The Caribbean: Upcoming Conference "The Jewish Diaspora in the Caribbean"

Two view of the Old Jewish Cemetery at Sosua, Dominican Republic
(photos: Stuart Klipper (1990), ISJM files)

The Caribbean: Upcoming Conference "The Jewish Diaspora in the Caribbean" Points Out Need for More Documentation and Study, as Well as Preservation Planning, for Area Jewish Sites
by Samuel D. Gruber

Next week is the international conference The Jewish Diaspora of the Caribbean, to be held at Kingston’s Pegasus Hotel January 12-14 2010 to explore the history, culture, and identity of Caribbean Jewry. The conference is co-chaired by Jane S. Gerber (Professor of Jewish History, The Graduate Center, CUNY) and Ainsley Henriques (Director, the United Congregation of Israelites, Kingston). Please contact either the conference coordinator, Stan Mirvis, smirvis@gc.cuny.edu or Ainsley Henriques, ainsley@cwjamaica.com for further information. The full schedule is posted at http://ucija.org/conferenceaa.htm.

ISJM is a co-sponsor of the conference, and ISJM Vice-President architect Rachel Frankel, will speak on “Remnant Stones: The Significance of New World Portuguese Jewish Diaspora Cemeteries.” Rachel is co-author with Aviva Ben-Ur of the recently published book Remnant Stones, a result of a multi-year documentation project in Suriname of which ISJM has been a sponsor.

There has been a Jewish presence in the Caribbean region for more than 500 years, since the first voyages of discovery by European explorers. Despite long oppression by the Spanish government and Catholic Church, there have been Jewish communities established in territories colonized by the Dutch and English since Dutch Jews settled in Brazil in the 1620s and following (until their expulsion by the Portuguese in 1654). Jewish colonization on Dutch and then English islands took place in the 1620s through the 1650s, and these communities have continued for the most part until today. Formal Jewish communities have existed in many independent former Spanish dominions since the 19^th century.

Throughout the region, including settlement on islands and the South American littoral, there have been or are now scores of Jewish heritage sites, including communal and religious properties and urban areas of settlements and private plantations. Sites include cemeteries, synagogues, mikvot, schools, and commercial and domestic structures. The synagogue and adjacent mikveh on the island of Sint Eustatius has been excavated, and recent investigations have revealed a possible synagogue on the island of Nevis, and there may have been one on St. Martin was well.

Despite my initial hopes for the conference, however, there are too few presentations about historic sites or material culture. This unfortunately reflects a continuing dearth of good information about the architectural and urban contribution of Jews in the Caribbean region, and also about the location and condition of existing remains of synagogue and former Jewish Settlements, plantations, neighborhoods; former synagogues and mikva'ot; commercial enterprises; and cemeteries. Some major synagogue and cemeteries a - like those of Curacao - are studied and well known. But many others remain the subject or little more than the occasional tourist promotion description, and repetition of legendary history. For the most part, and compared to other parts of the world, Caribbean Jewish heritage has been overlooked by architectural and art historians.

Willemstad, Curacao. Mikve Israel-Emanuel Synagogue. Photos: Samuel Gruber,(2007)

This is a great loss, since the Caribbean Jewish culture was dynamic and prosperous, and not - as is often implied - merely derivative of ideas and customs of Jewish centers in Amsterdam and London and few other places. The lack of documentation of specific places, too, puts many of these sites at continued risk - of encroaching development, vandalism, and deterioration due to natural and man made environmental problems (almost total deterioration of the marble gravestones at Curacao due to the acidic pollution of the nearby oil refinery is well documented).

Willemstad, Curacao. Beth Haim Jewish cemetery, with refinery in background)
Photo:Samuel D. Gruber (2007)

ISJM has prepared a proposal to organize a comprehensive survey of Jewish sites in the Caribbean. The project would combine volunteer community-building efforts with professional organization, oversight, description and analysis. Rachel and I would direct the survey. I have extensive experience with this kind of countrywide survey, and she has many years of experience visting and documenting Jewish sites in Suriname and Jamaica. We have compiled an impressive list of local experts - many of them already colleagues- to be engaged for specific part of the project.

Here is a summary of the project phases. ISJM will begin to seek funding support in the weeks following the conference.

PHASE I: Inventory, Survey, Documentation

In the first phase of the project ISJM will partner with local religious, historic and preservation organizations to compile a complete list of all sites in the region in the following categories:

• Sites founded by Jews or for Jews specifically for Jewish religious and ritual activity, including synagogues, mikvot (ritual baths), and cemeteries;
• Sites founded by Jews or for Jews for Jewish cultural or communal activity, including schools, community centers, hospitals, oldage homes, etc;
• Sites of considerable significance to the Jewish history of the region, including areas of primary and predominant Jewish settlement, and selected specific residential and commercial founded, owned and used by Jews and particularly noted for some significant activity of Jews.

All sites will be identified as to location (by map and GPS), current ownership and use, and general condition. Using available historic research the historical, architectural or other significance of each site will be briefly described. Whenever possible, new documentary photography will be carried out on site.

PHASE II: Planning

In the second phase of the project, all sites will be reviewed and evaluated a diverse committee of experts to evaluate the collective significance of sites and the significance of individual sites. From this process will develop a regional feasibility study for future development of region-based historic preservation, heritage tourism and Jewish and secular educational programs.

PHASE III: Conservation, Education, Presentation

The third phase is a long term effort to implement a range of protective and conservation measures, and to develop integrated education, commemorative and tourism programs and policies.

To support or participate in this survey please contact me directly. More information will be available later in 2010.

Remembering Jewish Mothers: Synagogues Named for Mothers and Wives

The Snoa, Curacao. The four great interior columns have been dedicated to the Jewish Matriachs - Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah. We remember them on Mother's Day.
Photos: Samuel D. Gruber 2007.

Remembering Jewish Mothers: Synagogues Named for Mothers and Wives
by Samuel D. Gruber

Today is Mother’s Day in the United States. This isn’t a very Jewish holiday – for isn’t every day supposed to by one on which mothers are honored? Still, in the history of synagogues we don’t see much evidence of that. Until the advent of Reform and Conservative Judaism, synagogues were mostly for men – places they could get away from their months (and wives). There a few examples, however, where synagogues have been dedicated to the memory of mothers, and several more in memory of wives and other women – who may have been mothers, too.

The best known example is the Ohel Leah synagogue of Hong Kong. This lovely building erected by Jacob Sassoon in 1901 was named after his mother Leah. Built by the local architectural firm of Leigh and Orange in the Hong Kong Midlevels in 1901, the building was almost torn down in the early 1990s, but was saved due to international protests, and it was restored in 1997. I remember this well, as it was one of the very first “endangered synagogue” cases to cross my desk when I was director of the Jewish Heritage Council of the World Monuments Fund. Until it was hemmed in by skyscrapers, the white synagogue, with its short twin octagonal towers flanking a projecting Palladian porch, had been for a century a stately beacon visible far out at sea.

According to the website of the synagogue:

On August 7, 1901, Abraham Jacob Raymond, the senior member of E. D. Sassoon & Co, laid the foundation stone of the new Sassoon-sponsored synagogue in Robinson Road. It was an event attended by a large gathering of the new century's Hong Kong Jewish community. 'It now affords me very great pleasure.' Raymond addressed the gathering, 'on behalf of Mr Jacob Sassoon, to inform you, ladies and gentlemen, that this synagogue when completed will be dedicated to the Jewish community of Hong Kong in commemoration of his beloved mother Leah, and will be a gift to the Jewish community of Hong Kong - the building from himself and the site from himself and his brothers, Messrs Edward and Meyer Sassoon.'

Sir Jacob later endowed a synagogue in Shanghai, which he dedicated in memory of his wife Lady Rachel Sassoon, and named Ohel Rachel. It opened in March 1920, and was consecrated by Rabbi W. Hirsch on January 23, 1921. Since Jacob died soon after the building’s completion, the classical-style was named dedicated in memory of husband and wife. The building still stands and serves as the Jewish Center of Shanghai. Ir was once one of seven synagogues in Shanghai. Today. Only one other survives. Ohel Moishe Synagogue located in Hong Kong district, hosts a museum dedicated to the history of the Jewish Experience in Shanghai.

I know of at least two other synagogues named after women. Rachel Simon in her 1992 book Change within Tradition among Jewish Women in Libya (University of Washington Press, p. 158) reports that the Tripoli (Libya) Dar Shweykah Synagogue was named after a women named Shmeykah of the Guetta family for Yelren who paid for it. To me this woman’s involvement recalls the ancient tradition in North Africa of awarding women synagogue honors – as recorded and analyzed by Bernadette Brooten in her Women Leaders in the Ancient Synagogue: Inscriptional Evidence and Background Issues. (Chico, CA : Scholars Press, c1982).

In America, the small classical style Temple Freda on 205 Parker Street in Bryan, Texas was certainly named after a woman named Freda, but there is disagreement over which one. The more accepted view and the one recorded in the National Register of Historic Places Nomination (added to the NR in1983 – building #83003128) is that Freda refers to Ethel Freda Kaczer (1860-1912), wife of the president of the synagogue when it was built, and who died during the period of its construction.

A competing account says that the name is for Freda Tapper, the mother of Max Tapper who was on the building committee. Curiously, the two camps could never agree just to settle the dispute by honoring both women. The last I heard the 1912 synagogue is used as a church, but it continues to deteriorate.

Lastly, there is the case of Curacao’s to Congregation Mikvé Israel-Emanuel (the Snoa), a building erected in 1732, the oldest surviving synagogue in the Americas. Inside the four great columns recall those in the Portuguese Synagogue in Amsterdam and have added significance, since tradition states that when the Snoa was built these were dedicated to the four Matriarchs. At the time of the building the honor of laying the foundation stones of the columns went to (for a price) Daniel Aboab Cardoze and his wife Ribcah; and to Abraham Aboab Cardoze and his wife Leah. During a 1974 restoration of the building, the names of the Matriarchs Sarah, Rivkah, Rachel and Leah were attached in raised Hebrew letters to the columns, symbolizing the indispensable contribution of our women to the Synagogue.