Form of Prayer for the General Fast to be Said in Synagogue on Tuesday the 2nd day of Elul, in Commemoration of the Dreadful Hurricane of the 11th August 1831

(AMERICAN JUDAICA).

(Barbados)

1832

Single leaf, handwritten recto and verso. English interspersed with Hebrew in square characters

Known as "The Great Barbados Hurricane," the Category Four storm of August 11th, 1831, was an intense hurricane that slammed into Barbados, levelling the capital of Bridgetown and killing some 1,500. The Nidhei Israel Synagogue was destroyed, together with the historical records of the Jewish community. On the first anniversary of the Hurricane, this manuscript represents the Prayers of Commemoration recited by the Jews of Barbados. Appropriately enough, the readings include the story of the aftermath of the Flood in the Book of Genesis. See M. Arbell, The Jewish Nation of the Caribbean (2002), pp. 192, 215.