JEWISH AND KOSHER MARTINIQUE, FRANCE

Association Cultuelle Israélite de la Martinique - ACIM
12 Rue de l'école Hôtelière - Anse Gouraud -
97233 SCHOELCHER - MARTINIQUE F.W.I.
Tel: +596 596 61 71 36
Email: contact@emarinique.net
Website: www.emartinique.net
Synagogue, Talmud Torah, Mikveh, Kosher Store & Butchery
Last updated: August 3, 2016
By: Mr ASSARAF Stephane, *596 696 45 70 91, assaraf2000@hotmail.com , ACIM
Please update us!

Colonized by France in 1635, the island has subsequently remained a French possession except for three brief periods of foreign occupation. Location: Caribbean, island between the Caribbean Sea and North Atlantic Ocean, north of Trinidad and Tobago. Geographic Coordinates: 14 40 N, 61 00 W. Map reference: Central America & The Caribbean. Area comparative: slightly more than six times the size of Washington, DC . Climate: tropical; moderated by trade winds; rainy season (June to October); vulnerable to devastating cyclones (hurricanes) every eight years on average; average temperature 17.3 degrees C; humid. Natural Hazards: hurricanes, flooding, and volcanic activity (an average of one major natural disaster every five years) .The island is dominated by Mount Pelee, which on 8 May 1902 erupted and completely destroyed the city of Saint Pierre, killing 30,000 inhabitants. Governed by the overseas department of France. Capital: Fort-de-France. Flag Description: a light blue background is divided into four quadrants by a white cross; in the center of each rectangle is a white snake; the flag of France is used for official occasions.

The France had adopted a policy similar to that of Spain against the new Christians "insincere" and therefore suspect marranism Marranos. Indeed, the return of Christians to the Jewish religion was a sin. But in the French Caribbean (Martinique, Guadeloupe, Santo Domingo, Cayenne ), economic considerations faced morals dominant religious (Catholic). The Jesuits firmly opposed to the installation of Jews. In 1681, Martinique, they submitted a "Memory against the Jews", saying that "the Jews Luis Lopez and Abraham were Apostates who previously had embraced Catholicism . The Feast of Tabernacles, celebrated regularly by Sephardim drew the wrath of the Church because "they decorate with flowers and fruit in their huts of branches which they eat and sleep for a fortnight at the sight of our Christians they even invite this celebrity "... which indicates a certain camaraderie and mutual tolerance between the two groups.

However, conversions of Jews to Catholicism did not prevent the hostility of one hundred and fifty to two businessmen, traders and ship captains calling for the expulsion of Jews from Santo Domingo in 1765 by a petition. This document urges the Governor-General of the French islands do not allow the Sephardim to convert. Although they were officially expelled from Martinique in 1684, activism Sephardic and connivance of the government managed to prevent the widespread application of this measure. In the French colonies of America and the Caribbean, there was conversion of slaves to the Jewish religion, which greatly angered officials whites. In 1760, a leader of the colony of Santo Domingo recorded several complaints against Jews who were their slaves of the Israelites like them "as the mulatto free Michel Pas . In Martinique, each Jewish home had a few slaves (half do not have more than four). The Governor-General of the islands French-American Jean Charles de Baas, 1667, complained that the Jews of Martinique "employ the ceremony Saturday for their faith and force the Negroes and pledged to keep the Sabath" Shabbat and "working the Sunday ".

In 1659, David Cohen Nassi, already initiated the installation of the Jews in the territory of Neelands Curacao, received permission to establish a colony in Cayenne, then under Dutch rule. Trip to Cayenne in 1661, Captain Languillet found there fifteen to twenty Jewish families at the head of the plantations growing sugar cane and tobacco, planting annatto and theindigo, and thirty to forty European Christians and one hundred twenty slaves. There was a synagogue and the regulations régissaiennt religious life and secular. Shortly after, Nassi interested in the new colony of Surinam, the British conquered it in 1664.
TRANSLATED FROM FRENCH TO ENGLISH WITH GOOGLE TRANSLATION.

In the 1960s and 70s, a Jewish community was formed in Fort de France by Jews from Northern Africa and France.

Today, approximately 90 Jews live in Martinique, predominately in Schoelcher. Both a community center and a synagogue exist in Schoelcher. The community center maintains a Torah study group, a youth group, and a chevra kaddisha. There is also a kosher market on the island.