The cantor of Curaçao.

The oldest synagogue in the New World is on the Antillean island of Curaçao, a former Dutch colony. The island off the coast of Venezuela, a zone free of anti-Semitism. For the small Jewish community has the advantages and disadvantages.

 

"Excuse me, are you Jewish?" Asks the man left us. Leon wears a silk yarmulke on his head, I have a Panama hat, and we hold ourselves to one Sidur and do as we knew how to use the prayer book has. It is the beginning of Schawuot. More than 3000 years, the Israelites in the middle of the Sinai desert, the Torah and the Ten Commandments received and since the Jews are celebrating all over the world in the event as if it happened last week.

And the Jews of Curaçao Willemstad to celebrate with. It is a tiny village with just 180 members. Therefore, it is the oldest in the New World, 1651 by Sephardic (Spanish) Jews founded by Dutch settlers in the Caribbean had come.

The "Snoa" of Willemstad has a checkered history of divisions and associations behind it, it was more than 300 years Orthodox. About ten years ago, it has the "Rekonstruktionisten" connected, in the direction of liberal Judaism. This had less religious than practical reasons. For a prayer in the synagogue, there must be a Minjan give ten adult Jewish men. There were but more often before that it was not Minjan. Since the Rekonstruktionisten the full equality of the sexes practice, it does not matter how the Minjan is composed. There have only ten adult Jews to be.

A musical Kantor

On the evening of the festival Schawuot sit but only nine worshipers in the synagogue, five men and four women, so the prayer is not to start. And why does the man left of us know whether we are Jews or just tourists who want to experience something extravagant. "Yes, we are," I say. So Leon and I come to honor the Jews of Curaçao on a Minjan as possible.

"We can start," says the man next to us and gives a sign Kantor. Later five more visitors come to, including a young couple from New York. Finally, there are 16 Jews in the synagogue of Willemstad on Curaçao praise the Lord that he is not only women but also men and the West has created.

The community is too small to get a rabbi and a cantor to be able to afford. Faced with the choice of a rabbi who is not singing or a cantor, who also preach can, the Board decided to Avery Tracht.

1953 in Dayton, Ohio, was born, he has after the high school attended several conservatories and three exams passed, including sacred music and opera. After that, Tracht, whose ancestors from Prussia and Russia "had immigrated to America twelve years cantor in a small community in Brooklyn. 1986, he traveled for the first time in Germany, at the invitation to an evangelical community concerts. 1988, he joined in the synagogue Rykestraße in East Berlin, it was the time when the GDR suddenly her heart for Jews and Jewish culture had discovered. "Everything was very solemn," recalls costume, the most it has in the apartment of the former municipal chairman, the kitchen is impressive, the "completely in Delft Blue was set up."

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In 1990, Trachtenberg is one years free to Germany after the turn to experience and in Berlin to learn German. About a colleague, he learned that the liberal community in Amsterdam is looking for a cantor. He applied, was made and remained ten years in Holland. 2001 he returned to the U.S. back to a small community in Lynbrook on Long Iceland. 2004 he read in the Bulletin of the Conference Kantor that the village in Willemstad a "Spiritual Leader" searches. "So you get an opportunity not twice." After five years in Curaçao, he knows that it is not only an honor, the oldest parish in the New World, but also an experience which can lead to frustration.

"There are all businessmen, and they are not interested in something new to learn." Costume complains about a lack of "intellectual curiosity", which he tries to stimulate the simplest means. Once a month he leads at home "Jewish film" to classics such as "Sallah Shabati" by Ephraim Kishon from the year 1964, new productions like "The Band's Visit" from 2007. "The last time four people came." And if it gets wegfährt, then nobody is there, "the would be the service to take over." It may opt for a lack of tasks not complain. "I am a teacher, Kantor, Chaplain, I konfirmiere the children and the trust Ehewilligen." Some come from America and Europe arrived to Curaçao to marry - kosher and under the palms. This is good for the community fund, because the sun and the blue sky, there is nothing, everything must rest to be paid.

Anti-Semitism Free Zone Curacao

In the 17th Century, Jews lived on Curacao 2000, more than in all of America. The oldest bank in the island, Maduro & Curiel, was founded by Jews. About half of all Curaçaoner estimates costume has Jewish ancestors. Therefore it may come that no anti-Semitism on Curacao there. This, in turn, räsoniert costume, "is both good and bad." Well, because no Jew feels threatened, bad, because "the Jews over their Judesein not need to think about." The lack of challenges was an enjoyable, but leads to apathy.

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So, everything has its pros and cons. Curacao is an anti-free zone, but were at the synagogue in the heart of the city, recently, surveillance cameras affixed. Because many Curaçao visitors come from nearby Venezuela, where President Chávez, a Linkspopulist who likes his country's Jews as scapegoats for all makes, he will not succeed.

Anecdotes and sweet wine

Of these things is the "Schawuot" prayer nothing to feel. The only thing the visitors to create, then the heat. The windows of the synagogue are wide open, 16 large ceiling fans swirl the air in confusion. Avery Tracht is as always well prepared. He explains the meaning of "Schawuot", goes on the book Ruth ", which from the first Konvertitin to Judaism, and has his audience with anecdotes, like that of Oprah Winfrey, whose mother after she Moabiterin" ORPA " wanted to call, but at the baptism promises.

The whole service lasts three-quarters of an hour. More like costume does not expect his listeners. Quite to the conclusion, he quotes the poet Norman Allen: "Lord, I do not ask for a faith that would move Yonder Mountain. I can take enough dynamite and move it, if it needs movin '. I pray, Lord, for enough faith to move me. "

And afterwards there are remaining in the souvenir shop a "Kiddush" - sweet wine and "Challe" Flechtbrot, by a Dutch baker was delivered on Curaçao. Trachtenberg says the blessing for the bread and the wine. And nobody bothers to fact that neither the one nor the other is kosher.