BETH ISRAEL SYNAGOGUE

The Jewish community of Aruba

Board Members

Meet our members and learn their history!

Roy Maduro

Roy Maduro in a nutshell
The current President Mr. Roy Maduro, an agronomist, elected
to the board in August 2018 has come full circle. His ancestors,
Jews of the Iberian Peninsula, have been in the Caribbean since
the seventeenth century was born to a gentile mother, but
converted after many years of feeling the Jewish “magnet”, as
he describes it.
Roy started Aruba’s most beautiful Garden Center, Fantastic
Gardens, at a time nobody believed in Aruba, the month of
the announcement of the Departure the Refinery in 1983.
Retired, he took the challenge of volunteering his free time to
our community.

Born and raised in Aruba, Attended Juliana school before schooling in the U.S.
Attended the Universary Of Michigan and a B.A degree in History and Chemistry, University Of Maryland with DDS degree( Doctor of Dental Surgery), Lieutenant in the U.S. Navy, Fairleigh Dickinson University with MSD degree( Specialty in Orthodontics). Retired from private practice in Oct.2011. Now Associate Professor at the University of Maryland. CFO Groceries To Go Aruba. Live in Malmok and Owings Mills Maryland. Member of the Board at Beth Israel Aruba.

Karl Pick

Marlon A. Pieters

Born in Aruba on the 20 Aug 1956. Married to a nice Jewish girl named Diana and has two children, David and Kyra.
In 1982 Marlon joined the police force and about six years ago changed his career and is working as a Chief City Inspector for the government.

” I am the local Chazzan and do my weekly duties with the Jewish community and also involved in other activities on the Island.”

At the Synagogue, I keep Myself busy welcoming newcomers and the repeat quests to make them feel right at home.

He is at your service always.

Raquel van der Weide

My mom was Jewish and came from a Sephardic Jewish family.Her ancestors were originally
from Spain, but in times of the Inquisition, around 1492, they had to leave Spain and decided to
settle in Greece. They lived there for centuries. But fled from Europe before the outbreak of
World War 2 and landed in Curacao. They soon became part of the Jewish community there.
At that time my father’s family also lived in Curacao. He was part of a Dutch protestant family.

When my father and mother met, they fell in love and wanted to get married. Of course, none
of the two families were happy! But finally, after 8 years, they got permission to marry.
So, I was born in Curacao. When I was 7, the government of Aruba made my father a good job
offer and we moved to Aruba. We also became part of the Jewish community here.

After finishing secondary school I went to college in Holland. I wanted to become a school
teacher. When I came back to Aruba I worked for many years as a secondary school teacher.
I have a wonderful daughter who also is a teacher; she works and lives in Holland.
I am pensioned now but have a new and interesting job. That of secretary of the Board of the
Beth Israel Community.