Gazing at the expansive turquoise seas and white sands of the Mayan Riviera, it’s easy to imagine the infamous pirates of the Caribbean who once dominated these waters.
Compared with the millennia of Jewish history, the scant few centuries of Jewish settlement in the Western Hemisphere is like a drop in the ocean those Jews had crossed from Europe. The history of the Jews in the American colonies is even shorter: more than 100 years before the Jews of Newport, R.I., built their synagogue (now the oldest continuously active synagogue in the United States), the Jewish community of the Caribbean island of Curacao had built theirs — Congregation Mikve Israel, which holds the record as the oldest synagogue in continuous use in the Western Hemisphere.
Barbados is, of course, well known as a \”sun, sand and sea\” island in the Caribbean, but it has many more attractions than these. Jewish visitors, in particular, are drawn to downtown Bridgetown, the island\’s capital city, to visit the oldest synagogue in the Western Hemisphere.
\”I\’m a colorful person,\” Tochterman said. \”I like color; I like texture; I like mixing things together. I think my customer is a sophisticated, ageless, confident woman.\”
Jewish piracy has been around since well before the Barbary pirates first preyed on ships during the Crusades. In the time of the Second Temple, Jewish historian Flavius Josephus records that Hyrcanus accussed Aristobulus of \”acts of piracy at sea.\”
Savvy travelers in need of a getaway come to the Caribbean island of Nevis to relax at restored sugar plantations, like the Montpelier Inn, or the opulent Four Seasons. Celebrity visitors have included Michael Douglas, Oprah Winfrey and Princess Diana, who immediately fled to the island to relax after her breakup with Prince Charles.
\”I see Christmas as a cultural and family holiday,\” Joe Roth said, while the movie itself carries two main messages. It\’s first about the sense of family and community that supercedes any particular holiday. Secondly, it\’s a satire on the over-commercialization of Christmas.\”
The leaves have turned, the days are shorter and Chag Urim, the Holiday of Lights, glimmers ahead. In the meantime, if you\’re single or a student, and itching to plan a winter getaway, we\’ve rounded up a pair of juicy possibilities.
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