Beautiful Barbados

from http://74.52.200.226/~sefarad/lm/015/page26.html

 

BRIDGETOWN, BARBADOS W.I. 1654 Old Synagogue & Cemetery

 

The present Jewish community of Barbados continues to maintain and use the cemetery which surrounds this historic synagogue. However, with the sale of the synagogue in 1929 by the last remaining Jews from the original congregation, there was a lapse of three years before the first member of the present congregation, Moses Altman, arrived in 1932. By this time artefacts had been removed; some sold to visitors found their way into private homes and museums. The original eight chandeliers, wall brackets and several other items are in the Barbados Museum and two standing lamps were given to Moses Altman to be used by his congregation. At first, services were held at his residence; with the growth of the community to thirty families, a property was purchased and adapted to the use of worship. The original synagogue located in the centre of Bridgetown, had been converted into commercial space. Before 1983, several attempts were made to restore the cemetery, and a positive achievement was its improved maintenance. Sadly however, in the effort to tidy-up, many old tombstones (dating back to 1660) were moved from their original positions.

The acquisition of the Synagogue building was not contemplated before 1980. It appears as if the problems encountered in efforts to improve the cemetery discouraged any further plans.

By 1983 government had made plans to build a new Supreme Court building, acquiring the synagogue building and a number of properties surrounding it. A member of the local Jewish Community and grandson of Moses Altman, Paul B. Altman, was successful in obtaining governmental support for the restoration. Former Prime Minister, the late Tom Adams, had taken a personal interest in the restoration project. This interest has extended into the present administration. A local committee has been organized. Overseas organizations have offered assistance with main support coming from the Commonwealth Jewish Trust and from visitors have offered assistance and the project has become a reality. A restored synagogue will represent an important link in Jewish history as a reminder of the route of the original Jewish settlers took to North America. It will represent one of the two oldest synagogues in the Western hemisphere and will be a place of worship for Barbadian Jews as well as for many Jewish visitors to Barbados. It will have historical significance for all.

HISTORY OF THE SYNAGOGUE

The old synagogue, located about 200 yards from Broad Street, the main shopping street in Bridgetown, had its origins soon after the first British settlement in 1627 with the exodus of Jews from Recife, Brazil in 1654. A group of those who had fled Recife for Amsterdam, upon learning that Oliver Cromwell had opened British domains to Jews, applied for and secured permission to settle in Barbados. Among them were members of the de Mercado family. Aaron de Mercado died in 1660 and became the second Jew known to have been buried in Barbados. The prime organiser of the congregation Nidhe Israel (The scattered of Israel) was a Recife Jew, Lewis Dias, alias Joseph Jesurum Mendes and the earliest reference to the synagogue is found in a deed of conveyance of land adjoining, the Jewish property dated September 1661, and vestry minutes of that period also date the old synagogue to the late 1660’s. Public worship for Jews in Barbados came in 1654, three years ahead of London.

The old synagogue in Barbados can boast of being one of the two oldest synagogue in the Western hemisphere and similar in age to the synagogue in Curaçao which has become a landmark of that Island. (Of interest, two Barbadian Jews established the beginning of a Jewish community in Rhode Island, USA in 1677 and it was another Barbadian Jew who was responsible in 1682 for purchasing the plot of land that is today the oldest surviving Jewish graveyard in North America, at Chatham Square, New York).

The hurricane of 1831 destroyed most of our original synagogue and on 29 March 1833, the present building was dedicated, constructed at a cost of 4000 L. The moving spirit behind the rebuilding was Dr Hart-Lyon, a jeweller who together with ninety other influential Jews, raised the necessary funds.

The following extract is taken from the Barbados Globe of 1 April 1833 as reprinted in Mr E.M. Shilston’s work Monumental Inscriptions in the Jewish Cemetery, Bridgetown, Barbados.

“About three of the clock on a bright and sunny afternoon in the month of march 1833, the people of the Hebrew Nation in Bridgetown, Barbados, commenced to assemble in the courts and avenues of their Synagogue, and in the course of an hour, They were joined by a number of the most respectable inhabitants, the ladies of grace, fashion and beauty (admitted to the galleries) to witness the interesting and impressive ceremony before them. It was the day that would ever stand eminently distinguished in the annals of the Hebrew Community of the town prophesied the editor of the Barbados Globe.

“The building occupied an area of two thousand square feet, fifty feet long and forty feet wide. It was thirty-seven feet high and received considerable strength from the rounding of the angles, which were capped with large antique censers uniting a balustrated parapet all round, the roof being hardly visible.

The windows were lancet shaped and tastefully harmonised with the proportions of the building side, covered with a Gothic Hood, led to the gallery within; the whole of the exterior was lightly tinged of stone-colour, and scored in blocks, the appearance altogether was classical and chaste…

The interior correspond with the outer appearance; a light and tasteful gallery occupied three sides of the interior supported by neat Doric columns. The Reader’s desk in the body of the edifice was sufficiently elevated to give a conspicuous view of the person officiating. From the ceiling was suspended at each corner in front of the gallery a single brass chandelier of eight lights, and in the centre, one of similar kind containing twenty-four.

The area of the building was paved in alternate squares of black and white marble; and the ceiling, painted in relief produced a most pleasing effect, as well from artist-like manner in which it was executed as from the chasteness of its design. It was computed to hold about three hundred persons.

The cost of this building, L 4.000 in Island currency, was defrayed by the ninety influential Jews resident in Barbados. Mr Hart-Lyon, a Jeweller was the moving spirit in its rebuilding”.

A fall In sugar prices led to emigration of most of the Jewish community from Barbados and by 1900 only seventeen Jews remained. The synagogue was sold in 1929 by private treaty with only one Jew remaining. It was converted into offices and continued under this use until the end of 1993 when it was compulsorily acquired by government with plans to demolish it and erect a new Supreme Court building. The Jewish community, with the support of the Barbados National Trust and Caribbean Conservation Association were able to persuade government to accept plans for a restoration project.

(An attempt had been made in 1929 by Mr Eustace M. Shildstone a Barbadian lawyer and non-Jew, to purchase the synagogue for preservation as a national memorial to the Jews of Barbados and because of its historical and antiquarian connections).

Lord Bernstein