Jews first settled in the Virgin Islands in 1655 when
it was ruled by Denmark. These were mainly traders in
sugarcane, rum and Molasses. One of the first Jews in the
Virgin Islands was Gabriel Milan,
whom King Christian of Denmak sent in 1664 to be governor, the
first of three Jews who have served as governors.
In
1685, the Jews and Catholics were granted freedom of religion
and about two centuries later, in 1850, the
Islands' Jewish population hit its peak, numbering 400
and making up half of the white community.
After the opening of the Panama
Canal in 1914, the number of Jews declined rapidly and by 1942 only 50
Jews remained. Since then the community has rebounded and is roughly
the size it was at its peak. A number of
famous Jews have been born in the Virgin Islands including French impressionist painter Camille Pissarro and David Levy Yulee, Florida's first senator.
In 1796, the Jews of St. Thomas founded a synagogue
that is now considered the oldest continuous-use synagogue under the
American flag (the Virgin Islands are an American territory).
In
1801, only nine Jewish families belonged to the congregation but,
by 1803, this number had increased to 22,
with arrivals from England, France, and the Caribbean islands of St. Eustatius and Curacao.
In 1804 the small Synagogue was
destroyed by fire but was quickly replaced a few years later in 1812.
Soon,
the congregation grew so large that
by 1823 it was dismantled and a larger building erected in the same
location on Synagogue Hill. It was named
the Congregation of "Blessing and
Peace and Loving Deeds." The Congregation numbered 64 families
when a city-wide fire destroyed the Synagogue
in 1831.
The present-day Synagogue building was built in 1833
with the help from worldwide Jewry
and the entire island community. Sabbath religious
services have been held there every week since 1833 with
only one exception: September 15,
1995, when Hurricane Marilyn devastated the island.
The Synagogue was built in the traditional Sephardic style since its original congregants migrated as a result of the Spanish Inquisition.
In Sephardic architecture, the seating permits congregants
to face one another instead of theater-style as
in Ashkenazic
and most stateside synagogues. Also in keeping with Sephardic
architecture, the bimah, where the Rabbi or reader stands, is opposite the arc in which our six Torahs are housed.
Everything
in the historic St. Thomas Synagogue building
is original, dating back to 1833. The benches, the Ark and the
bima are all made from mahogany wood
that used to flourish on the islands.
The Menorah behind the bima is of Spanish origin and dates back to the
11th century. The chandeliers are
from Europe, probably Holland. The
central fixture with nymphs looks French in design and each lamp is
made of Baccarat crystal. The peripheral
chandeliers have since been
electrified but the central ones are still lit by candles on important
holidays. Originally all the
chandeliers used to be lit with oil.
The walls are
specially designed to be fireproof (because the building was
built of bricks and stone rather than wood) and
hurricane-proof, as are the windows.
They allow for a free passage of air while blunting
some of the force of the wind. The stones are locally
quarried but the bricks came from
Europe. The huge sailing ships that arrived from Europe
had relatively little to sell here and so filled
their hulls with the bricks to be
used as ballast. Once the ships arrived in St. Thomas,
the bricks were unloaded and used for local building
needs while the ships took the
locally produced rum and sugar back to Europe. The cement
that holds the bricks together is a mortar made
from sand, limestone and molasses. It
is said that in the earlier years, children used to
lick the walls of the synagogue to taste the sweet
molasses. (However, that sounds like
legend because the walls originally were covered with
plaster.)
The four pillars that support the building symbolize the four matriarchs in Judaism - Sarah, Rachel, Rebecca and Leah.
These pillars, like those at the
entrance to the building, were handmade in Denmark especially
for the synagogue from rounded bricks.
Another
unusual feature of the synagogue is its sand
floor. Legend tells us that it is symbolic of the desert
through which Moses and the children
of Israel wandered for 40 years. The more likely
explanation has to do with the fact that this was originally
a Sephardic Orthodox (they were what
they were - there was no name for distinction)
community. During the Spanish Inquisition, when Catholic
Spain persecuted all other religions
and forcibly converted the Jews to Catholicism,
Jews who opted to practice Judaism - an offense punishable by
death - had to do so in secrecy.
They met in cellars of their homes and used
sand to muffle the sounds of their prayer.
With
time, years of rain and moisture
penetration into the walls, coupled
with low maintenance of the building, caused some of the plaster to
peel off, only to show underneath a
beautiful stone wall. In 1973 the
congregation arranged to strip the remains of the damaged white plaster
and bring to the fore the brick and
stone walls of the synagogue. More
than 25 years later, it was discovered that the plaster on the walls
was not only considered the epitome of
beauty in 1833 but also served an
important function. It acted as a skin on a body, allowing the walls
to breathe and dry the absorbed moisture
without losing any of the wall.
Today, the synagogue is affiliated with the Reform
movement. The low wooden walls in the Synagogue served as a m'chitzah
to separate the women from the men
during the early years when the Congregation
was Orthodox.
Since the Synagogue is the only one
on the island, it serves the religious needs of a diverse
Jewish population. The first Confirmation ceremony
in the Western Hemisphere took place
at the synagogue on October 14, 1843.
In
the year of the Bicentennial,
1995-96, a small museum was added to the
synagogue, named after the late Johnny Weibel, a member of the
congregation. The museum demonstrates
the history of the congregation and the synagogue
and displays some of the artifacts of the Jewish history
on the island.
The
Altona Cemetery is one of two historic cemeteries
owned and maintained by the Hebrew Congregation of St.
Thomas.
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