Barbados Synagogue & Museum Visit

As mentioned before, we had a several hour layover in Barbados on our way back from our honeymoon in the Caribbean. The only thing of which we knew that we wanted to visit was the synagogue and museum in Bridgetown, the capital. So, we took a cab (as we still had our luggage (it was still too early to check in)) to the synagogue.
When we arrived, we saw, as described nearly twenty years ago by Nancy Sharkey, "an unprepossessing building of buff-colored coral stone and mortar tucked away on a side street in Barbados's capital, Bridgetown, and surrounded by the centuries-old graves of the island's Jewish settlers." Sharkey continues, "the building's exterior, with its balustraded roofline, lancet-shaped windows and thick walls with rounded corners, appears much as it did in the 1830's, the prosperous days of Barbados's Jewish community, which led the island's sugar industry."
So, it was nice being in there and, as it was the afternoon, I davened minhah there.
Sharkey further wrote

The first synagogue on the site was built about 1651 by Jews from Recife, Brazil, fleeing Portuguese lands to English territories during the Inquisition. The original building was destroyed in a hurricane in 1831, and rebuilt two years later. (Curaçao's synagogue, built in the 1660's, is the oldest continually operating synagogue in the hemisphere.) The Bridgetown synagogue, deconsecrated early in the century, was seized by the Barbados Government about five years ago and scheduled for demolition. But through the tenacity of the island's tiny Jewish community, it is now a Barbados National Trust property and is undergoing a $1 million restoration. The building, a short walk from the main shopping district, is to be rededicated as a synagogue when the restoration is finished by next winter. It will remain a National Trust property.

For more information, it has been written in a recent doctoral dissertation:

While the first purposely built synagogue in the British Isles, Bevis Marks was not the first in the English Empire. The first synagogue built in the English Empire, like that in the French Empire, was in the Caribbean. However, the first chapter of Jewish history in the English Caribbean is somewhat shrouded in mystery due to the shortage of documents and historic sites that have managed to survive unto this day. The English began colonizing Barbados in 1627 as part of its venture to compete against the Spanish in the Americas. It is not known exactly when the first Jews arrived in Barbados, but evidence suggests as early as 1629 as a possibility. Following the loss of Dutch Brazil to the Portuguese in 1654, the Barbados quasi-crypto-Jewish community experienced growth from refugees who resettled there. Congregation Nidhe Israel was officially founded in Bridgetown by 1656, following Cromwell’s policy of readmission.¹

As far as the synagogue, specifically:

The earliest mention of the Nidhe Israel Synagogue is from a surveyor’s recorded dated from 1664, and mentions the building as already having been built. It was also recorded that the first Torah scrolls came from Amsterdam, demonstrating that the Barbados Jewish community had strong ties with the Jews in the Dutch Empire prior to the rise and dominance of London and its Jewish community. The Barbados community’s first rabbi was Eliahu Lopez, who came from Amsterdam in 1679, and later moved to Curaçao in 1693 to serve as the rabbi there. A second synagogue, Semah David, was built toward the end of the seventeenth century (again exact date unknown) in Speightstown to accommodate the island’s growing Jewish community. Semah David Synagogue was like Neve Shalom on Cura?ao since it was not a separate congregation from the first (Nidhe Israel in Bridgetown) but merely a branch to accommodate more people. In 1739, Semah David was destroyed by an anti-Semitic mob after a dispute occurred between a Jew and a non-Jewish individual on the island. Nearly one hundred years later, Nidhe Israel along with many of the congregation’s records was destroyed by a hurricane in 1831. A second Nidhe Israel Synagogue was built in 1833, which is used by the congregation today. However, the newer building bears little architectural resemblance to the older one. No known description survives of the seventeenth century synagogues of Nidhe Israel and Semah David.²

Throughout this post, you can see various pictures of the synagogue, which is, apparently, the oldest synagogue in the western hemisphere still in use. Speaking of in use, there was a sign on the synagogue that says "Friday Night Services Are Conducted at Shaare Zedek Synagogue" located at "Rockley New Road, Christ Church" with telephone numbers provided (427-7611/228-2102) for information. The museum director told us there are only Friday night services at the historic synagogue from November through March. The rest of the year, there are held at Shaare Zedek. Saturday morning services are not held at the historic synagogue (as far as I know). (Online, there is an article that says in "the winter months, the Jewish community holds its services in the old synagogue building, which, as in days of old, has no air conditioning. But during the hot months of summer, they retreat to the smaller, but air conditioned, Shaare Tzedek for their services.")
We then headed over to the nearby Nidhe Israel Museum (adult admission price is $12.50, btw, so it's not cheap), which was nice-looking and new, as well, having opened in February of this year. As of this time, the museum consists of one large room with various informational paneling (such as "The Price of Tolerance", "The Days of Intolerance", "The Unknown Jewish Contribution to Barbados", "Jews Coming to the New World", "A Spiced World", "Jews and Sugar", "The Jews as Merchants in the City", "A Story of Hope", and "Saving the Synagogue Once Again"), although they hope to add an art gallery and a Jewish library upstairs. The building in which the museum is located was built in 1750, but they were planning on tearing it down. When they found that behind the walls, the building was originally made up of coral stone, they decided to retain it, as it reminded them of Jerusalem stone, although now they are trying to get some actual Jerusalem stone, so people can see what that is like. The museum's hours are are 9-4, Monday - Saturday.
After we walked through the museum, we had nowhere else to go for a couple of hours and it intermittently rained, so we chatted with the director for a while, finding out that the Jewish community's size is, during the summer, about 20-22 and about triple that during the rest of the year. Also, there are many Barbadians who are of Jewish descent, with some wanting to reclaim their Jewish heritage. The director said that if one were interested in being a rabbi here, one would need to do something on the side (like conversion stuff).
The director also mentioned to us that they had recently discovered a mikveh there (and now reported yesterday by Reuters), which, built in 1652, was the first in the western hemisphere. When they uncovered it, the director told us, it was greenish, and then there were a lot of mosquitoes. In order to finish off the mosquitoes, they had to bring in fish to eat the mosquitoes' larvae.
I think that Barbados definitely needs a kosher place to eat, especially during winter, the main tourist season. And, yes, I did consider going down there and being a rabbi. However, before I think of going to be a shul/community rabbi anywhere, I would like to get some experience first (although I am thinking of heading into campus/Hillel work for the time being).
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¹ - Barry Louis Stiefel, "The History and Preservation of the Synagogues of the Atlantic World, 1636-1822" (Ph.D. diss., Tulane University, 2008), 98.
² - Ibid., 99.

Our pictures from the synagogue and museum.
Further reading:
Donald H. Harrison, "Who Were the Bearded Ones: Reclaiming the Jewish Past in Barbados"
Lauren Kramer, "Jewish Island Spirit" 9 November 2006 Jerusalem Post

Monday 14 July

(another honeymoon posting)
We arose early, finished packing, then we took a taxi to the airport (which was, just like our taxi trip to the hotel, expensive (we had wanted to take the ferry in to Fort-de-France, then take a taxi from there, but since it was a holiday, the earliest ferry was not running (a later one was, though it wasn't early enough for us), so we couldn't take it). Again, just like the taxi ride to the hotel, the Martinican countryside is a nice sight to behold, with many verdant hills and some houses dotting those hills.
We got to the airport and got to our gate and waited and waited - without any notifications that our Liat flight would be late: the boarding time was supposed to be at 8:45 and flight time at 9:30. Finally, at 9:33, they announced that it was delayed to 10:10. Apparently, the previous flight had been delayed. Our flight to Bermuda had a stop in St. Lucia, which was a 12 minute flight. When we had arrived onto the [old American (e.g. the emergency door instructions were in English)] plane, it smelled a bit. We weren't the only ones to notice it - as the flight stewardess came down the aisle and sprayed air freshener - certainly a first for me. And she did the same for our flight from St. Lucia to Barbados.
We arrived in Barbados and they had a nice little fountains and flowers area (pictured) that also had a little free wifi (yay!). We then went through customs, exchanged our Euros for Barbados dollars, then we tried to go and drop off our luggage for our next flight and then head into town.
However, it was only noon and the lady at the ticket counter said that they could not take luggage until three hours prior to the flight - at 3:30. So we waited for a half hour to see if they would pity us and capitulate - no such thing. Finally, Rachel and I decided we would go to the capital and see the synagogue and Jewish museum there and maybe walk around as well. So we went to the capital and went to the synagogue there and checked out the Jewish museum, about which I will write in a future post. After that, we decided that we would just go and try checking in for our flight.
When we got to the ticket counter, at 3:30, we still had to wait for the Air Jamaica agents to get back from their break for 15-20 minutes. Whilst we were checking in, we overheard another gate agent say it was delayed - it was not supposed to take off until 9 o'clock! When we found out that information, it was 4 o'clock. We decided we should hang out at the airport for several hours rather than trying to go back into the capital. Then, two and a half hours later, we found out that it was pushed back another half hour. Finally, around 9:45 or so we boarded.
Although we had thought that they had forgotten about our kosher meal order, lo and behold, they actually had our kosher meals. The kosher meals on the Air Jamaica flight are from Jamaica - Jamaica, NY that is. Made by Borenstein Caterers, the little slip of paper accompanying our meal said, "is the largest Kosher Airline Caterer in North America and a leader in its field. We meet the USDA standards and supply meals to 52 International Airlines."
After the in-flight movie (something that I only watched because it was showing on the plane and would never have watched otherwise), which was okay, I napped for less than hour, before waking up as the plane entered into its descent. Finally, we arrived after 3 am and were back in the States (of course, we still had to go through customs and then collect our luggage before going back to our apartment, but we were otherwise back).