Bahamas
http://www.grandbahamasynagogue.org/
Freeport Hebrew Congregation website [revised October 2005]
P.O. Box F-41761, Freeport, Bahamas.
President: Geoff Hurst This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
"The Bahamas were first settled by the British in 1620, but at that time, relatively few Jews came to the islands. Still, a Jew, Moses Franks, served as attorney general and chief justice of the islands in the 18th century. After World War I, a few Jewish families from Poland, Russia, and the United Kingdom settled in Nassau, the capital. Later Jews came to Freeport on Grand Bahamas Island."
According to Dave Fox, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. , many white Bahamians left the islands after the Bahamas gained independence from Great Britain (1973) when they were made to feel unwelcome by the new government. However, the attitude of the government is now more favorable to Americans and Europeans. [1999]
The Congregations of Nassau and Freeport are independent of each other and have separate affiliations.
The Congregation of Nassau is Reform, but there is no Synagogue. There are some ancient Jewish graves in Nassau. The Congregation is a member of the Jewish Congregations of Latin America and the Caribbean. www.ujcl.org
In Freeport is a Reform Synagogue named for Luis de Torres, the Converso who served as Columbus's interpreter and who was the first European to set foot on the soil of the New World. The Freeport Hebrew Congregation is a member of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (U.A.H.C.) www.uahc.org
http://uahcweb.org/congs/ny/ny054/Cantor/Bulletins/200104.htm [May 2002]
http://www.borisamericanjews.org/panel1.htm [May 2002]
Select the Bahamas link at : http://www.worldjewishcongress.org/comm_north.html [October 2005]
http://www.kosherdelight.com/Bahamas.htm [August 2003]