The islands that make up the Caribbean nation of St. Kitts and Nevis, while extremely small, still have a rich Jewish history.
After being expelled from Brazil
in the 17th century, Jews began to settle
on this string of islands located about a third of the way from Puerto Rico and Trinidad and Tobago.
At its height, the Jewish community
in St. Kitts numbered between 75 to 100 people and constituted around
25% of the islands' total population.
These mostly Sephardic
Jews brought to the island the secrets of
crystallizing sugar, making Nevis the “Queen
of the Caribbees.
The Jewish community of Nevis erected a synagogue
in Charlestown around 1684 and
established a Jewish cemetery
located on Government Road, which
contains graves dating from 1679 to
1768. There are 19 surviving markers in the cemetery which bear
inscriptions in Hebrew, English, and Portuguese. At the end of the 18th
century, most of the Jewish
population left the island of Nevis,
leaving the Jewish cemetery abandoned.
Today,
a major archaeological effort is underway to preserve and uncover more
of the Jewish cemetery. It is believed that researchers may find a
still undiscovered Jewish school and even another synagogue.
There
is still debate to this day about the heritage of American stateman
Alexander Hamilton, who was born in Nevis and possibly had a Jewish
father. Speculation that Hamilton was taught by a Jewish school-teacher
and that he learned Hebrew has led archaeologists to believe there is a
Jewish school somewhere located on the island.
Sources: Julie Kay, "Synagogues in the Sand." The Forward (March 2, 2012); “Exploring Nevis”; Resistivity Survey of the Nevis Jewish Cemetery
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