{"id":481,"date":"2021-09-03T19:00:49","date_gmt":"2021-09-03T19:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/snoa.com\/new\/?page_id=481"},"modified":"2021-10-07T19:50:13","modified_gmt":"2021-10-07T19:50:13","slug":"about-us","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/snoa.com\/new\/about-us\/","title":{"rendered":"About Us"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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about us<\/h1>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Welcome to Mikv\u00e9 Israel-Emanuel, a congregation dating back to 1651 where services are held in an ancient synagogue, the oldest in continuous use in the Americas.<\/h4>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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who we are<\/h2>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWe are a close-knit Sephardic community of descendants of Spanish and Portuguese Jews, originally orthodox but since 1964 a member of liberal and progressive movements of Reconstruct Judaism and the World Union for Progressive Judaism (WUPJ.)\u00a0 We are the United Netherlands-Portuguese Israelite Congregation Mikv\u00e9 Israel-Emanuel.\n\nSlightly over half the membership trace back their Sephardic ancestry at least eight generations whereas the other half are mostly Ashkenazi Jews, who were admitted as members starting in the 1950\u2019s.\n\nThe community comes together for Friday Shabbat evening and Saturday morning services, community events and holidays.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Congregation History<\/h2>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Our Mikv\u00e9 Israel-Emanuel community dates back to 1651 when the first Jewish families came from Amsterdam in the Netherlands and settled in Cura\u00e7ao on land designated for them by the Dutch West India Company to be used exclusively for agricultural purposes. Several generations before, they had left Spain and Portugal to escape the Inquisition and settled in the Dutch republic.<\/p>

They were determined to adhere to their Jewish way of life on this far-away rock in the Caribbean. Initially they attempted to make a living in agriculture which proved to be immensely challenging due to climatological and geological aspects. They established the congregation, most likely using a small house near their fields as a house of worship. On this designated portion of land that later would be part of De Hoop (The Hope) plantation, the first of these plantations was established, a wish expressed as well in the community\u2019s name Mikv\u00e9 Israel (The Hope of Israel). In 1659 a second group of settlers arrived bringing with them a Torah scroll donated by the Amsterdam Portuguese community, the first on record of the young Jewish community.<\/p>

Switching to trading and shipping, the Jews moved to the walled city of Willemstad in the late 1600s and used several locations as houses of worship. The final and permanent synagogue dates back to 1732 when it was consecrated and is the oldest in continuous use in the Americas since then.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\tlandhuis de hoop
Painted by D. de Rijke,
Restored by Myrna Moreno<\/span>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t