Nadene Goldfoot
* The Bermuda Conference was summoned at the instance of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Representatives of a number of Allied nations met in Bermuda on April 19, 1943, to consider methods of rescuing Jews trapped under Nazi occupation. The proceedings were kept secret and no concrete suggestions resulted. Jews were living all over the world ever since 70 CE when Jerusalem was burned down with their 2nd Temple by the Romans and those left scattered to all corners of the world. At some time or other, a few even made it to Bermuda. Then the Spanish Inquisition before 1492 caused many Jews to relocate or be killed. World War 2 caused Jews to be slaughtered and hunted down again by the Nazis, so a few, either before of after the war made it to places like Bermuda.
Due to the nature of the island, Jews feel they have been lucky to welcome a diverse membership throughout our community’s history, with orthodox, conservative and reform members, both Sephardic and Ashkenazi. They are also small enough (and committed enough!) to meet everyone's individual needs when possible today.
They have been doing this for the past thirty years. Their community has roots. What was once high holiday services on the former naval base has now become a steady community in Bermuda and a registered charity with a lease on a community centre, educational classes, and events calendar.
Naval Air Station Bermuda was a United States Navy establishment in the then British Colony of Bermuda from 1940 to 1995. It operated from several locations and under different names during this period. At first, as the Naval Operating Base, it was located on Darrell’s Island, in Great Sound, before moving in 1941 to a new site on Tucker and Morgan Islands in the West End. In the 1960s, as the Naval Air Station, it moved to Kindley Field, the US Army Air Force base on St David's Island in Castle Harbour, while the West End site became the Bermuda Annex. After closure in 1995 the base became the site of Bermuda International Airport. The estimated population of Bermuda in 2024 was around 64,636. In 2020, there were only an estimated 100 Jews in Bermuda. The permanent Jewish population is often outnumbered by many Jewish tourists from the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada, as well as Jewish personnel attached to the U.S. military base on the island, which probably is only filled by 2% of the navy as Jews make up only 2% of the USA.
Puerto Rico is US territory. The Marranos( Jews that left Spain and Portugal during the Spanish Inquisition that had been forced into Catholic conversion and were hiding their Jewish observances) are recorded living here since the 16th century. They were hunted down and killed. The modern community numbers 1,500 in 1990 and dates from the 20th century. Their origins were either from eastern Europe or the USA. Most of the Jews live in the capital, San Juan and the neighboring town of Santurce. Puerto Rico boasts the largest and wealthiest Jewish community in the Caribbean, with approximately 1,500 to 3,000 Jewish inhabitants, and is the only Caribbean island where all three major Jewish denominations (Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox) are represented. The estimated population of Puerto Rico in 2024 was 3,203,295.
Miami, Florida has a large Jewish population. Their first synagogue, B'nai Zion, was
built in 1917 but founded in 1912. Florida, the first of the American territories
to be discovered and settled, did not allow Jews to settle until 1763, and
was among the last to develop a substantial Jewish population. Contrary
to myth, Miami was among Florida’s latest communities to develop a Jewis
h population, which has been transformed in little more than a century fro
m a settlement of frontiersmen to the core of the nation’s third largest
Jewish community.
The community of Miami Beach was organized in 1925, mainly for winter visitors at first. Miami has the largest Jewish community in the southern US numbering 250,000 in 1990. Many Jews from New York City would drive down to Miami for vacations, then living there. In the 1890s, Jews came from other places in the United States (either New York or Key West) and were mostly immigrants from Russia and Romania. By 1896, Jews owned 12 of the 16 businesses in the pioneer town, Miami. They had religious services that year; then there was a fire and yellow fever epidemic.
By 1903, the Jewish population declined to Isidor Cohen.photo: Isidor Cohen was the father of Greater Miami's Jewish community. Stepping off the boat at the Lemon City dock on February 6, 1896, he was the first permanent Jewish settler to arrive on the shores of Biscayne Bay. His and his family's history is nothing short of illustrious: He was a signer of the city's charter, one of the founders of what would become the Chamber of Commerce and a retail merchant and investor. His wife, Ida, founded the original Miami Jewish Home and Hospital for the Aged and his daughter, Claire Cohen Weintraub was not only a civic activist but was in the University of Miami's first graduating class and founded the Miami Museum of Science.
In 2024, Miami-Dade County, Florida, is home to approximately 123,000 Jews, making it the eleventh largest Jewish community in the U.S. Jews have lost 128,000 in the past 35 years. The community is known for its strong ties to Israel, high levels of Jewish identity, and a significant proportion of foreign-born Jews, particularly from Latin America, Israel, and the former Soviet U Miami is home to Trump's estate, Mar-a Lago.
These sites make up the borders of the Bermuda Triangle.
The one thing that gets my approval is Trump doing so much for Israel, especially in his first term. He had the assistance of his advisor in this, his son-in-law, Jerad Kushner, of modern Orthodoxy. His handling Israel's problems today with Hamas andHezbollah terrorism is adding up to a takeover in a way, from Netanyahu and his generals. Trump was 70 years old when he first took office, surpassing Ronald
Reagan as the oldest person to assume the presidency. Today he has Elan
Musk, the richest man in the world, Elon Musk, the world's richest person, who has suffered the biggest wealth erosion of 2025 so far.
Resource:
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
https://www.jewishbermuda.com/about
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Bermuda
https://www.worldjewishcongress.org/en/about/communities/BM
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