Cemetery on Curaçao

Curaçao has played an especially important role in the dispertion of Portuguese Jews in the Caribbean and later, in North America. Nowhere else in the Caribbean had they gained such a sturdy base for their community. On Curaçao some interesting historical evidence can be found.
The oldest synagogue in the Western Hemisphere, Mikve Israel - Emanuel, is located there, as well as the oldest Sephardi cemetery, the Beth Haim.
To this day the family names of local bankers and business men betray their Portuguese Jewish heritage, such as Maduro, Lopes, Cardoso, Sousa, Hendriques, Mendes, Pinto and da Silva.
Even more tellingly, the tombstones of the cemetery Beth Haim reveal the same unusual sculptured images as those found on Beth Haim at Ouderkerk in the Netherlands.
Beth Haim on Curaçao was built around 1659 (the one in Holland in 1616). There are 2,569 tombstones, 32 bear a Dutch inscription, 40 in Hebrew, 361 in Spanish, 89 in English, 1,668 are in Portuguese, 3 in French, and 1 in Yiddish, while 260 bear no inscription at all.
The first (Portuguese) Jew that came to Curaçao was Samuel Coheno, an interpreter and specialist of Indian culture who assisted Johan van Walbeeck in conquering Curaçao. They settled on a plantation "De Hoop" not far from the plantation Bleinheim, where later on they established the cemetery of Beth Haim.
The island of Curaçao did not have any marble or limestone. Through their family connections in Amsterdam, the local Jews shipped by means of the West India Company, marble from Italy (Genua) and Holland.
These tombstones, chisled by Christian sculptors, did not always comply with Jewish law. Many biblical personages were depicted with uncovered heads.
These inscriptions on the graves are historically important; they offer information about countries and towns that the Portuguese Jews traded with. The age of the fathers, mothers, children and grandchildren are clearly indicated. Many graves of the same family, so a genealogical family tree is easy to establish.
Beth Haim is also the resting place of Eliao Hiskiao Touro. He was the uncle of Ishac Touro, one of the Curaçao Jews who emigrated from Curaçao to North America with a group in 1693. The famous Touro Synagogue at Newport, Rhode Island, was named after the philanthropist Judah Touro, son of Ishac.
Another person buried at Beth Haim is Ribca Spinoza, half sister of the famous philosopher, Benedict (Baruch) Spinoza. She died in 1695 during a yellow fever epidemic.
Like Beth Haim in Holland, the biblical prohibition of ..... "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness......" was a rule adhered to in Jewish tradition. Due to the the stones being imported, and sculptored by Christians, although no depictions of G-d will be found, it veers from the usual Jewish austere Cemetries. The extraordinary exception to that stern rule, makes for a facinating journey into history, where each stone has a story to tell.
Telling the story of the great Portuguese Jewish Community of Curaçao, as in Holland, the diversity of the stones represent the melting-pot that was Portuguese history..... some of the buried were families that had lived for more than a century as Catholics, others were Orthodox, each has it's own story.

THE CEMETERY ON CURAÇAO