History of the Jews in Guyana

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The location of Guyana in South America GUY orthographic.svg
The location of Guyana in South America
Guyanese Jews
Total population
40 (2007)
Languages
English, Hebrew, Yiddish
Religion
Judaism
Related ethnic groups
Other Jewish groups
(Ashkenazi, Sephardi, etc.)

The history of the Jews in Guyana goes as far back as the 1600s. Representation has always been low, and by the 1930s there was neither an organized Jewish community nor a synagogue in the capital city of Georgetown. [1] In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, several Jewish families immigrated to British Guiana from Arab lands to avoid persecution and expand business opportunities.

Contents

History

Pre 20th Century

The earliest records of Jews in Guyana was in the mid-1600s, when Jewish settlers arrived in the Dutch colony of Essequibo. In 1658, the Dutch agreed with David Nassy to establish a colony of Jews on the Pomeroon River, which flourished, becoming a prized possession of the Dutch, until its destruction in 1666 by an incursion by the English from Barbados under Major John Scott. [2] The Jews of Pomeroon (Bowroom) fled, following the destruction of their colony, mostly to Suriname, where they were granted unprecedented religious freedoms.

British Guiana was part of the expanding British Empire, which included much of the Middle East. The expansion of the sugar cane industry in British Guiana allowed the British to encourage workers (initially indentured Portuguese from Madeira, and then East Indians from South India), and the expansion of the economy brought opportunities to Jews from warm lands to emigrate. Most of the Jewish migration during this period came from British controlled portions of the Middle East including what is now modern Iraq, and were erroneously identified as Assyrians and called "Syrians." Prominent among these families were affluent Jews including the Elias family from Palestine who ran several mercantile exchanges until the great fires of the 1960s put them out of business. There were also several other Jewish merchant families erroneously identified as Arabs. Until the 1960s, there were close to a few hundred Jewish merchants who were categorized as "Syrians". Most of the Jews returned to the Middle East after racial resentment and political upheaval culminated with race riots of the 1960s.

20th century

Prior to World War II, the leadership of Nazi Germany discussed the possibility of exiling the German Jewish population to British Guiana. [3] Winston Churchill had also raised the possibility of relocating up to 250,000 Jews to British Guiana, but his proposal was rejected by then-Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. [4] In early 1939, 165 Jewish refugees travelling on the S.S. Koenigstein from Europe were refused disembarkation and entry, and not long after the government prohibition immigration. [5]

After World War II began, the British colonial administration in charge of Guyana agreed to provide shelter for 50 Jewish refugees who escaped Europe through Spain. These refugees emigrated after the war. [6]

21st century

Today there are a few Jewish communities in Georgetown.

The government of Guyana has generally allied itself with Palestine with regard to conflict in the Middle East. [7] [8] [9]

Notable people

Janet Jagan, an American-born Jewish woman married to a Guyanese national, served as prime minister from March 17, 1997, to December 19, 1997, and as president of Guyana from December 19, 1997, to August 11, 1999. However, Jagan downplayed her faith, telling a journalist in a 2000 interview that "Jewishness wasn't much of a factor in my life." Jagan also added that as of 2000, "There's no Jewish community in Guyana." [10]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Georgetown, Guyana</span> Capital of Guyana

Georgetown is the capital and largest city of Guyana. It is situated in Demerara-Mahaica, region 4, on the Atlantic Ocean coast, at the mouth of the Demerara River. It is nicknamed the "Garden City of the Caribbean." It is the retail, administrative, and financial services centre of the country, and the city accounts for a large portion of Guyana's GDP. The city recorded a population of 118,363 in the 2012 census.

The history of Guyana begins about 35,000 years ago with the arrival of humans coming from Eurasia. These migrants became the Carib and Arawak tribes, who met Alonso de Ojeda's first expedition from Spain in 1499 at the Essequibo River. In the ensuing colonial era, Guyana's government was defined by the successive policies of Spanish, French, Dutch, and British settlers. During the colonial period, Guyana's economy was focused on plantation agriculture, which initially depended on slave labor. Guyana saw major slave rebellions in 1763 and 1823. Following the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833, 800,000 enslaved Africans in the Caribbean and South Africa were freed, resulting in plantations contracting indentured workers, mainly from India. Eventually, these Indians joined forces with Afro-Guyanese descendants of slaves to demand equal rights in government and society. After the Second World War, the British Empire pursued policy decolonization of its overseas territories, with independence granted to British Guiana on May 26, 1966. Following independence, Forbes Burnham of the rose to power, quickly becoming an authoritarian leader, pledging to bring socialism to Guyana. His power began to weaken following international attention brought to Guyana in wake of the Jonestown mass murder suicide in 1978.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">British Guiana</span> British colony from 1814 to 1966

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cheddi Jagan</span> 4th President of Guyana (1992–1997)

Cheddi Berret Jagan was a Guyanese politician and dentist who was first elected Chief Minister in 1953 and later Premier of British Guiana from 1961 to 1964. He later served as President of Guyana from 1992 to his death in 1997. In 1953, he became the first person of Indian descent to be a head of government outside of the Indian subcontinent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Demerara</span> 1745–1803 Dutch colony in South America

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Forbes Burnham</span> Leader of Guyana from 1964 to 1985

Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham was a Guyanese politician and the leader of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana from 1964 until his death in 1985. He served as Premier of British Guiana from 1964 to 1966, Prime Minister of Guyana from 1964 to 1980 and then as the first Executive President of Guyana from 1980 to 1985. He is often regarded as a strongman who embraced his own version of socialism.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Essequibo (colony)</span> 1616–1803 Dutch colony in South America

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References

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  2. Oppenheim, Samuel (1907). "An Early Jewish Colony in Western Guiana, 1658-1666: And its Relation to the Jews in Surinam, Cayenne and Tobago". Publications of the American Jewish Historical Society. 16 (16): 95–186. JSTOR   43059606.
  3. Francis R. Nicosia (2000). The Third Reich and the Palestine Question. Transaction Publishers. p. 3. ISBN   978-0765806246.
  4. Lousie London (2003). Whitehall and the Jews, 1933-1948: British Immigration Policy, Jewish Refugees and the Holocaust. Cambridge University Press. p. 100. ISBN   978-0521534499.
  5. "The Jewish Community of Guyana". The Museum of the Jewish People at Beit Hatfutsot . Retrieved 27 June 2018.
  6. "Guyana During the Second World War". Guyana.org. Retrieved 2013-08-06.
  7. "Guyana votes for upgraded UN status for Palestine". Stabroek News. 2012-12-01. Retrieved 2021-02-20.
  8. "Guyana and Palestine establish diplomatic relations". Stabroek News. 2013-02-23. Retrieved 2021-02-20.
  9. Guyana (1973-06-08). "Letter dated 73/06/07 from the Permanent Representative of Guyana to the United Nations addressed to the President of the Security Council". United Nations Digital Library System.
  10. J.J. Goldberg (April 1, 2009). "Guyana Leader Was Always Her Own (Jewish) Woman". The Forward. Retrieved 2013-08-06.