Jamaica

History of Jewish immigration

The first Jews dating from 1530 to the Spanish colonization, and later in 1655 the British colonizers of that time also allowed to be established in the island.

As a result , the Jewish population flourished and before the end of the 17th century a small synagogue was established in the city of Port Royal.

After the devastating earthquake of 1692 the Jews bought a plot to establish a new synagogue, Neve Shalom, which was built in the early 18th century, in the style of the recently completed synagogue Bevis Marks(London , England).

The first synagogue was said to have been built in 1744 for Sepharadies and another for Ashkenazi Jews and a synagogue was built in 1787, both destroyed by a great fire in Kingston in 1882, and replaced in 1887.

In 1907, however, all the synagogues and many other buildings were destroyed by the great earthquake in Kingston.

Sharei Shalom Synagogue, the congregation united synagogue was rebuilt in Duke Street in concrete instead of brick by Henriques Brothers in 1912.

Congregations eventually met in 1921 as the United Congregation of Israelites.

Today the congregation of about 200 jews, still maintains the Synagogue, one of the few in the world of sand on the floor, designed and built in the traditional style by Jamaican Sephardic Jew, Rudolph Daniel Cohen Henriques, and his brothers.

Today, many of the best professionals of the island, entrepreneurs and leaders in general, you can trace Jewish ancestry in their genealogy.

A little about the country

The island of Jamaica is a nation of the Greater Antilles, with a total area of �??�??10,991 km, 240 km long and up to 80 km in width, situated in the Caribbean Sea.

The Jamaican Constitution, enacted in 1962, establishes a system of government Constitutional monarchy Parliamentary. Jamaica is divided into three counties and 14 parishes, and its capital Kigston .

The island is composed primarily of mountainous terrain surrounded by a small strip of coast. Cities are usually set in the coastal plain.

The climate in Jamaica is tropical, generally warm and humid, but in mountain areas can be somewhat cooler.

Despite its location in the middle of the Caribbean Sea , dont suffers hurricanes as often as its neighboring islands. This is mainly due to the wind in the mountains rise, which diverts.

It has a population of 2,735,520 inhabitants.

Jamaica is known for its rich culture and music, which have made the island famous worldwide.

The official language is English.

The currency is the Jamaican dollar (JMD)