This lecture covers the history of the Jewish community in Suriname, a Caribbean country in South America, and one of the oldest existing Jewish communities in our hemisphere. We’ll discuss its beginnings in slave society and into the twentieth century, when Surinamese Jews, many of whom had both African and European ancestors, built a local revival, and increased their bonds with the Jewish diaspora. Perhaps Suriname is not some obscure locale, but a lens through which we might see what makes the American Jewish experience both expansive and distinct.
Eli Rosenblatt is an Assistant Professor of Religion at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
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Conversational Hebrew
Introduction to Hebrew
Tikkun Middot through the Senses
