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Welcome to our online collection of stories!
Since 1651, thousands of Jews fleeing the Inquisition, antisemitism, persecution, and pogroms landed in Curaçao, and for many, it became their home. Their collective histories have been recorded, as well as some individual stories. At the Jewish Cultural Historical Museum, we believe in adding personal stories to the general storyline. Visitors can better understand almost 400 years of Jewish life on the island.
We have, therefore, embarked on a journey to bring together as many of these individual stories of Curaçao Jews. People of the Jewish faith who, at one point or another, called Curaçao their home. We call these stories OSAATS We continually dig, find, digest, and produce materials about our island and its Jewish descendants. We display each story for a few months and swap them out as we create new ones. Once swapped out, an OSAAT lands in the collections listed below, where you can explore and read at leisure.
Curaçao Jews:
These are the ‘spotlight OSAATs’ that feature a photo and mini bio/story written for the current exhibit on the museum’s second floor. We regularly replace the OSAATs on display and ensure that all are available online.
For the ‘kitchen OSAAT,’ we decided to feature a recipe in addition to the photo and mini bio and ask community members to help us collect some of their favorite memories.
The current exhibition also features a poster with more extended biographies with more pictures and a mini exhibit. We regularly replace these ‘long OSAATs’ and ensure all stories are available online.
The Pennsylvania State University Hillel visited the island in 2023 on a service trip. They interviewed people in the community and collaged posters containing 18 things they learned about their subjects. We regularly replace these ‘Hillel posters’ in the museum and ensure all posters are available online. Where possible, we accompany these posters with a family tree and a small display of items from the people featured. They plan to come again in 2024 and further years.
Regarding the ‘Yaya OSAAT’: instead of creating new OSAATs, we decided to use materials we collected many years ago. We do, however, hope to find new yaya stories to record.
These are older posters of family histories recorded more than two decades ago.
Starting in late 2023, museum friend Ron Gomes Casseres regularly wrote short essays about the historic Mikvé Israel-Emanuel congregation. The essays are shared with the congregation, displayed at the museum, and found here.
The museum is working on a better way to present these stories that will allow them to be organized better to make them more accessible. In the meantime, we did not want to hold them back from you.
If you would like to see a Curaçao Jew included in this project, please check out how you can help us create more content:
Or email us at stories@jewishmuseumcuracao.org and tell us who or what you think we should be writing about. We would love to hear from you!
CuracaoJews.org is an initiative of the Jewish Cultural Historical Museum
as we approach 400 years of Jewish life recorded on the island of Curaçao.