THE LOST JEWS OF ST. MAARTEN: MODERN FORENSICS AND RESEARCH REDISCOVER ONE JEWISH-CARIBBEAN COMMUNITY

Dana Cohen-Sprott and Catyana Skory

DESCRIPTION:
This event is a repeat (by popular demand) of the "sold out" March 4th session.This repeat version is located in the Friedberg Auditorium.

With the backdrop of the America’s Wars, the Dutch Caribbean island of St. Maarten and her valuable salt ponds was a prize for European powers. Island lore suggested that there was once a Jewish community. Using old land records and research that spanned the globe, Dana Cohen-Sprott has uncovered the location of the synagogue and Jewish burial grounds and a history of a community that once existed. Caytana Skory of the Broward County Sheriff’s Office has used state-of-the-art forensic science techniques, and her considerable talents, to recreate a man from a 240-year-old skull to tell this story.

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION: Dana Cohen-Sprott has spent the last 25 years living and working in the Caribbean. While working in Jamaica on the Prime Minister’s staff, she learned of the 500-year-old Jewish community that was an integral part of island history and the Caribbean. Her work for American Eagle – Latitudes took her throughout the region, where she learned firsthand about regional Jewish history: the pirates, planters and revolutionaries, as well as about the havens for Jews during World War II and their involvement in Caribbean development. The Caribbean region and the ever-evolving Jewish community have been a backdrop for all of America’s wars. Cohen-Sprott has a BS in Economics from Russell Sage College and holds an MBA in International Business from George Washington University. She is a published writer, author, lecturer and researcher, and recently discovered the exact location of the 1780 St. Maarten Jewish Synagogue.

Catyana Skory was born in Brazil to a Japanese-Brazilian mother and an American father who was in Brazil with the Peace Corps. She grew up in upstate New York and finished her undergraduate studies in History and Anthropology at the State University of New York in New Paltz. She then continued her graduate studies and obtained a Master’s Degree in Forensic Sciences from George Washington University. Her background includes working as a investigator for the Northern Virginia Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, as well as the Harris County Medical Examiner’s Office in Houston, Texas. She also worked as a Property and Evidence Technician and a Crime Scene Specialist for the Prince William County Police Department in Northern Virginia. In all her positions, she did work as a forensic artist in addition to her regular duties. She has been working as a full-time forensic artist for the Broward County Sheriff’s Office in Fort Lauderdale, Florida for the last 4 years. In this position, she created composite sketches, image clarifications, post-mortem drawings and facial reconstructions.