Caribbean conference: More information

Here's more information on The Jewish Diaspora of the Caribbean International Conference , which will explore the history, culture, and identity of Caribbean Jewry, from January 12-14, 2010.

Here's much more information on session titles, post-conference program, hotel and registration. This is an update to Tracing the Tribe's previous post which provided only speakers' names.

The venue is the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel. High-season discounted rates: deluxe single (US$149.73) or deluxe double (US$171.38), including service charge, all taxes and buffet breakfast. For more on the conference, click here; for registration and fees, click here (scroll down for details).

Jamaica is easily accessible from the East Coast. I wish it were as accessible from Tel Aviv!

Tuesday, January 12
--Sephardic Trade Networks in the Colonial Caribbean
Chair: Jane S. Gerber

Miriam Bodian, University of Texas
“The Formation of the Spanish and Portuguese Jewish Diaspora.”

Jonathan I. Israel, Institute of Advanced Studies, Princeton
“Amsterdam, Curacao and the Rise of Sephardic Trade System in the Caribbean (1600–1670)”

Gérard Nahon, Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris
“Amsterdam and the Jewish Nation of the Caribbean during the Seventeenth Century”

Holly Snyder, Brown University
“What Jewish Merchants Contributed to Jamaican Commerce, 1670–1831.

-- Material and Visual Culture of Caribbean Jewry
Chair: Judah Cohen

Rachel Frankel, Architect
“Remnant Stones: The Significance of New World Portuguese Jewish Diaspora Cemeteries.”

Sharman Kadish, Director, Jewish Heritage, UK; University of Manchester
“Isaac Mendes Belisario, London’s Bevis Marks Synagogue, and the Sephardi Architectural Heritage."

Jackie Ranston, Independent Scholar, Jamaica,
“Biography as History: The Art of Isaac Mendes Belisario (1794–1849)—Story Painter.”

Wednesday, January 13
-- Caribbean Jewish Identity and Heritage: From Conversos to Modern Jews
Chair: Miriam Bodian

Mordechai Arbell, The Ben Zvi Institute, Jerusalem
“The Gradual Disappearance of the Spanish-Portuguese Jewish Communities of the Caribbean.”

Ronnie Perelis, Yeshiva University
“Daniel Israel Lopez Laguna’s Espejo Fiel de Vidas (London 1720) and the Ghost of Marrano Autobiography.”

Hilit Surowitz, University of Florida
“Portuguese Jews of the Caribbean and the Question of Early Modern Secularization.”

Judah Cohen, Indiana University
“Inscribing Ourselves with History: Exploring Heritage in Today's Caribbean Jewish Diaspora.”

TOUR: A Jamaican Jewish Heritage Tour of the Duke Street Synagogue, with author/local historian Ed Kritzler

-- Blacks and Jews in the English Caribbean
Chair: Eli Faber

James Robertson, University of the West Indies, Mona
“The ‘Confession made by Cyrus’ reconsidered: Maroons and Jews during the First Maroon War.”

Stan Mirvis, The Graduate Center, CUNY
“Sexuality and Sentiment: Concubinage between Jewish Males and their Female Slaves in late Eighteenth-Century Jamaica.”

Swithin Wilmot, University of the West Indies, Mona
“Jewish Retailers and Black Voters in Post Slavery Jamaica: Electoral Politics in the Parish of St. Dorothy, 1849-1860.”

Thursday, January 14
-- Reassessing the Geographic and Ethnic Definitions of Caribbean Jewry Chair: Jane S. Gerber

Eli Faber, John Jay College, CUNY
“The Jews of Colonial America: How Broad were the Parameters?”

Matt Goldish, Ohio State University
"Franks Among Franks: Adventures of a Jamaican Ashkenazi in the 1690s."

Dale Rosengarten and Barry Steifel, The College of Charleston
“Charles Towne, South Carolina: Northernmost Outpost of the Gulf-Caribbean Plantation Region.”

Joanna Newman, The University of Southampton; The British Library
“Refugees from Nazism in the Caribbean during World War Two.”

TOUR: Jamaican Jewish Heritage Tour of the Hunt’s Bay Cemetery, with author/local historian Ed Kritzler

-- The Art of Sephardic Genealogy Workshop

John de Mercado, Independent Scholar
“A Sephardic Odyssey: Four Centuries of the de Mercado Family in the West Indies.”

Panel Discussion: Ainsley Henriques, John de Mercado, David Kleiman.

Post-Conference Program Highlights, January 15-16
(Click here to read about the Jewish significance of these sites).

Friday, January 15: Hillel Academy - Visit to Jamaica’s National Gallery of Art - Lunch at Strawberry Hill - Shabbat Service - Kiddush and Dinner.

Saturday, January 16: Shabbat Services - Lunch at Devon House - Visit to Port Royal - Dinner in Old City - Cocktails and Concert.

The conference is sponsored by the United Congregation of Israelites of Kingston Jamaica, Institute for Sephardic Studies of the Graduate Center CUNY, University of the West Indies, American Sephardi Federation, International Survey of Jewish Monuments, Jamaica Tourist Board, Commonwealth Jewish Council, Laurence and Ronnie Levine and Dr. John de Mercado.