[2] When the English captured Jamaica from Spain in 1655, the Jews who were living as conversos began to practice Judaism openly.
With the influx of Jews to Jamaica in the 17th century, multiple synagogues were constructed across the island in such cities as Montego Bay, Spanish Town, Port Royal, and Kingston.
A synagogue built in Spanish Town, the Sephardic Kahal Kadosh Neveh Shalom ("Habitation of Peace"), was consecrated in 1704.
At the time of the English conquest of the island in 1655, General Robert Venables recorded the presence of many "Portuguese" in Jamaica.
[3] Port Royal became an attractive place to trade commodities such as gold, silver, porcelain, embroidery, and silk.
English-Jamaican merchants accused Jamaican Jews of coin clipping, a method of shaving off precious metal from money and putting it back into circulation at face value.
[3] Some have found these accusations to be false or exaggerated because the Jews did not play a large role in the economics of Port Royal.
[2] Many Jews left Port Royal for another Jamaican town called Kingston, where a new economy was flourishing with commercial success.
[2] The Jews in Kingston provided four Mayors, many Justices of Peace, members of Parliament, and countless builders, dentists, doctors, teachers, lawyers, and actors.
Born in Curacao, he came to Kingston where he served the congregation there, assisted for a time by Abraham Pereira Mendes who was later called to be the minister of the Montego community.
[2] That same year in Canada, a similar story unfolded as Jews were granted same political rights as their Christian counterparts.
[citation needed] The Chabad-Lubavitch movement opened a branch in Jamaica in 2014 servicing locals as well as a welcome centre for international visitors.
The congregation has its own siddur, blending together Spanish-Portuguese tradition and British Liberal and American Reform liturgy.
A Jamaican Jewish Heritage Center opened in 2006 in celebration of 350 years of Jews living in Jamaica.