Barbadian Jews-2 of 2 Historic District

Cemetery:
The interesting 17th cemetery included over 400 tombstones (many additional Jews were also buried here without stones), many of the original Sephardic stones in Portuguese and Hebrew and later (18th century) in English with interesting descriptions of professions, flowers, Bible scenes. Ashkenazi stones were more modern symbols of Jewish Stars and Menorahs.. In the late 18th century, with the Enlightenment and subsequent Romanticism influences, epitaphs often had love poems.

Museum:
The Nidhe Israel Museum tells the story of the Jewish community that settled in Barbados from the colony's earliest days. Although the community was not large, it profoundly influenced the island's destiny.

Colonial authorities did acknowledge these contributions-sometimes in mitigated fashion, and sometimes quite sincerely. In 1831, for example, Barbadian Jews were granted equality before the law (even before England).

Mikvah:
The Mikvah was discovered by an archaeological team from the University of West Indies, who were initially tasked to remove pavement of the parking lot and to excavate what was first believed to be the foundation of the Rabbi's house. Instead they uncovered the Mikvah structure, which is now believed to be the oldest one in the Americas (1650) as the cleansing ritual was deemed very important to the new Sephardic group.

During the dig, the original marble staircase was exposed, which led down to a pool of natural fresh spring water, which is fed by an active underground spring. The bath has a granite tile floor with coral stonewalls and is still used (last time was last year for a conversion).Read more