Jewish Treasures of the Caribbean

yellow stucco walls and small palm trees surround a door framed by white columns, opening into a dark synagogue
Jewish Treasures of the Caribbean postcard

ASU Jewish Studies presented stunning images by award-winning photographer Wyatt Gallery highlighting the fascinating and little-known history of the earliest Jewish communities in the New World, as seen through the remaining historic sites in Barbados, Curaçao, Jamaica, Nevis, St. Croix, St. Thomas, St. Eustatius, and Suriname. These synagogues and Jewish cemeteries—the oldest in the Western Hemisphere—reveal the strength of the Jewish people and the surprisingly diverse cultural history of the Caribbean.

download exhibit booklet

  • January 12 | 7 p.m.
    exhibit opening
    Short lecture, photographs, music, reception and an evening with the photographer
     
  • February 13 | 7 p.m. 
    Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean Book Club
    ASU professor Stanley Mirvis will lead a conversation about Edward Kritzler’s highly popular, and highly controversial, book Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean. Were there really Jewish pirates of the Caribbean? Did they exist in the way Kritzler represents them?
     
  • March 26 | 7 p.m.
    Resplendent Things: How the Art and Architecture of Caribbean Jews
    exhibit closing lecture

This exhibit and related educational events were made free and publicly accessible, thanks to the following: 

sponsors

  • Harold and Jean Grossman Chair in Jewish Studies at Arizona State University
  • ASU Jewish Studies
  • Arizona Jewish Historical Society
  • Rosenbluth Family Foundation