DID YOU KNOW

The first major center of Jewish culture in America, The Touro Synagogue, opened 1763 in Newport, Rhode Island. *Sephardic Jews in Jamaica, **Surinam, London and Amsterdam were the sponsors.

*The name comes from Sepharad, a Biblical location (Obadiah 1:20: And the captivity of this host of the children of Israel shall possess that of the Canaanites, even unto Zarephath; and the captivity of Jerusalem, which is in Sepharad, shall possess the cities of the south). This was probably the "Saparda" mentioned in Persian inscriptions: the location of that is disputed, but may have been Sardis in Asia Minor. "Sepharad" was identified by later Jews as the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal). The name still means "Spain" in modern Hebrew.

**Surinam was first inhabited by Native Americans of the Arawak and Carib tribes in 3000 BC. In the 17th century, the Dutch and English fought over control to colonize Surinam, with the Dutch as the winner.

Surinam is the least populated independent country in south America. It is also the smallest nation in area on the continent.