Considered the oldest Jewish Synagogue and Jewish cemetery in the Americas the Nidhe Israel Synagogue Cemetery records internments dating from 1654 to 1929 and then again from 1932 on. Inscriptions are found in Hebrew, English and Ladino.
Here is the final resting place of 600 to 1000 who have gone before us. The cemetery is surrounded by a thick 8 foot tall wall that creates a quiet environment for reflection on the lives and contributions of the people resting here. The location is a remarkable example of the burial rights and customs of a time and people long since past.
Eustace Maxwell Shilstone, had the foresight and wisdom to see that the cemetery was protected and he amended the deeds of the property to place the cemetery into a perpetual trust. Then, he copied and photographed the epitaphs to preserve them and later aid in the restoration effort recently initiated after years of neglect. Shilstone’s photographs and inscriptions were published by the Jewish Historical Society of England. Shilstone also published a book in 1956 titled, ''Monumental Inscriptions in the Jewish Cemetery in Bridgetown, With Historical Notes From 1630'' highlighting the cemetery.
For year the property was a dump site and trash and rubble accumulated after years of neglect and abuse piled up, covering the graves, forcing the government to condemn the property. The preservation effort was initiated and led by Henry Altman and members of his family and community. His interest was triggered when he learned that the Barbadian government had plans to destroy the site to make way for a new government building. The Synagogue and surrounding cemetery is now protected as a Barbados National Trust Property.
Graves of several famous people are here, including Samuel Hart, son of the American Moses Hart, and Mosseh Haym Nahamyas (Moses Nehemiah), who died on Barbados in 1672 and was the first Jew to live in Virginia
The historic Nidhe Israel Synagogue in Bridgetown, Barbados was established in 1654 making it the oldest synagogue in the Americas. Destroyed by a hurricane in 1831, was rebuilt, and consecrated on 29th March 1833. The current building fell into disrepair until it was sold in 1929. In 1983, the building was seized by the Barbados Government, desiring to erect a courthouse in its place. Two years later, the building was transferred to the Barbados National Trust as a result of pleas from the local Jewish community. In 1986, the renovation process began The building was returned to use as a synagogue when the renovation was complete, though it is still owned by the National Trust.
The Nid?e Israel Synagogue is currently the only synagogue situated in Bridgetown, Barbados. It also holds the distinction of being one of the oldest synagogues in the western hemisphere and remains a Barbados National Trust property.
Today the property is being renovated and maintains the interest of several archeological and historic preservation endeavors. A museum was opened in 2008 and the burial grounds of the Jewish cemetery have been carefully restored.
The new edifice built in 1833 is 50 feet long by fourty feet wide and occupies an area of 2000 square feet. The following detailed description of the synagogue is from the “Barbados Globe” of April 1st, 1833: It is thirty-seven feet high, and receives considerable strength from the rounding of the angles, which are capped with large antique censers uniting a balustrated parapet all round, the roof being so little elevated as not to be perceived. The windows are lancet-shaped, and tastefully harmonize with the proportions of the building; a double flight of stone steps on the north side, covered with a Gothic hood, leads to the gallery within; the whole of the exterior is lightly tinged of stone-colour, and scored out in blocks, and the appearance altogether is classical and chaste; those walls which had hitherto rendered the passage to the old synagogue so dull and sombre, being now lowered so as to afford one general view of the whole at the entrance of the avenue. The court-yard around this edifice is well-drained and neatly paved, and a handsome marble fountain occupies a niche within the inner court, railed off by an iron trellis.: the interior corresponds with the outer appearance; a light and tasteful gallery occupies three sides of the interior, supported by neat Doric columns. The reader’s desk in the body of the edifice is sufficiently elevated to give a conspicuous view of the person officiating. From the ceiling is suspended at each corner in front of the gallery a single brass chandelier, of eight lights, and in the centre one of the similar kind containing twenty-four. The area of the building is paved in alternate squares of black and white marble; and the ceiling, painted in relied. Produces a most pleasing effect, as well from the artist-like manner in which it is executed as from the chasteness of its design. It is computed to hold almost three hundred persons
In 2008, an American architect, Michael Stoner, was trying to uncover a former rabbi's house on the premises. As he was digging, two Israeli tourists happened by and uttered the word mikvah. After excavating for three weeks, Stoner discovered a 17th century Jewish mikvah or ritual bath.
The Jews settled in Barbados as early as 1628 and although they were occasionally subjected to persecution and oppression, the policy they exhibited in keeping on good terms with the powers that were, caused their civil rights to be extended in 1680, and their testimony, which had long been rejected in the courts of law, was from that time admitted in all civil suits, upon an oath taken upon the five books of Moses, according to the tenets of their religion. At one period the congregation consisted of a very large number, but from deaths and he return of many of the European families to England, the number has been reduced to almost nothing, there being but 21 Jews on the island when the last census was taken in 1882. The circumstance of their having so many as five burial grounds, three of which are completely filled, and a synagogue which is considered to be one of the handsomest and most substantial building of its kind in the West Indies, proves that the congregation must have been considerable.
The name of the congregation is “Kaal Kadosh Nidhe Israel” or the holy, scattered congregation of Israel. The synagogue was so severely injured by the great hurricane in 1831 that it was deemed necessary to erect a new edifice. The present building was erected in 1833 at a cost of $14,000 which was entirely met by the funds of the community without any outside assistance of any kind.
Most of the Jews of the island left Barbados beginning in the late 1830’s most relocating to Philadelphia in the United States.
Located on Synagogue Lane in Bridgetown, Barbados.
Affiliation Conservative Judaism
Rite Sephardic
District St. Michael
Ecclesiastical status Active
Sources Used:
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“Stark’s History and Guide to Barbados to Barbados and the Caribbee Islands” by James H. Stark. 1903;
“History of Barbados: comprising a geographical and statistical description of the island …; By: Sir Robert Schomburgk, 1848;
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