A very long time ago, on a beautiful island far from the so-called ‘known world,’ there existed a peace-loving people who lived by the simple means available to them. They built shelters using trees, bamboo and thatch, strengthening these structures with the vines growing abundantly on the magnificent hillsides and mountains. Their diet, consisting mainly of fish, crabs, shrimp, lobster and turtle, as well as small wild fowl and other game would not have been out of place in today’s finest restaurants. This would have been complemented by an exotic range of delectable and succulent fruit.

This idyllic island, called Xaymaca by the native Tainos, remained completely unknown to the European world until the arrival in 1494 of Christopher Columbus, on the Genoese sailor’s second voyage of discovery. On his return to Spain, Columbus described the beauty of the Caribbean island to his patron, Queen Isabella of Castile: ‘The fairest island eyes have beheld; mountainous and the land seems to touch the sky.’ Xaymaca, later transliterated as Jamaica, had rugged mountains, crystal clear water, white sandy beaches and sparkling rivers.

At the same time that Columbus was searching for a path to the Indies, the Spanish sovereigns, Ferdinand of Aragon and his wife Isabella of Castile, were trying to purify their country, to ensure that their people only followed the Holy Catholic Faith. Those who did not were labelled infidels, including the Jews and Moors who had lived harmoniously in southern Spain since the eighth century, each following their faith and developing and creating a culture of learning, discovery, literature, poetry and architecture (much of which can still be seen today in Andalusia). Over the course of eight centuries, trade, commerce, medical, mathematical and astronomical discoveries had created a true Islamic Renaissance, while Iberian Jews were often called upon to be government advisers and tax collectors and to hold other positions of trust and responsibility, including that of Grand Visier, the highest of ministerial positions.

With the introduction of the Holy Inquisition in 1480 and the capture of southern Spain from the Moors by Ferdinand and Isabella in 1492, the Jews and Moors were forced to flee, leaving behind their homes, occupations and possessions. Those who stayed were forcibly baptized, becoming conversos, though many of them remained Jews in secret. Though the proper term for these crypto-Jews is anusim, meaning ‘the forced ones,’ the most common word used at the time was the pejorative term maranos: pigs.

Many conversos took on Christian names in order not to be identified as Jews, only reverting to their Jewish names later when no longer in danger from the Inquisition. Being a secret Jew was a dangerous practice, and suspected ‘judaisers’ would be reported to the Court of the Holy Inquisition. The forced converts were termed New Christians, and it was on them that the heavy hand of the Holy Inquisitors would fall. Punishments for ‘judaising’ included beatings, torture and being sentenced by the court to be burned at the stake. Because of such difficulties, many Jews crossed the border into Portugal, joining up with Jews who had been there for centuries. Their respite was short-lived, however, and by 1539 the Portuguese had established their own Inquisition.

This is the story of some of the Iberian Jews, known as Sephardim, who made their way west across uncharted seas to become some of the first Europeans to enter the New World.

Many Jews leaving Spain and Portugal travelled north to Amsterdam, where they had business or family connections. As a result of the Reformation, Holland had long been recognized as a tolerant and welcoming country for Jews. Others travelled eastward towards Venice and Istanbul; some to Bordeax and other cities in France; and some across the English Channel to England.

It has long been surmised that some of Columbus’s sailors were possibly conversos, and indeed Columbus himself may have been one. We may never know definitively whether this is so, but without doubt, it was very soon after his voyages that Jews began to cross the Atlantic Ocean, settling in various West Indian islands. Meanwhile, the Spanish built Sevilla la Nueva on the north coast of Jamaica as their first capital. The indigenous Taino population, treated with cruelty and oppression, eventually died either from European diseases or at the hands of the Spaniards. In 1534, the capital was moved south to St Jago de la Vega (now known as Spanish Town).

When the Inquisition visited Brazil in 1580, some fleeing Jews ended up in Jamaica, bringing with them their skills of growing and manufacturing sugarcane, indigo and other produce. A few ‘secret’ Jews from Europe had begun coming to the island in the early seventeenth century, mainly for purposes of trade and commerce. After the English conquest of Jamaica, their numbers increased significantly, drawn by the freedom to practice their religion under English dominion. After 1831, when all disabilities against the Jews were removed by an Act of the Jamaican House of Assembly granting them the right to vote and hold public office, still more were attracted to the island. During the early twentieth century, Sephardic Jews from the Middle East came to escape persecution and anti-Semitism; and in the 1930s and 1940s, Ashkenzai Jews fleeing Nazi Germany sought refuge in Jamaica.

This fascinating story has remained untold. It is one of struggle, adaptation, change, accommodation, often assimilation- and sometimes, another migration. Having won its independence from the United Kingdom in 1962, today Jamaica is a cosmopolitan blend of races and religions with the motto, ‘Out of Many One People.’ Jews remain an important thread in the nation’s tapestry. In fact, in 2002, a Jewish girl of mixed heritage won the Miss Jamaica beauty contest. It is important that their story be told.