History of The Jews in Latin America

The history of the Jews in Latin America dates, according to some interpretations, back to Christopher Columbus and his first cross-Atlantic voyage on August 3, 1492, when he left Spain and eventually discovered the New World. His date of departure was also the day on which the Catholic Monarchs Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon decreed that the Jews of Spain either had to convert to Catholicism, depart from the country, or face death.

There were at least seven New Christians (converted Jews) who sailed with Columbus in his first voyage, including Rodrigo de Triana, who was the first to sight land (Columbus later assumed credit for this), Maestre Bernal, who served as the expedition's physician, and Luis De Torres, the interpreter, who spoke Hebrew and Arabic, which it was believed would be useful in the Orient—their intended destination. (Note: Since not all conversos were crypto-Jews, some argue that to approach all of them as conscious Jews merely because of their ancestry, or because of what the Inquisition said about them is to reproduce old Iberian religious and racial prejudices.)

In the coming years, New Christians of Jewish origin settled in the new Spanish and Portuguese colonies in the Caribbean, where they believed that they would be safe from the Spanish Inquisition.

By the 16th century, fully functioning Jewish communities had organized in Brazil, Suriname, Curaçao, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Jamaica and Barbados. In addition, there were unorganized communities of Jews in the Spanish and Portuguese territories, where the Inquisition was active, including Cuba, Puerto Rico and Mexico, however, these Jews generally concealed their identity from the authorities. By the mid-17th century, the largest Jewish communities in the Western Hemisphere were located in Suriname and Brazil. Several Jewish communities in the Caribbean, Central and South America flourished, particularly in those areas under Dutch and English control. Today, there are up to 500,000 Jews living in Latin America, most of whom live in Argentina and Brazil. (see table below)