at a Palestinian Martyrs’ Day event at Al-Burj Al-Shamali refugee camp in Lebanon. At the terrorists’ memorial, a PLO official explained that “Martyrdom is the path to victory [and] freedom of Palestine”:
Text on screen: “On behalf of [PA] President [Mahmoud Abbas]: Palestinian Ambassador [in Lebanon] Dr. Muhammad Al-As’ad lays wreaths on the monument of the Martyrs of the Palestinian revolution”
Secretary of Fatah and the PLO factions in Lebanon Nasser Al-Lahham: “Many are the Martyrs of Palestine who sacrificed their lives for their freedom and our freedom, and no brave person can equal them and compete with their Martyrdom, because Martyrdom is the path to the approaching victory, which leads to the freedom of Palestine and its people.” …
In the background of the stage was a large poster featuring PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and former head of the Black September terror organization Salah Khalaf “Abu Iyad.”
Reporter:“At every turning point in our national cause, the last wills of the Martyrs and their sacrifice continue to serve as a roadmap towards Palestine.”
Participants in the event carried a large poster featuring terrorist Khalil Al-Wazir “Abu Jihad” who was responsible for the murder of 125 people, Salah Khalaf “Abu Iyad,” Mahmoud Abbas, and former PLO and PA Chairman Yasser Arafat.
Text on poster:“Here we remain” [emphasis added]
[Official PA TV News, Jan. 7, 2026]
Earlier this year, a Fatah official also used the term “badges of honor” to describe terrorist prisoners serving long-term sentences:
Follow-up Commission for Prisoners’ Affairs Director and Fatah member Amin Shuman: “[The prisoners] merit to be a symbol for all our Palestinian people who appreciate the prisoner (i.e., terrorist) who is serving more than 20 years and even 25 years, and even the administrative detainees, the female prisoners, the children, and all the models of the prisoners’ movement inside the Israeli prisons … They are a badge of honor on the forehead of every Palestinian and Arab and every free person in this world.” [emphasis added]
[Official PA TV, Topic of the Day, Dec. 30, 2025]
So, as Israel and the US fight to destroy one terror state, the PA is actively building another beside Israel.
The author is the founder and director of Palestinian Media Watch, where a version of this article first appeared.
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Jews in Curacao: A Remarkable History (PART ONE)
A look inside the exhibit “Longing for Freedom. The World of Anne Frank” opening at the Jewish Museum Curacao. Photo: Anne Frank House
Curacao is a small island in the Atlantic Ocean near Venezuela known for its rich Jewish history. Covering 170 square miles, it is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
Curacao may ring a bell as the place Jews escaping Lithuania named as their final destination in escaping Europe, but its Jewish roots go back much further, to when it was called the “Mother Congregation of the Americas.”
This is the story of Curacao.
Curacao was conquered by a Spanish expedition in 1499 and remained under Spanish control until 1634. At that time, the Dutch decided to capture Curaçao from Spain in response to Spain’s seizure of Saint Martin from the Dutch West India Company (WIC).
In April 1634, the WIC sent Admiral Johannes Van Walbeeck to take Curacao and Bonaire from the Spanish. These islands were important for their location near the American continent and for their role in trade and shipping,
In May 1634, Van Walbeeck departed from Holland with a fleet of four ships, 180 sailors, and 250 soldiers. To their good fortune, the Spanish had mostly abandoned Curacao, which facilitated the Dutch conquest. During this time, Curacao’s first known Jew, Samuel Cohen, arrived to serve as an interpreter for the Dutch. On August 21, the Spanish forces surrendered, and Van Walbeeck was appointed the first governor of the Netherlands Antilles.
Arrival of the First Jewish Settlers
At first, the Dutch used Curaçao as a naval base against Spain. After the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, the island lost its strategic value, so the WIC encouraged Dutch settlers to farm there. In 1651, Joao d’Yllan, a Portuguese Jew, and 12 Jewish families from Amsterdam’s Portuguese community moved to Curacao. They were promised religious freedom, land, tax breaks, exemption from guard duty on Shabbat even during war, and government protection. This was the earliest charter of its kind for Jews in the New World.
The families established a plantation called Plantation De Hoop (Plantation of Hope).
A larger group of Jewish settlers came in 1659, bringing a 14th-century Torah Scroll from the Amsterdam community. This Torah is still used today at the Mikveh Israel-Emmanuel Synagogue. Most of these settlers were refugees from the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions. After first moving to the Netherlands or Northern Brazil, they now settled in Curacao, starting a new chapter for the Jewish community there.
Farmers? Not Quite. Financiers — Absolutely!
The settlers first tried to farm, but the dry soil made it difficult. By 1660, the Jewish community moved to Willemstad and began trading between Northern Europe and South America. They found great success in this new focus.
Once trade routes connected Curacao with Northern Europe and South America, business on the island grew quickly. The Jewish community became the largest and wealthiest in the Americas. From 1670 to 1900, Jews in Curacao owned over 1,200 sailing ships, with at least 200 Jewish captains. A 1728 report said, “the lion’s share of shipping is in Curacao Jewish hands.”
Due to the risks involved in shipping, marine insurance was invented to help distribute the risk of loss of ships or cargo among the parties involved. Most of the insurance brokers were Jewish, and they eventually also became the bankers of Curacao. By the early 20th century, three commercial banks owned by Sephardic Jews were established in Curacao: Maduro’s Bank, Curiel’s Bank, and Edwards Henriquez & Co.’s Bank. (The first two merged in 1932 to form Maduro & Curiel’s Bank, which is the oldest and most extensive bank in the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba.)
An archived photo in Maduro’s bank. Photo: provided.
In another successful business, Jewish businessmen Haim Mendes Chumaceiro and Edgar Senior started Senior & Co. in 1896 to make Curaçao liqueur. It was first made for medicine but soon became a popular drink. The founders’ families still run the company, and they are the only ones who use Curacao-grown larahas in their liqueur. The product is also Star-K Kosher certified.
Interestingly, the Jews of Curacao also provided refuge and funds to Simon Bolivar, known as the “George Washington of South America” when he was fighting for freedom from Spain. As the Jews of Curacao shared his hatred for Spain, due to their experience of the Inquisition, they were eager to help him. They provided a place for Bolivar and his family and Curacao’s Jews even served in his army.
In short, over the years, the Jewish community in Curacao gained great wealth and influence, and, as we will see, they used it to strengthen their own community and support other communities throughout the Americas.
Building The Community
While still in its early years, in 1659, the Jewish community of Curacao created Haskamos, defining how the community would be governed. A key component of rulership was a Machamad (the equivalent of a board) that would govern the community for years to come.
The Machamad was a mixed blessing. They had control over all that went on within the community, and in good times, this was positive, but in times when the members of the Machamad were more concerned with their own power than the good of the community, this led to divisions and strife that would ultimately lead to the demise of the proud Curacao community.
The Haskamos of the Curacao community were patterned after those of the Portuguese Talmud Torah Kehillah in Amsterdam, from where most of them had come, and to which they would remain deeply connected. Over the coming centuries, Rabbis for Curacao would be sent from Amsterdam, and Amsterdam would continue to lead and direct the Jewish community from across the ocean.
In 1651, the community established itself as Congregation Mikveh Yisrael. By 1674, the community had grown enough in size and finances to buy its first shul building in Willemstad. In 1703, they rebuilt it with a larger structure, and in 1730, they tore it down and constructed a magnificent edifice that remains in use to this day. It was built by a master carpenter brought in from Amsterdam and was completed by Pesach of 1732. The beautiful shul is called the Snao (which means synagogue in Papiamentu, the language of Curacao). It has 50-foot-high ceilings and 18th-century copper chandeliers, and it was built to resemble the shul in the Amsterdam community from which most Jews in Curacao had come. The shul is large enough to seat 600 people. Today, it is a major tourist attraction in Curacao.
The shul is unique for its sand-covered floors. Some believe the sand is to remember the forty years the Jewish people spent in the desert. Others say it recalls God’s promise to Abraham that his descendants would be as many as the stars and the sand. Another idea is that it comes from Jews who prayed in secret during the Inquisition and used sand to quiet their footsteps and prayers.
Inside a shul with a sand-covered floor. Photo: provided,
By the late 1740’s, the Jewish community had expanded beyond Willemstad into its neighboring Otrabanda, where a new shul, Neve Shalom, was founded in 1746. Over the next few years, disagreements arose over whether Mikveh Yisroel shul should make decisions for the new community or whether Neve Shalom was now an independent community. The conflict grew to such an extent that it affected the island’s economy (indicating the Jewish community’s importance to Curaçao’s economy), and the government got involved.
In 1750, the Prince of Holland ordered the two communities to make peace. His royal order required Neve Shalom to follow the leadership of the Machamad and the board of Mikveh Yisroel, and to obey the directives of the Portuguese community in Amsterdam.
The Curacao community had many organizations that helped the poor and the sick. In fact, the community was so renowned for taking care of the needy that the Kehillah of Amsterdam would pay the travel expenses for poor members to go to Curaçao and settle there, knowing they would be well cared for. This occurred so frequently that by 1736, Governor Juan Pedro van Collen asked the West India Company to stop giving passports to poor Jews because he worried that they would become a burden to Curacao.
The Rabbis of Curacao
The Jewish community in Curaçao was deeply committed to their faith. In the 1600s, Jews there had more rights and freedoms than anywhere else in the Western world. While more rights often led to assimilation in other places, this was rare in Curacao. For the next two centuries, the community remained strong. Unlike other Jewish communities in the Americas, they made Jewish education a top priority and worked hard to give their children a strong religious foundation.
In 1674, Chacham Josiau Pardo arrived from Amsterdam to become Curacao’s first rabbi. He came from a family of rabbis, and in fact, his father had served as a judge in the Amsterdam Jewish court of law alongside the famous Rabbi Menashe ben Israel. Rabbi Pardo’s focus was on the Torah study of the community. He set up a medras (beit medrash study hall) for the children of the community.
With Chacham Pardo as leader, the community required boys to attend the medras from age five to sixteen, showing their strong commitment to Torah study. In Europe then, only wealthy or very dedicated boys continued learning after bar mitzvah, yet in Curacao attendance was mandatory. Families that did not send their sons to the medras could be fined or even forced by the government to comply.
Chacham Pardo also started the Yeshiva Eitz Chaim v’Ohel Yaakov to train teachers, Chazzanim, and those who wanted to study Torah for additional years. This was the first yeshiva-like school in the Western Hemisphere, and many of its graduates would go on to lead Jewish communities in the Americas.
In 1683, after Rabbi Pardo moved to Jamaica, there was no rabbi for the community until 1696 when Rabbi Eliau Lopez arrived in Curacao. He had previously served as the Chacham of Barbados and as the leader of the Curacao community until his passing in 1713.
Rabbi Raphael Jesurun, a student of the Eitz Chaim Yeshiva in Amsterdam, served as rabbi from 1717 to 1748. Rabbi Raphael Mendes de Sola, who had been a rabbi in Amsterdam, came to Curacao in 1744 to serve as an assistant Rabbi to Rabbi Jesurun. After his passing, he served as the Chacham until his passing in 1761.
The next rabbi was Rabbi Isaac Henriquez Farro from Amsterdam. Tragically, he passed away just a few days after arriving in Curacao in July 1762. At this point, the community persuaded Rabbi Raphael Chaim Yitzchok Karigal, who was a Torah scholar and a fundraiser for the community of Chevron, to serve as rabbi until the native Curacaon Rabbi Jacob Lopez da Fonseca would return with semicha from the Eitz Chaim Yeshiva of Amsterdam, as he was expected to become the next rabbi of Curacao. Rabbi Karigal agreed and stayed for two years. He later became a rabbi in Newport, Rhode Island, and New York City.
Rabbi Jacob Lopez da Fonseca returned to Curacao in 1764 and served as the Chacham until his passing in 1815. He was the first Chacham born in Curacao to serve the community.
Rabbi Menachem Levine is the CEO of JDBY-YTT, the largest Jewish school in the Midwest. He served as Rabbi of Congregation Am Echad in San Jose, CA, from 2007 to 2020. He is a popular speaker and writes for numerous publications on Torah, Jewish History, and Contemporary Jewish Topics. Rabbi Levine’s personal website is https://thinktorah.org A version of this article was originally published at Aish.