Stephen Henriques in a Kappa, headwear for Jewish males during
worship.- Anthea McGibbon photo
By Anthea McGibbon, religion feature co-ordinator
The following is a continuation of last week's feature on Jamaican Jews.
Port Royal until 1692, boasted the first synagogue established in Jamaica. After the 1692 earthquake, the Jews purchased land to build a new place of worship in Spanish Town. By the beginning of the 18th century the Neveh Shalom synagogue was built "patterned after the Bevis Marks synagogue"in London, England.
The Spanish Town community was expanded by the formation of the congregation Kahal Kadosh Mikveh Israel who built their own synagogue in 1796. By the turn of the 20th century Kingston had a total of three synagogues. In 1921 the congregations came together as the United Congregation of Israelites.
Today the only synagogue left is at the corner of Charles and Duke Streets. The Neveh Shalom Institute has been founded to protect the Jewish remains of colonial Jamaica. So far excavation work is being done to restore the site of the former Neveh Shalom Synagogue in Spanish Town founded in 1693 and the adjacent cemetery site.
Today the congregation still maintains the Duke Street synagogue, one of the few in the world with sand on its floor. It was designed and built in the traditional Sephardic style by Jamaican Jew, Rudolph Daniel Cohen Henriques, and his brothers. There are approximately 18 Jewish cemeteries islandwide. It is customary for Jews to bury their dead within two days after the person's passing. In Kingston the cemeteries are located on Orange Street, and Church and North streets.
According to Ainsley Henriques, past president of the United Congregation of Israel, the coffins are made from simple pine wood and remain unopened, and the bodies are not placed in shrouds. In reverence to the synagogue, the bodies never enter the synagogue and there are in fact prayer houses at the cemeteries.
Follow our four-part feature on THE IRONY OF HOLINESS -- A LOOK AT PALESTINE, CHRISTIANITY, JUDAISM & ISLAM in our published Religion Feature. Part one was carried today.
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