Haiti

Jews of Haiti

Haiti, previously known as Saint Domingue, occupies the western part of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola which is shared with the Dominican Republic.

In 1625 French pirates had established a base on the small island of Tortuga, just off the coast of Hispaniola. They seized the neighbouring western third of Hispaniola from Spain in 1659, calling it Saint-Domingue.

The Spanish tacitly recognised the French occupation.

Today Saint-Domingue is called Haiti. I recall reading that there are (black)  Castros still living in Haiti. It’s possible they are my relatives. It would be interesting if we could all take DNA tests. I have no idea how they might have arrived there.

See: Were There Jewish Communities in Saint Domingue (Haiti)? by Zvi Loker,  Journal of Social Sciences, 45, 2, 1983, pages 135 – 146

http://personal.stevens.edu/~llevine/Early%20Haitian%20Jewish%20History_v3.pdf

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