Zecher Rav

THE FIRST BOOK IN HEBREW RELATING TO JEWS IN THE AMERICAS A publication celebrating the centenary of the historic Congregation Berahah VeShalom in Surinam, Dutch West Indies. This Sephardic Synagogue was situated some ten miles from Paramaribo in a settlement up the river known as the “Savannah of the Jews” (Joden Savanne). The Jews possessed high status and enjoyed a remarkable degree of autonomy. The Sephardic Community of Surinam felt itself closely bound to both Amsterdam (the mother of the earliest synagogues in the Americas) and New York’s Shearith Israel. This was due to both tradition and family ties, as well as the bonds of commerce. Indeed, the New York Congregation annually invoked blessings upon the smaller Central American community during the solemn service ushering in the Day of Atonement, in gratitude for Surinam-Jewish support in building their Mill Street Synagogue in 1730 In 1832 the synagogue at Joden Savanne was destroyed by fire, soon after civil revolt against the slave-trade, as well as the inroads of the climate, led to the abandonment of the Jewish colony of which nothing but the ruin now remains. See See D. and T. de Sola Pool, An Old Faith in the New World (1955) p. 117; C. Roth, A History of the marranos (1932) pp.291-2