I started by asking myself, “How is the story of Egypt abstracted?” There are many ways this can be done, some of them deeply personal or mystical. But in the spirit of the assignment, I decided to look at the story as the myth of a community repressed to its core and finding a spiritual liberation which allows them to externalize their identity into expression.
I browsed randomly until I came across the story of the Jews of Curaçao. Kyu-ra-sow
# liquer, a story of oranges
The story of C begins with Samuel Cohen, who arrived as a translator on the Dutch fleet which conquered the island from the Spanish in 1634. Jewish families began to arrive in the 1650s and established what is now the oldest synagogue in the Americas.
Most of the families to arrive in this generation had fled the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions to Amsterdam, and from there moved to the Americas. They were part of a social trend that was to become known as the “port Jewry”, which were mostly Sephardic Jews that found their freedom in the milieu of port and shipping trade that was beginning to stretch across the world. Although it was still technically illegal to practice Judaism in some of these ports, particularly the French Catholic ones, local authorities differed in their application of these rules and the reception of Jews depended on the prevalence of antisemitism among the locals.
What makes the story of C interesting for me, is that for the Jews who fled the Inquisition, Amsterdam was only the beginning of liberation. It is not clear to me why they left. I assume some combination of seeking opportunity but also seeking more freedom. The Netherlands were only relatively a haven for religious freedom. Jews in the Netherlands were encouraged to practice their religion and were allowed (for example) to study medicine, but they were still prevented from many professions and trades.
Thus the story of the 1650 C Jews is a long one, beginning with absolute persecution in Iberia, moving into partial freedom in Amsterdam, then prevailing through physical hardship in their creation of a new home in C. This parallels the story of Egypt that begins with hardship, continues into freedom, then evolves through further difficulties in the quest towards a promised land.
The stories also parallel in another interesting way. The Jews who escaped slavery did not see the fruits of their effort. They could not see 40 years ahead to witness a new homeland. And they certainly could not see thousands of years ahead to see the flourishing of a global Jewry.
So too, the Jews of C would never have envisioned the prominence of their community. Over the next 200 years, it would be a centre for Carribean Jewry and boast one of the richest and most successful Jewish communities of the region. Jews would become 1/3 of the population, and dominate society to such an extent that the entire island’s commerce would be shut down for Jewish holidays, including Passover. By 1800 the community would be involved in the fight for the independence of Venezuela and Colombia from the same Spanish from whom many of the C’s ancestors had fled.
