The earliest record of a Jewish presence in Curaçao was Samuel Cohen, an interpreter who arrived with the Dutch fleet, under the command of Johan van Walbeeck, that seized the island in 1634 from the Spaniards. In 1651, Joao d’Yllan, a Portuguese Jew, decided to move with 10 to 12 other Jewish familiesto Curaçao in hopes of prospering from agricultural business opportunities. This community established the Congregation Mikve Israel, the oldest continually used synagogue in the Western Hemisphere. A larger group of Jews from the same congregation, led by Isaac da Costa, arrived on the island in 1659, also to pursue an agricultural business. Due to the arid soil on the island, aspirations to succeed in the agricultural business failed. Jews then chose to maintain a life in the walled city of Willemstad and established trade between Northern Europe and the South American Coast. The second wave of settlers brought with them a Torah scroll that was gifted from the Amsterdam synagogue and is still used today in the Mikve Israel-Emanuel Synagogue. In 1651, the first Jewish cemetery, Beit Haim, was consecrated. By 1674, they consecrated the first of four synagogues in Willemstad.
In the middle of the 19th century, a third of the Jewish population established its own congregation which adhered to the philosophy of the Reform Jewish Movement. This group of people built Temple Emanuel and consecrated their own cemetery at Berg Altena. After 100 years of crossover and intermarriage, the congregations of Temple Emanuel and Mikve Israel merged and united and formed Mikve Israel-Emanuel. The Congregation chose to follow the rituals of the Reconstructionist Federation of America in efforts to preserve the historical and traditional customs of both Congregations.
In the 1920s and 1930s, Ashkenazi Jews, predominately from Central Europe, arrived at the island, where they established a social center and sports club. In 1959, the Ashkenazi immigrants erected their own congregational building called the Shaarei Tsedek Jewish Center in Scharloo.
One of the notable influences of the Spanish/Portuguese-Jewish community in Curaçao is in the local language. Papiamentu is the Curaçaoan local language that is considered to be either an Afro-Portuguese creole or Spanish-based creole.