(Venezuela). Lindo, Moses. Autograph Letter Signed, written in English to Isaac Leeser.

(AMERICAN JUDAICA)

11th April

Puerto Cabello, Venezuela

1858

Halachic query concerning marriage of a Catholic woman with a Jewish man. Also acknowledges receipt of Leeser’s Bible and informs the Rabbi of the birth of a daughter.

The primary object of the letter is to answer by the “very first vessel” the question of whether an Israelite may wed a Catholic woman, “she being disposed to embrace the Jewish faith…[with a] voluntary desire. What are the forms to constitute her a Jewess and may a Hebrew here perform the act?” Venezuela is the country on the South American mainland closest to the island of Curaçao. Jews from Curaçao traded with Venezuela, helped by their knowledge of the Spanish language, the ownership of ships, and the favorable location of Curaçao. After the liberation of Venezuela, Simon Bolivar invited the Curaçao Jews to settle there and help the development of the newly independent state. Jacob de Moses Jessurun y Lindo was born in Curacao, Dutch Antilles in 1794. He married Esther Sasso and had two children. After living in Venezuela for some time, he passed away in Panama in 1842. For more on Jews in early Venezuela, see M. Arbell, The Jewish Nation of the Caribbean: The Spanish-Portuguese Jewish Settlements in the Caribbean (2002) p. 308.