Source: WBUR
http://www.wbur.org/news/2009/84156_20090408.asp
Aminah Pilgrim, a young Cape Verdean woman, stands before about 170 people gathered in the basement of a Catholic church in Roxbury to lead a Jewish Seder in Cape Verdean Creole.
It seems incongruous. What do Cape Verdeans have to do with Jews? But Joel Schwartz, who started the joint Passover four years ago, says the two communities have more in common than first thought.
JOEL SCHWARTZ: There is a real genetic connection between us, because maybe as many as 30 percent -- that's a guess -- of Cape Verdeans have Jewish ancestors.
Schwartz works with the Cape Verdean community and was surprised to learn there were two waves of Jewish immigration to the islands off the coast of West Africa.
Jews fled persecution in Portugal and Morocco in the 15th, 16th and 19th centuries. There are still cemeteries on the islands with tombstones that have Stars of David and Hebrew inscriptions.
At this Seder, there is one Cape Verdean Jew and about six Cape Verdeans who think they have Jewish ancestry. One of them is Geneva Seerattan from Scituate.
GENEVA SERRATTAN: I've always loved the Jewish faith, it's just something. I see a man walking by with a yarmalke and I want automatically to follow him. My daughter has a fit, especially in New York.
Massachusetts is estimated to have about 38,000 Cape Verdeans. The early Passover dinner drew Cape Verdeans and Jews from all parts of the state.