THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Friday, May 11, 1984
Our Faith Lives Everywhere A Visit to Curacao
By MAURICE CROLL, M.D.
It was the night before
Shabbos (Erev Shabbos)
On board the cruise ship Atlantic.
We have a common faith, common
Beliefs, common rituals, a common
Holy Torah,
That imbues strength with faith
Beyond all men.
In a special room assigned
To us,
We (the Jews) assembled together
To welcome in the bride,
The Holy Sabbath.
As I sat in complete reverie,
A vision large as life
Came down upon me,
Seized me, held me and enveloped
Me completely.
Eighty-five of us, crowded together
In this,
Our room for prayer;
To chant together in the
Liturgy
That binds our people
Into one,
Wherever they may be found
In the seventy countries scattered
All over the globe.
It is not purely all prayer..
It is a songfest of the heart.
It is is a special way of life to
The Orthodox Jew.
It is the only way to usher in
The Holy Sabbath.
Whatever you pour into it
Comes back ten-fold to heighten
Your religious zeal.
After prayers
We all had a "Glazul wine,"
Gefilte fish, and fresh chala.
We broke bread together,
As long-standing friends
Are wont to do.
The next day, Saturday, we landed
On the beautiful island of Curacao,
At the city of Willemstad;
Often referred to as "Little Holland."
We walked to the synagogue,
Named Mikve Israel — Emanuel
1654 - 1864,
A United Netherlands — Portuguese
Sephardic congregation.
We welcome you to come in
And pray with us.
We have ties and coats if
_ You need them."
They gave me a prayer book,
And I sat down in this beautiful
Synagogue to follow their
Prayers.
Once again I sat there in complete
Exultation.
I did not know a single name,
But I already know what lives
In their hearts.
From the back of the Torah
The Chazan (Cantor) representing
The local Sephardic congregation
Sang out the prayers of the Torah,
To be extended forthwith to their
Brothers and sisters praying
Also in their congregations
Scattered throughout the world.
I was transfixed.
It was as if my body left me
And I was outside looking in;
As a complete stranger, quizzically
And objectively.
Out of the thousand people on this cruise,
There were one hundred alleged Jewish names,
And here we were coming in union
To pray together.
Not one face did I know.
Yet, they were all brothers
And sisters unto. me.
When we picked up the book
To pray,
Leading the purely Orthodox
Service
Was our cruise director,
Master of ceremonies,
Comedian par excellence at
All the entertainments;
A real genuine Orthodox Chazan,
In full length tallis
And in excellent voice.
The high point of the services
Was the "L'chah dodi likras
Kallah piney Shabbos n'kab-b'lah."
Unbreakable faith pouring down
Incessantly — by God's will
Directly into the book, the Torah
Open now on the eBeema.'
I could see the words.of God
Bombarding into the Torah,
To be forever engraved into
The Holy Book,
Stronger than any laser beam,
Lighting up the entire synagogue.
I looked over the congregation
As if the for the first time,
Fervently praying, and when
They took out the Torah to be read
By Rabbi (Ribi) Slavensky,
Every single word that flowed
Out of him,
Intensified the word before
Until he reached a crescendo
And then maintained it at
High pitch.
The congregation, including myself,
Followed meticulously every
Non-stop word.
From the front of the Torah
The words from above
Wer also going forth in
Symbiotic brotherhood,
To their common kin of faith,
To all the lands where
The Jews now reside.
From the left and right side
Of the Torah
The long lines of joyful faith
Were coming inward to the
Torah,
From all the Jewish congregations
In solemn brotherhood of praying
In the same Torah.
What binds these strange
People together, no matter
To what country they were
Driven to?
Then, as still mesmerized,
Suddenly, it came to me.
The book! The Torah! The
Most holy of all.
It was a well-balanced system
of direct religious communication.
Each one strengthening the other,
Reaching out in additive recognition
Of each other.
From this Torah they draw
Their faith.
Faith that has always been
The central core of their life.
Faith that has sustained them
Unto this very day. Indestructible
In spite of wholesale persecution
Programs, attempts at conversion,
And holocausts.
Their faith lives on,
Binding them together even stronger.
What type of strange people
Are they?
In the face of imminent death
They draw their armor cloak
Of faith around them,
And, reciting their "Shema"
Are plunged into death,
Still taking their faith
with them.
Then the vision began to
Unfold
Into more detail.
It was completely real to me.
From God's heaven above I could
Actually see the long lines of
Every Jew of the Torah
Was in praying unison,
With his brothers and sisters,
Wherever they may be.
Was my vision divinely inspired?
By then I began to understand
More fully my life, my Jewishness.
A solid bond of faith with
All my people.
What a soul-satisfying inner
Feeling.
■
After services we had a
Glass of tea in an adjunct
Sanctuary where I met and
Talked with several members
Of the congregation.
And, then, like life-long friends,
We said goodbye.
My heart found a great
Happiness
With my people in Willemstad, Curacao.
My vision was now a part of me.
It accompanied me and my wife
As we walked back to our
Cruise ship.
I knew someday I will return.
ADDENDUM: Congregation founded, 1654; First congregation, 1674; Second congregation, 1692; Third congregation, 1703; Present
synagogue congregation, 1732.
This synagogue is the oldest synagogue building in the Americas and it houses the oldest Jewish congregation in the Americas.
Between 1651 and 1700 one might have prayed in the Curacao synagogue, next to people by the name of Morao, Henriques, de
Marchena, Alvares, Correa, Jesurun, Namias, de Castro, Senor Gomes Casseres Dardo and Leuy Maduro.
In 1651 the first services were held in an agricultural settlement founded by Juad Ilhad.
Their descendants, of the same name, still live in Curacao and are members of the congregations of their ancestors.
Today, there are approximately 700 Jews split about evenly between Sephardim and Ashkenazim.
This synagogue has such great decorum and beauty that it cannot be described properly in so short a space. One note, however: The
floor of this synagogue is covered with sand that was imported from Israel.
The people I spoke with are outgoing, lovable and intensely human. They take great pride in their synagogue, and rightly so. Some of
it rubbed off on me.
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