Today on this 19th day of Caribbean American Heritage Month and Juneteenth. Sarah Rodrigues Brandon and Isaac Lopez Brandon began their lives poor, Christian and enslaved on the island of Barbados but ended their lives as some of the wealthiest Jews in New York.
Neither lived to see Juneteenth
Learn about kosher boarding houses in 18th Century New York in a piece I wrote for the Jewish Women's Archive: jwa.org/encyclopedia...
Learn more about 19th century Jewish boarding houses in this wonderful post by Shari Rabin on "You Are Where You Live: Jews, Religion, and the New York Boardinghouse."
www.gothamcenter.org/blog/you-are...
Yowza! Sharing this wonderful and beautiful website put together by Valerie van der Meulen-Sheppard on her family:
It includes many key Jewish families from the Caribbean including Barbados, Suriname, and Trinidad. So many lovely photos and artifacts!
#CaribbeanAmericanHeritageMonth
#CaribbeanJews
Today's tantalizing tidbit: Jewish boarding houses in the 1850s. One was run by Jamaican Jewish merchant Solomon Lazarus and his wife Rebecca. The other was run by an unmarried woman named Rebecca Phillips. Many members of the Sephardic synagogue lived with Rebecca.
On this 16th day of Caribbean American Heritage Month, Jewish houses of the Caribbean!
The Wedding Cake House, Scharloo, Curaçao. Originally built by Elias Salomon Levy Maduro for his 18-year-old daughter, Deborah Rebecca. Now the home of the Nationaal Archief Curaçao. Photo by Laura Arnold Leibman
On this 16th day of Caribbean American Heritage Month, Jewish houses of the Caribbean! Interior patio of Scharlooweg 55, Scharloo, Curaçao. Birthplace of the famous Jewish WWII hero, George Maduro. Image from the book "Curaçao. Willemstad: a City of Monuments."
On this 16th day of Caribbean American Heritage Month, Jewish houses of the Caribbean!
"A North-East View of the House of Mr. Emanuel Lousada, Kingston, Jamaica," painted by Samuel Felsted in 1778. This painting sold at auction in 2017 for US$80,000 (JS10 million).
On this 17the Day of Caribbean American Heritage Month: Jewish gravestones of the Caribbean! the early communities follow the Portuguese jewish tradition from Amsterdam and Hamburg which allowed for human figures, angels, and the hand of God cutting down the tree of life. What figures do you see?
Today's tantalizing tidbit: Marseilles, or white-corded quilting, created intricate and elegant raised patterns on white cotton. Marseilles Quilt, 1830-1850. Byron and Sara Rhodes Dillow Collection, International Quilt Museum www.internationalquiltmuseum.org/quilt/200804...
You Are Where You Live: Jews, Religion, and the New York Boardinghouse By Shari Rabin
Jewish women in colonial America led varied lives, with some occupying traditional roles as mothers and wives and others remaining single. Some ran their own businesses and others worked as servants f...
