Beautiful Barbados

Ever since I posted the article I'd found on Nidhe Israel Museum, I knew I wanted to visit.  I've always known that one of the earliest-ever synagogues in the western hemisphere was here but I didn't know where it was in Bridgetown, or how to get there.

Then I found out that a local department store had a shuttle to Bridgetown for shopping and I figured we could take that, shop a little, then find the museum and synagogue.  I am not a big fan of Bridgetown.  The very first year we were here a drunks/doped up man put his arm around our son and started talking to him.  Ever since that situation, I've been uncomfortable there.  The parking is also a nightmare as are the narrow one-way streets.  So, when we've wanted something, we've always shopped at a mall on the coast.

We got on the bus at 8:45 am and headed to Bridgetown.  As is usual with these shuttles, we picked up people at 2 or 3 other hotels in Worthing and Hastings before we landed in front of National Heroes Square.   This square used to be called Trafalgar Square until 1999 and has a statue of Lord Horatio Nelson in it.  This statue was erected 30 years before the one in London.  Nelson had sailed to Barbados in 1805. The new memorial, for which the National Heroes Square was named, commemorates Barbadians killed in the two World Wars.

We headed over to Cave Shepherd and bought a few items.  The, off to the synagogue and museum.  Along the way, I was accosted by someone, presumably not the same person who was interested in our son.  He asked for money for "soup" before he was sent on his way.

The Bridgetown Synagogue was just lovely.  It dates back to 1654.  At that time there was a Jewish population of 300 here.  They had left South America and were allowed to settle here.  The synagogue was destroyed by a hurricane in 1831 and rebuilt in 1837.  Today, the original sand floor has been replaced with tiles but the rest has been kept as it was.

The parking lot is being dug up as part of an archeological project of the University of the West Indies.  There were three men working today and we talked extensively with one of them.  (pictures to be posted later!)  So far, they have uncovered the foundation of a rabbi's house, the foundations of other buildings, pottery and artifacts from the Arawak and Carib Indians.  Many of the artifacts are located now in the museum.

The Nidhe Israel (Scattered of Israel) Museum is located in the middle of the synagogue's cemetery.  Many of the inscriptions from the tombs are along the walls along with translations.  We got a partial, very helpful tour from Celso Brewster, the museum's manager.  He explained a lot of the history of the Jewish people before and after they got to Barbados.  We learned a little about the Jewish Diaspora; exodus from Spain and Portugal during the inquisition in 1492.

The Dutch were a major naval power then and were colonizing Brazil.  Many Jews volunteered to settle in Reclife, Brazil, and they learned about sugar there.  Harvesting, marketing, building sugar mills.  They brought all these skills to Barbados when they fled Reclife in 1591.

By 1948 there were only 70 Jewish people still on Barbados and by 1925 only one.  The Nidhe Israel Synagogue was deconsecrated and sold.  In 1931, Askenazi Jews migrated to Barbados from Poland.  Moses Altman and his son, Paul, were among these and they rescued the synagogue from demolition in 1989.

Restoration is still going on and I'm sure much about Barbados will be learned from the archeological findings.

The museum shows the sugar trail, and how spices were traded, the history of the Jewish people before and after they arrived in Barbados and much more.  Embedded in sand and covered with glass are many of the artifacts dug up outside.  These make up much of the floor and it feels a little weird to walk over them.

There were spice exhibits where we got to smell them and guess what they were.  There was an interactive display that showed how much time you'd have to work for various products.  30 days for a pound of saffron!  Wow!

We went back to our bus meeting place and Tom ran into that same guy from this morning.  He actually apologized for hassling us!

Back home and naptime!