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PAGE 16RH THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE October 3, 1986 Jewish War Veterans Suburban Post 980 extends wishes for a L’Shana Tova to the entire Jewish community. May the coming year bring you the health and happiness you deserve. £-*****$ <5-***W3 <5** 'arDr rra^Kj jf WITH ALL GOOD WISHES FOR A YEAR OF PEACE AND HAPPINESS TO YOU AND ALL ISRAEL sioun I3in y||l ISRAEL | /lliyah wCENTER 1655 PEACHTREE STREET, ROOM 407 I ATLANTA, GEORGIA 30309 E (404) 876-1554 I <r****-i> The Second Generation Children of Holocaust Survivors >1311) iavh Stanley M. Lefco, President Risa Greenblatt, Vice President Martha Popowski, Vice President Anna Seligman, Secretary Willy Spizman, Treasurer Saba Silverman, Parliamentarian djc ^Atlanta Chapter (0f (Dje American tEecljmon ^xtenba (La All 3ts Jfrtertbe Sc ;Netgl|bor8 liU'st Wishes Ifar A Happy Sc Healthy ^ r ctu ^fcar Robert Rinzler Dr. Marvin Goldstein Chairman President Martin Harrison Director, Southern Region Trinidad's Jewish enigma Stars of David adorn the uniforms of Trinidad's police force. by David F.ttinger JT A In Port of Spain, Trinidad, home of calypso, steel band music and carnival bacchanal, the police men wear Stars of David on their uniforms and the streets are named for Zionist leaders, yet one can count the Jewish population on the fingers of one hand. Hans Stecher, owner of a flour ishing chain of duty-free stores in Trinidad and Tobago, is one of that handful. Stecher and his par ents arrived in Port of Spain penni less in 1938 with several hundred other Jewish refugees from Ger many and Austria who made Tri nidad a temporary haven from Nazi tyranny during World War II. As enemy aliens, Jews were in terned in barracks erected near one of Port of Spain’s most fashiona ble residential areas today, but otherwise led normal lives, accord ing to Stecher. The sudden influx led to the creation of the first Jew ish congregation, the Jewish Reli gious Society, in 1938. By the end of the war, however, most Jews had emigrated. Trinidad was in many ways a transit point,” explained Stecher. Few Jews who made their way here intended to settle permanently. Those who did help set up the soon to become independent country’s first businesses in Port of Spain’s now thriving downtown commer cial district. Among these were Shimon Aver- boukh and his wife who arrived in 1933. The Averboukhs, active in real estate, named the streets in the housing development they built on reclaimed swampland on the out skirts of the capital after Theodor Herzl, Chaim Weizmann, David Ben-Gurion, and Yitzhak Ben-Zvi. Why the Trinidad and Tobago Police Force adopted the Star of David as its insignia remains an enigma. According to one expla nation, it is because the first chief of police was Jewish, but this story is apocryphal. Until their death in the late 1970s, the Averboukhs together with Stecher formed the vanguard of the evaporating Jewish commun ity. In 1950, a makeshift synagogue was opened in a remodeled house in the heart of town, but by 1971 plans to erect a new synagogue were abandoned when the Jewish population virtually disappeared. Today there are not enough Jews for a minyan, and Stecher, con scious of his role as one of the few remnants of a vanishing breed, is custodian of the 50 gravesites which occupy the Jewish section of the Mucarapo Cemetery, a short drive from the center of town. Jewish settlement in Trinidad actually dates back to the 17th cen tury when Sephardic merchants from the Dutch colony of Surinam moved to the island then under Spanish control. Historical records show that there was a small Jewish community when the British took over in 1797 and again in 1818. In 1900, Trinidad’s 31 Jews were all British civil servants, including an associate justice of the Trinidad Supreme Court, or representatives of British firms. Today, the only traces of a pre war Jewish presence are names on the windows of shops formerly owned by Jewish merchants which have long since passed into non- Jewish hands. K The officers and boards of the I 4^ ** t*. x .. 4, ■"wsh m** Atlanta Chapter & The Spirit of Life Chapter 1 —City of Hope— send Best Wishes for a New Year of Peace and Prosperity B’nai B’rith Women C.reater Atlanta Council extends warmest New Year’s Greetings ( onme Giniger, Regional Director ^ Bobbie Simonelli, Pres., Greater Atlanta Council Roslyn Winston, Pres., Chevra Florence Kushnarov, Acting Chairwoman, Citywide Vivian Hershey, Pres., Havanah Shelley Brailowsky, Pres., Mitzvah Doroth, Muchnick 4 Leslie Weiner, Co-Pres., N«he Sh.lom Ruth Glass, Pres., Northwest Evening Terri Heyman, Pres., Young Professionals Ben Boksenberg, Pres., Shalom Unit CeU & David Canter, Chairmen, Solel Unit