This fully annotated book presents the history of the steady disappearance of Caribbean Sephardim by following the migratory paths of individual nineteenth century Sephardic Jews in the region.  During an era rife with political and economic upheaval, these Sephardic Jews migrated away from stagnant economies, revolutions, and religious intolerance, moving around the Caribbean with relative ease.  When a severe and lengthy recession developed on the Dutch island of Curaçao, beginning at the end of the eighteenth century, a large number of Sephardim who had settled there left in search of better economic opportunities.  This outmigration continued off and on throughout most of the nineteenth century. 

The first part of the book tells the stories of migrating Sephardim who settled in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands; Coro, Venezuela; Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic; and Barranquilla, Colombia.  Here they became retailers, traders, politicians, poets, industrial entrepreneurs, doctors, lawyers, and other professionals, each contributing in their own way to the economic and cultural growth of the countries that became their homes. It  describes how, over time, they and their descendants fully assimilated into their host communities.  

The assimilatory process is discussed in a more analytical fashion in the second part of the book.  Variations in the rate of assimilation in different geographical locations and the role of Freemasonry and gender are presented.

The author may be contacted at jgoldish@brandeis.edu