Familie

Uit 'Seafaring and the Jews' door Kasthan: "De kleine Hollandsche Kolonie op Curacao was \E9\E9n van de meest belangrijke, zo niet het belangrijkste centrum van de joodse scheepvaart in de 17e en 18e eeuw. In 1652 werd door de West Indische Companie toestemming gegeven aan David Cohen Nassy om er een joodse natie te vestigen. Datzelfde jaar nog bleek de joodse invloed al door de tientalle schepen met joodse benamingen.

Encyclopie: Among Jews settling in Dutch territories, David Cohen Nassy played a part in the history of both Curacao and Surinam. Nassy was born in Portugal in approximately 1612 as Christovao da Tavora. With the Portuguese Inquisition behind him and with religious freedom in Holland ahead of him, young da Tavora headed for Holland where he changed his name to Joseph Nu\A4es da Fonseca. This was done probably either to protect his family still in Portugal, or just to make it harder for anyone to find him. He emigrated to Brazil, but was driven away during the war between Holland and Portugal. In 1662, he and a financier, Abraham Cohen, established a colony in Cayenne, which was later French Guiana. By this time, he had adopted the name of David Cohen Nassy. He received a charter from the Dutch West Indies Company to start a new Jewish settlement in Curacao, but eventually moved on to Surinam. He founded the early Jewish colony in Surinam in the Joden Savanne. When the slave revolts started, he organized the other Jewish plantation owners to try to combat the raids of the runaway slaves. The community he founded in the Joden Savanne was decimated by the French in 1712 during an attempt to capture Surinam from the Dutch. His two sons, Samuel and Joseph Cohen Nassy, were also military leaders.