History of the Jews in Haiti

In 1492, the first Jew to ever set foot in Haiti was Luis de Torres,[2] an interpreter for Christopher Columbus. After Haiti was taken over and colonized by the French in 1633, many Dutch Jews (of whom many were Marrano) emigrated from Brazil in 1634 and became employees of the French sugar plantations and further developed the trade. In 1683, the Jews were expelled from Haiti and all other French colonies, due to the Code Noir (Black Code), which both restricted the activities of free Negroes and forbade the exercise of any religion other than Roman Catholicism. However, despite the Code Noir, a limited number of Jews remained in French trading companies as leading officials, including foreign citizens (Dutch Jews, Danish Jews, and English Jews) or holders of special residence permits (lettres patentes). These Jews tended to specialize in agricultural plantations, with Portuguese Jews from Bordeaux and Bayonne settling mainly in the southern part of Haiti (Jacmel, Jérémie, Léogâne, Les Cayes, Petit-Goâve, and Port-au-Prince) and Curaçaoan Jews settling in the northern part (Cap-Haitien and Saint Louis).[3][4]

In the mid-1700s, many Jews returned to Haiti, but were later murdered or expelled during the 1804 Haitian Revolution led by Toussaint Louverture.

Due to a lack of Jewish community centers, many youth did not grow up with a Jewish education and had to hide their Judaism, as only Catholics were permitted to attend public school. Jews generally preferred to settle on the coastline in port cities, as many were involved in commerce and trade, establishing communities in major industry centers. Recently, archaeologists uncovered an ancient synagogue of Crypto-Jews in the city of Jérémie, the only one found on the island; Jérémie was inhabited by many mixed-race families of Jewish descent. Several Jewish tombstones have also been found in port cities such as Cap-Haïtien and Jacmel.[2][5] By the end of the 19th century, approximately thirty mostly Sephardi Jewish families had arrived from Lebanon, Syria, and Egypt; many Jews from the Middle East felt secure emigrating to Haiti, as a law in France had been passed during this period that gave French citizenship to minorities in the Americas.

Today, the Jewish community is led by Rabbi Douglas Lapin, a local businessman. The Jewish community is known as the "Consistoire d'Haiti" and has been recognized as the representative of the Jewish community by the Haitian Ministry of Religion (Ministere des Cultes) <Rep. d'Haiti; Ministere des Cultes DG/909 6 fevrier 2017>. Rabbi Lapin has likewise been recognized as the Rabbi in Haiti by the Haitian government<Tribunal de Premiere Instance de Port-au-Prince; Recipisse No. 3710084007-7; 4 Octobre 2017>. The community is very small and mostly consists of UN, NGO, and diplomatic personnel, although there are a small number of Haitian Jewish families. The community does Kosher chicken slaughtering (shkita) and has occasional gatherings for Jewish festivals such as Succos and Purim. There is also an Esrog, Myrtle (Hadasim) and Willow (Aravos) plantation to supply local needs for Succos. The community is working on developing a synagogue and community center. There is a complete library of Jewish liturgical books (seforim), Megillas Esther and Sefer Torah.

The 1960s was a time of wealth and high hopes of large future development for Haiti. At the time met many family Jewish names such as: Alvarez, Cardozo, Cohen, Dreyfus, Goldman, Hakim, Hillel, Khan, Monsanto, Pereira, Salzmann, Silveira, and Weiner, which most had forgotten their ethno-religious backgrounds. Today, less than a hundred Jews remain in Haiti on its 9.5 million inhabitants; however, the Weiners (coffee exporters) and the Salzmanns (refugees from Austria) are still today relevant in trade.[10][11]