Cemetery Restoration and Preservation
One Shinning Example
Those getting involved in the attempt to clean up and maintain their own local cemetery in Barbados - take heart. The Jewish Cemetery in Bridgetown (near Swan street) has been going through an extraordinay transformation – especially considering the extent of damage and disrepair the teams working there had to content with.
The Jewish cemetery on Barbados is believed to be the oldest Jewish graveyard in the Western Hemisphere with citations dating back to the 1660’s. The Spanish and Portuguese Jewish community of Bridgetown formed back in 1654 and established a synagogue and cemetery there. Graves of several famous people are there, including Samuel Hart, son of the American Moses Hart, and Mosseh Haym Nahamyas (Moses Nehemiah), who died on Barbados in 1672.
In 1934, a developer partly destroyed the cemetery site so later Eustace Maxwell Shilstone, arranged to have the cemetery put in perpetual trust in the deeds of the islands. He also copied 374 epitaphs that were later translated and published by the Jewish Historical Society of England. This was about the time the last formal burials took place.
Between 1999 and 2003 Evan Philip Millner, an English Jewish studies scholar and a qualified architectural stonecarver specializing in historical replacement carving, had volunteered to oversee operations to restore the cemetery. This was a massive project, and entialed reconstructing the graveyard, and repositioning the tombstones as originally recorded by Eustace Shilstone in the 1930’s after which the cemetery was converted into a carpark when stones were removed, scattered and felled trees smashing many more stones.
The restoration was urgent and demanding and beautification for public enjoyment will be many years in the furture. Putting the pieces back together was a first major task in restoring its appearance to that of the mid 1700s, with the intrusion on the newer Ashkenazi tombs, which are now interspersed amound the older graves.
The area around the synagogue was originally divided up into four separate walled cemeteries, with an additional cemetery in Whites Alley, on the block bounded by James and Swan Street.
Best assumption for position of the burials (since Carrera records missing)
Because the burial register had to be reconstructed from headstones back in 1831 (due to the hurricane) anyone buried without a gravestone before 1831, remains unknown and some 200 burials after this date also can not be identified. Remember that the stone (usually Marble, Portland, Purbeck, Slate or York) for these early graves had to all be imported and this would be an expense time delayed prospect many could not afford.
Pictures illustrating the extent of the decay and damage… (Jan 2000)
Removal of two centuries (20 inches) of leaf sediment deposit and even rubbish dumped by the local residential population has to be undertaken to find the original ground level – remember by 1860 only eight jewish congregation (kaal) members were left on Barbados and being elderly had little time to maintain their cemetery.
Photos of Synogogue & cemetery illustrating the progress (now 1999)
Headstones would need repositioning, gentle cleaning and demand sentitive restoration (special treatments and use of replacement materials). In worst case scenarios some stones would have cast copies made and the original reburied (to preserve them from wind-borne chloride salts). Recutting lettering would only be done by qualified stonecarvers and in rearest of cases; concrete damage on lettering can only be removed by a competent letter-cutter trained in historical carving.
Worker and some small progress (Sep 2000)
Of the many family names that can be found on stones in the cemetery you will see those of:- David Raphael de Mercado and Sarah & Moses de David de Yshac de Mercardo, David de Mercardo, Dyas Sarah Lopes de Acosta, Sarah Mulher, Hizkiyah de Acosta, Rachel Sarah Senior, Ishak Henryques, Abraham Gomes Henriques (Jamaica and Barbados, and were Cohanim), Aron Gabay, Moze Rodryges Soares, Ester Castana, Lea Rachel _____, Yshack Rafael Pacheco, Rabbi Amnuel Isaac Burgos*, Deborah Burgos, Ishak Mendez Gutteres, Mosheh son of Isaak Naftali Ashkenazi & Abraham son of Isaak Naftali Ashkenazi and Ribcah da Silva to name but a few. [*Rabbi Amnuel Isaac Burgos for example has his wife listed as head of household in the in Speightstown in the 1690 census].
Photos of the cemetery of K.K.N.I, Barbados (August 2003)
The synagogue itself was was the first built in the western hemisphere it was destroyed in the 1831 hurricane, rebuilt, but later left derelict and only in 1987 was restored to a place of worship.
As recently as 2006 Claudia had visited Barbados and attempted to visit the Jewish Cemetery, she wasn’t able to freely walk the ground (like a park) and so she wrote:
I saw the wall and gate belonging to an old jewish cemetery on Barbados. I think the cemetery isn’t used anymore because the gates were closed and the surroundings was very scruffy.“
