A film presentation of 'Kippah in the Caribbean' (2015) as part of Portland Jewish Book Month 2016.

This film looks at "about 400 years of Jewish history in Surinam, Curaçao and Aruba...their trace through Portugal, Amsterdam, Brazil to Curaçao, Suriname, Aruba and the tiny island of Sint Eustatius".

Free for all youth groups!
General Public: $8; OJMCHE Members: $5; Students: $5

Sponsored by the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education, Institute for Judaic Studies, and Havurah Shalom

Portland Jewish Book Month is an inter-organizational group dedicated to encouraging adult Jewish literacy. The annual selection for community programming is 'A Marriage of Opposites' by Alice Hoffman, "a forbidden love story set on the tropical island of St. Thomas about the extraordinary woman who gave birth to painter Camille Pissarro — the Father of Impressionism". Look to the Calendar for more PJBM events community-wide throughout November.

Full description:

"The documentary is about Jewish Caribbean identity. About 400 years of Jewish history in Surinam, Curaçao and Aruba. We follow their trace through Portugal, Amsterdam, Brazil to Curaçao, Suriname, Aruba and the tiny island of Sint Eustatius. We address the difference between Jews in Surinam and Curaçao: why do they look different? What was their influence on the local societies? Some 20 Jewish Caribbean people of different generations and mixes in the here and now talk about their faith, traditions and their expectations of the Jewish -fading- communties in their home countries. Young Jewish people explain about their strict Jewish lifestyle (sjabat, food) and this forms a contrast with other more liberal young Jews. Also Jewish influence in the language of Curacao and in the kitchen of Surinam and Curaçao is shown. A Surinam historian takes us back to the plantations, formely owned by Jews and tells us about the Jewish influence on the identity of Surinam people nowadways. Two Jewish young men perform a wonderful 'Jewish Caribbean' rap about Jewish habits and familynames likes Da Costa, Maduro. It is an educational documentary with lots of information attractively broad."