Nineteenth-Century Caribbean Circumcisions: An Analysis of the Journal of Births and Circumcisions Performed by Moises Frois Ricardo

During April and May of 2002 , a journal of circumcisions performed by Moises Frois Ricardo, a Sephardic Jew, was displayed in an exhibit sponsored by the Museo Sefardí of Caracas, Venezuela. The original manuscript, entitled "Record of Birth and Circumcision Beginning from The 26 th January 1840 corresponding to the 21 st Sebat 5600 , Kingston, Jamaica—M.F. Ricardo," belongs to Ricardo's great grandson, Ricardo de Sola of Caracas. The author of this analysis was fortunate to receive a copy of these birth and circumcision entries, which adds to our understanding of the Jewish communities in the Caribbean region during the nineteenth century.

Moises Frois Ricardo was born on September 21 , 1812 , to Mordechay Ricardo and Esther Frois d'Andrade on the Dutch Caribbean island of Curaçao. At the age of twenty, he was still living in Curaçao, where his father was a well-known and respected individual, friend to the Latin American liberator, Simón Bolívar, and an active member of the Jewish community. By the early 1840 s, Moises Frois Ricardo was living in Jamaica, where he married Henriette Tavares in 1841. It is there that he started recording information for 199 religious circumcisions performed by him between 1840 and 1878 , when he served as a mohel (circumciser)throughout the Caribbean. Ricardo's journal of circumcisions begins with entries pertaining to ceremonies performed in Jamaica, but by the end of 1843 , Ricardo, his wife, and their first-born son moved to Curaçao, where Ricardo continued to live for most of his life. From there, he traveled to destinations where his circumcision services were needed. Toward the end of the journal, from 1871 through 1878 , there appears to have been another move, this time to Venezuela, where, by that time, most of his children were living. The journal shows a significantly reduced volume of circumcisions during this period, leading us to believe that Ricardo was semi-retired at that point. He died at the age of 67 on February 18 , 1880 , and is buried in Curaçao. His wife died in Caracas, Venezuela, in 1905.

In the mid-nineteenth century, the largest Jewish community in the Caribbean was on the Dutch island of Curaçao. Communities of significant size existed in St. Thomas and Jamaica as well, while smaller groups of recent Jewish immigrants, many of whom had originally lived in Curaçao, had begun to spring up in Latin American countries, where independence from Spain had made life more palatable for Jews. By the middle of the nineteenth century, Curaçao's Sephardic Jews had spread themselves throughout the Caribbean region in search of better economic opportunities. These Jews appear to have considered the region as one big country, and Moises Frois Ricardo was most representative of this way of viewing the Caribbean Basin. He traveled very frequently to many different locations to perform circumcisions, as indicated by a summary of these travels taken from his journal:

Location	No. of Circumcisions
Curaçao	127
Barcelona, Venezuela	10
Caracas, Venezuela	9
Coro, Venezuela	10
La Guaira, Venezuela	4
Maracaibo, Venezuela	3
Puerto Cabello, Venezuela	8
Barranquilla, Colombia	10
Cartagena, Colombia	4
Santa Marta, Colombia	1
Kingston, Jamaica	2
Spanish Town, Jamaica	3
Santo Domingo, D.R.	8
Total	199

Although it is logical that most of the circumcisions (64 percent) were performed in Curaçao, which had the largest Jewish community among the places listed, and which was, of course, the mohel's main place of residence, it is important to reflect on how often this man traveled during the 1850 s and 1860 s.

Between 1850 and 1870 , Ricardo averaged about eight circumcisions each year, his busiest being 1865 , when he offered his services fifteen times. Below, we show his itinerary for that year:

Month	Location
January 1865	Curaçao
February...