Seder Shevach VeHoda’ah - Form of Prayer & Service to be Used in the Synagogue at Barbadoes on the Day of the Anniversary of the Great Calamity, 2nd Elul, 5591. By David Meldola, Presiding Rabbi of the Spanish and Portuguese Nation.

On August 11th (2nd Elul), 1831, a category four storm slammed into Barbados, leveling the capital of Bridgetown and killing some 1,500 persons. The Nidhei Israel Synagogue was entirely destroyed. On the first anniversary of the intense “Great Barbados Hurricane,” this highly scarce pamphlet represents the Prayers of Commemoration recited by the surviving Jews of Barbados. Jews were among the very earliest European settlers of Barbados. Congregation Nidhei Israel was established on the island in 1654. See M. Arbell, The Jewish Nation of the Caribbean (2002) pp. 192, 215-17 and W. S. Samuel, A Review of the Jewish Colonists in Barbados (1936).