The Jewish communities expelled from Spain and Portugal settled mostly in the main trading centres of the western world, which were at that time: Amsterdam (the world's largest port), London, and Livorno. Of course, they also settled in many smaller cities.

For Holland and England, the seventeenth century was the golden age of expansion and colonialism. Both countries thrived on mercantile supremacy on the main trade routes, and both countries accumulated great wealth in doing so. The Jewish communities in both countries flourished as merchants and bankers. They sailed along with the merchant ships and settled in the new colonies to expand their business. Many new prospering Jewish communities were founded in North and South America.

It seems logical, though no research is known on the subject, that Jewish communities have also existed, at some point of time, in Ghana on the slave coast, in Cape Town, and especially in Batavia, the wealthiest Dutch colony throughout all times. All these places were important hubs in the Dutch trading network.

All of them, whether large or small, whether lasting or short-lived, really belong to one big family of new-world Sephardim communities, and their development is mostly remarkably similar. They had an almost identical social and religious organization, and even shared common architectural ideas. They had strong and direct ties to their source-community in the old world. They had their own Portuguese language. They sang their own music..........