Hartley Neita
IN 1978, executives of the Jamaica Tourist Board and the Jamaica Attractions Development Company (JADCO), a subsidiary of the Board, noticed that there was a constant stream of tourists at a disused Jewish cemetery next door to the Board's offices at Cornwall Beach in Montego Bay. They were more when cruise ships called at the port.
They had cameras with which they took photographs of the tombstones, and notebooks in which they recorded the names of the Jews who were buried at the site. We discovered they were Jews and that everywhere they went they sought out Jewish cemeteries to see if they had any connection with those who were long gone.
Now, the cemetery was overgrown and full of trash, paper and other waste, and what grass there was grew in untidy knots. JADCO's General Manager, Barry Solomon (now a Councillor in the St. James P.C.) undertook to clean up the cemetery and maintain it. Of course, this was at a cost, and discussions were held as to how it could become a revenue-earning centre.
Out of these discussions came the idea of creating what was named a Meditation Park. Well-known architect, Marvin Goodman was contacted. He flew to Montego Bay at his own expense, spent a morning walking the cemetery and making notes. A few weeks later he sent an architectural design, which captured the ideas of the tourism executives, married with his.
The design called for several shops at the entrance to the cemetery. One shop was to be a photographer's studio and darkroom where visitors could obtain quick prints of their photos. Other shops would carry mementos of the various denominations, and Jewish community in Montego Bay - hymn books, cassettes and vinyl recordings of hymns and songs, hymn books, bibles, Jewish candelabras and other items of a religious nature. Provision was also made for a canteen.
Behind the shops there was a covered marble verandah extending about twenty feet into the park. This was to provide space for weddings and for the choirs of the Montego Bay churches to perform on Sunday afternoons, instead of at the small amphitheatre on Howard Cooke Drive where they had been presenting Sunday matinee performances for some time.
The tombstones, some of which were broken in pieces, and were full of mould, would be removed and placed around the edge of the park. And under the trees, Marvin placed concrete benches for visitors to sit on in the shade of the guango trees which covered the site like a canopy.
Meanwhile it was discovered that the Parish Council owned the cemetery. A meeting was therefore held with the then Mayor of the Parish Council, Cecil Donaldson, Sr. Would he support a request from the Jamaica Attractions Development Company to lease the site for 99 years for a dollar a year? The response was an enthusiastic yes.
Contact was then made with the late Ernest DeSouza who was the Spiritual Leader of the Jewish community in Jamaica. He was asked to visit the Board on his next visit to Montego Bay. He was shown the design. Would he "de-Jew" it? Agree to it becoming an ecumenical site? His answer too was yes.
The major question, of course, was how to finance it. Friend, hotelier and businessman, Tony Hart, agreed to finance it "in memory of his father".
But guess what? The 1980 elections were held. The Government changed. The Tourism Development Company, which had come on board, and the Jamaica Attractions Deve-lopment Company, were dis-solved. The new executive of the Jamaica Tourist Board dismissed the project, which earned my questioned accusation. Are you heathens?
Well, two days ago, I was with Marvin Goodman at a meeting. It was over 20 years we had not seen each other. Yet the memory of the project came to our minds immediately.
"Let's revive it," he suggested.
The design would need to be up-dated. Environmental studies would have to be done. The new Mayor, son of the former, would have to be consulted. Barry Solomon will give it his Councillor's support. Tony Hart and his friends and colleagues would also have to be contacted, as well as the churches and the Jewish community in Montego Bay.
It's a project for the Tourism Product Development Company. Over to you Professor Verene Shepherd of Jamaica Heritage and Ms Audrey Marks of the Tourism Product agency.
