Consecration Service Used at the Jew’s Synagogue, Nidchi Israel, Bridge Town, Barbadoes, in the Year 5593

(AMERICAN JUDAICA).

Bridgetown, Barbados

1833

Hebrew and English on facing pages. Manuscript corrections and additional prayers tipped in on a few pages. Opening prayer with original poem wherein the initial letter of each line spells out the the name of the synagogue.

WorldCat records just a single copy (YU).

Jews were among the earliest European settlers on this Caribbean island located in the Lesser Antilles. Congregation Nidchei Israel was established in 1654 however the building was destroyed in “The Great Barbados Hurricane” of 1831. The present pamphlet celebrates the consecration of the newly erected synagogue structure two years later. The ceremony with just 95 Jews in attendance was also attended by the Speaker, members of the Assembly, the Attorney General, Baron of the Exchequer and other dignitaries. See W.S. Samuel, A Review of the Jewish Colonists in Barbados (1936); M. Arbell, The Jewish Nation of the Caribbean (2002) pp. 215-17.