M.N. Nathan and Lewis Ashenheim. Announcement to the Jewish Public of Jamaica… [plans to publish Jamaica’s first Jewish periodical “Bikooray Hayom,” The First Fruits of the West].

Announcing the intended publication of an exclusively Jewish monthly periodical - contingent however upon the financial support of the Jews in Jamaica themselves. Outlined here are the potential religious and educational benefits of the periodical, adding that the existence of such an independent Jewish organ would result in the Jews of Jamaica accruing a “more exalted station, amongst their Christian Brethren.” Printed by R.J. Cordova in 1844, The First Fruits of the West was the first Jewish periodical in the West Indies. A total of ten issues were published. “The importance of the First Fruits of the West lies in the effort made to present Jewish history, traditions, rituals, literature and news in a ‘popular idiom’ for the layman. It was feared that unless such exertion occurred, Jamaican Jewry would be totally assimilated into the larger society.” See Institute of Jamaica, Spanish & Portuguese Jews of Jamaica, in: The Jamaica Journal no. 43, p. 98. Of Dutch origin, Moses N. Nathan (1801-83) was Rabbi in Kingston and St. Thomas for two decades before accepting a position in 1850 to serve the pulpit in New Orleans and later Charleston. Scottish-born Lewis Ashenheim (1817-58) immigrated to Jamaica in the 1820’s where he practiced as a physician. He married into the local Sephardic DeCordova family.