Jamaica: Island of Sun, Surf, and Forgotten Jewish Pirates | Jewniverse | Thejewniverse

Jamaican Jews number less than 200 these days, but that wasn’t always the case. The first Jews arrived in Jamaica following the Spanish Inquisition in 1494. Nearly 500 years later, in 2007, a nonprofit called Caribbean Volunteer Expeditions (CVE) started transcribing epitaphs and recording cultural trends in grave sites and found at least 21 Jewish burial grounds across the island – many filled with the names of lost Jewish pirates. Although Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom make no mention of it in the Pirates of the Caribbean series, their namesakes were most likely swashbuckling daveners. Shaare Shalom, Jamaica’s only remaining synagogue, covers its floors with white sand (like that in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands) to remind visitors of the Iberian Jews muting their footsteps while in prayer during the Spanish Inquisition.