Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to the Bahamas
The Bahamas: a small Jewish community in Nassau and Freeport, relations with "Israel" since 1974, recognition of Palestine in 2024, Ehud Barak's contacts with the Baha Mar developer, and the US investigation of Peter Nygard's Lyford Cay estate
About 200 Jews lived in the Bahamas in 2022, according to the World Jewish Congress (WJC).[1] Relations with "Israel" date from January 1974, according to the Israeli foreign ministry.[2] On 7 May 2024 the Bahamas recognised the State of Palestine, the last independent member of the Caribbean Community to do so.[3]
Jewish community and religious life
History and demography
The WJC writes that Luis de Torres, Christopher Columbus's interpreter, is thought to have been the first Jew to set foot in the New World when the Santa Maria landed at San Salvador in 1492. Few Jews came after British settlement in 1620, but Moses Franks served as attorney general and chief justice of the islands in the 18th century. After the First World War a few Jewish families from Poland, Russia and the United Kingdom settled in Nassau, and later Jews came to Freeport on Grand Bahama.[1]
Communal organisations
In Nassau there is a Conservative synagogue named after Luis de Torres, and in Freeport a Reform congregation; the two are joined in the United Bahamas Hebrew Congregation, P.O. Box F1761, Freeport, Grand Bahama Island.[1]
Israeli state and commercial ties
Diplomacy
The Israeli foreign ministry's 2011 list of missions records relations with the Bahamas as established in January 1974, with "Israel" represented by its ambassador in Mexico, with an honorary consul in Nassau.[2]
On 7 May 2024 the foreign ministry announced that the cabinet had decided "to formally recognize Palestine as a state", citing the UN Charter and the right of peoples to self-determination, and saying that the Bahamas "joins the Caribbean Community's consensus on this matter".[4]
Political interference
UN voting
According to the WJC, the Bahamas, Barbados and Haiti were the only Caribbean states that did not vote in favour of a Palestinian state at the UN in 2012; all three abstained.[5] The Bahamas voted in favour of the September 2025 General Assembly resolution endorsing the New York Declaration on a two-state solution.[6]
Ehud Barak's emails
The following items come from the two leaked mailboxes of the former Israeli prime minister and defence minister Ehud Barak (ehbarak1@gmail.com and ehud.barak@hyperion-eb.com, 2007–2016). They were hacked and leaked by Handala, a group that Distributed Denial of Secrets describes as "believed to have ties to Iranian intelligence", and were published by Distributed Denial of Secrets in August 2025. The emails carry no cryptographic signatures, and Distributed Denial of Secrets warns that material from such hack-and-leak operations may have been altered.[7]
- Baha Mar, 2014–2015. On 26 November 2014 Barak's wife, Nili Priell Barak, wrote to Sarkis Izmirlian, chairman and chief executive of the Nassau resort developer Baha Mar, that it was "a month since we have been to Nassau", on a trip that had also taken them to Brazil, Buenos Aires, San Francisco, Miami, New York and Halifax. Izmirlian replied that "it was a pleasure meeting both of you" and that he looked forward to hearing from Barak.[8] On 1 January 2015 Izmirlian wrote that he could not meet Barak in New York because "I need to go to China with the Prime Minister of the Bahamas". Nili Priell Barak replied: "You are a big player in the relations between the Bahamas and China."[9]
Jeffrey Epstein
Documents released by the US Department of Justice in the Jeffrey Epstein files include the following.
- On 3 April 2020 the US Department of Justice asked the United Kingdom, under the mutual legal assistance treaty, to help it interview Prince Andrew about two criminal investigations. The request said that US authorities were investigating Peter Nygard, "a Canadian citizen", and others for "involvement in an international sex trafficking ring victimizing adult women and minor girls", including at "Nygard's estate in Lyford Cay, Bahamas, referred to as 'Nygard Cay'". It said that "on at least one occasion, Prince Andrew travelled to Nygard Cay in the Bahamas", that he was "not presently a target" of the investigation, and that no charges had been filed against Nygard as of that date.[10]
See also
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Antigua and Barbuda
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Barbados
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Dominica
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Grenada
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Jamaica
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Saint Kitts and Nevis
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Saint Lucia
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Trinidad and Tobago
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Cuba
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to the Dominican Republic
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Haiti
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 World Jewish Congress, Community in the Bahamas worldjewishcongress.org, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Diplomatic Missions Abroad: Status of relations mfa.gov.il, archived 5 August 2011.
- ↑ The Bahamas recognizes Palestine as a state, joining fellow independent CARICOM members Bahamas Local News, 7 May 2024, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Bahamas, The Commonwealth of The Bahamas Formally Recognizes Palestine As A State mofa.gov.bs, 7 May 2024, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ World Jewish Congress, Community in Barbados worldjewishcongress.org, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ United Nations General Assembly, Recorded vote on A/80/L.1/Rev.1: Endorsement of the New York Declaration on the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution, 12 September 2025 (copy hosted by Al-Quds Al-Arabi).
- ↑ Distributed Denial of Secrets, Ehud Barak emails, 27 August 2025, with download at data.ddosecrets.org, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ Email exchange between Nili Priell Barak and Sarkis Izmirlian, "renew contact due to lost e-mail", 26–27 November 2014, forwarded to Ehud Barak 29 November 2014, file
ehbarak1@gmail.com/Inbox!25/1 (379).html, Ehud Barak emails, Distributed Denial of Secrets, released 27 August 2025 (hacked and leaked by the Handala group), accessed 25 October 2026. - ↑ Email exchange between Nili Priell Barak and Sarkis Izmirlian, "Re: meeting in NY", 1–3 January 2015, file
ehbarak1@gmail.com/Inbox!23/1 (439).html, Ehud Barak emails, Distributed Denial of Secrets, released 27 August 2025 (hacked and leaked by the Handala group), accessed 25 October 2026. - ↑ US Department of Justice, Criminal Division, Office of International Affairs, request to the Central Authority of the United Kingdom, "Request for Assistance in the Matter of Material Witness PA", 3 April 2020, EFTA00099391, US Department of Justice, Epstein Files release, Data Set 9, copy at tommycarstensen.com/epstein, accessed 25 October 2026.