Story and photos by Marius Bremmer
The Jewish community is respected in Aruba. The government even pays the salary of Rabbi Alberto “Baruch” Zeilicovitch! “We like to show ourselves,” he says. “The more well-known we become, the less prejudices...”
Tourism in Aruba is booming. The country now has 110,000 inhabitants. The Jewish community has barely 100 members. “Small, but active,” says Zeilicovitch (72). “We have services in our ‘Beth Israel’ shul (‘House of Israel’) every Friday evening and every Saturday morning, women also count for minyan, the minimum of 10 persons for a start.” Tourists always join us. Laughing: “We really celebrate everything there is to celebrate here!”
Anne Frank
Visitors to the services must first pass security. Do Jews not feel safe in Aruba? Zeilicovitch: “These are minimal precautions; you see that everywhere in the world. We do not feel threatened here. There never has been any anti-Semitism here. We are a respected part of society, fully integrated and accepted.”
Since the “Status Aparte” in 1986, Aruba even had two Jewish prime ministers: Henny and Mike Eman, sons of the Surinamese Jewish Blanche Hartogh (1924-2006). Mike, now opposition leader, is a regular visitor to “Beth Israel”. Thanks to him, there is a touching statue of Anne Frank in the beautifully situated Wilhelmina Park, in memory of the Holocaust victims.
Attendance
Unlike Curaçao, where Jewish immigration started around 1650, Aruba does not have a rich Jewish past. The first Jew on the island is Moses Solomon Levy Maduro, an official of the West India Company (WIC). He settled there in 1753 with his wife and six children. They come from a prominent family from the Sephardic community of Curaçao, which in those days had more than 2,000 members. David Capriles also comes from this neighbouring island, as can be seen from his clearly legible gravestone from 1883. He and seven others lie in the much neglected “Portuguese cemetery” in Oranjestad.
From 1923 onwards, the arrival of the American oil giant Esso attracted Ashkenazi (Central- and Eastern European Jews) from the Netherlands, Eastern Europe, and Suriname. European Jews also found a safe haven there during the Second World War. When economic life in Aruba collapsed due to the closure of the oil refinery in 1986, many Jews left the island again.
Active
Zeilicovitch is an energetic man. In addition to the Shabbat services, he organizes a learning centre about Judaism for his own members and for non-members who are considering joining Judaism. “I also mentor a group of adults who never became bar-mitzvah or bat-mitzvah as children, the ceremony for 13-year-old kids to count as a member with full rights.”
The synagogue also participates in various projects on the island. “This month, our choir is singing along at an interfaith fundraising for vulnerable refugees. Next year, the curator of the Dead Sea Scrolls from Jerusalem will come to our country. We then will extend a wide invitation to his lecture!”
Zeilicovitch is Argentinian. “My son, through his mother, is the sixth Jewish generation in Argentina.” He counts himself as a member of Conservative Judaism. With a wink: “We believe that Judaism has always been conservative, and that God was the first conservative Jew.”
The rabbi teacher explains: “Judaism is a way of life that is shaped by Jewish laws, but which allows itself to be adapted to new circumstances, if necessary, without losing sight of the essence.” He adds: “In one hand, we have the Torah, in the other hand the New York Times!” He emphasizes the importance of women, also in services: “Judaism runs through the female line, not through the male…”
Part II in next week’s edition of The Weekender
