Bati Huda (Beating Judas) in Curaçao is a religious activity that takes place during Holy Week, in which a doll resembling a person is symbolically beaten. This act is meant to represent revenge against Judas Iscariot, the Jew who allegedly betrayed Jesus. It is strange that those who often raise their voices against other discriminatory traditions, such as “Zwarte Piet,” remain silent when it comes to Bati Huda. 

During the time of the Catholic Apostolate, it was customary on Good Friday to fly flags at half-mast and publicly beat a doll using sticks, brooms, and whips. 

On Good Friday, March 27, 1682, a Bati Huda took place near the Santa Ana Bay. This caused public outrage because the doll was an identical representation of the Rabbi of the Jewish community in Curaçao. The government, which had already issued warnings about religious intolerance, considered this unacceptable and banned all Bati Huda activities. That prohibition lasted many years. 

The act of beating Judas, which was directed at Jews, is explained in Theology of the Street and Accents of Our Country and People by Father Brenneker. Brenneker described the tradition as “a custom not very well felt.” On Good Friday, or the Saturday after, large dolls were made and placed in front of Jewish family homes with a bottle of rum underneath. Anyone passing by could slap the doll in the face. As night fell, people marched through the streets with music and alcohol, singing Bati Huda songs, and sometimes launching direct attacks against the Jewish religion—dragging the dolls through the streets and beating them until nothing was left. This was often followed by a party with scandalously immoral behavior. 

In 2019, the World Jewish Congress protested the Bati Huda tradition after images emerged of a doll dressed like an Orthodox Jew being beaten in Poland, a predominantly Catholic country. The doll’s head was removed and the rest of its body burned. 

Now, if we do not tolerate the Dutch discriminatory invention of “Zwarte Piet,” why do we remain silent about a tradition that is flagrantly anti-Jewish? Isn’t that the definition of hypocrisy of the highest order?  

Alex David Rosaria (53) is a freelance consultant active in Asia & Pacific. He is a former Member of Parliament, Minister of Economic Affairs, State Secretary of Finance and UN Implementation Officer in Africa and Central America. He’s from Curaçao and has a MBA from the University of Iowa. (USA).