Jodensavanne, the Beracha Ve Shalom synagogue

For more than a century, the Beracha Ve Shalom synagogue was the centre of Jewish life in Suriname. Built 1685 in a Dutch Vernacular style, it was a high and imposing building, elaborately decorated in the interior.

The synagogue was almost certain built by a Dutch Master-carpenter, whose name is no longer known. But he must have been the best-known Master in the colony, as the Jewish community wanted their synagogue to be the most beautiful building of all. Maybe he was one of the craftsmen who arrived with Governor van Sommelsdijck in 1682. Or maybe he was specially hired by the Amsterdam sephardic community to go to Suriname.......

It is a pity that so little is known about the early heighdays of the Jodensavanne. No paintings have remained of those days, and no description was made until 1772, and that was only a casual description of a journey to the Savanna by Governor Nepveu. There is a gap of a 100 years in our knowledge of the Savanna.

But at last, in 1791, a reasonable description was made of the Savanna :

"The village where one can find houses laid out on a regular grid, measures 450 ft to 300 ft, and is divided by four roads. The houses on the corners of the squares are large and comfortable, though of mediocre architecture, still reflecting the soberness of our ancestors. However, some are quite beautiful. The houses, with a rear view on the two valleys and the river, and each with a small vegetable garden on the hillside, provide a pleasant view to the eye, when approaching the village from the river. In the centre of this square one can find the Synagogue, built of brick in the year 1685; It has a length of 90 feet, a width of 40 and a height of 33 feet, and has four large wooden pillars supporting the elaborately decorated wooden vault covering the building. At one side one can find an upper floor with the women's seating, and on the opposite side, in the men's department, one can find a large cabinet made of cedar wood, containing the scrolls of Law. It is a very beautiful and elaborately carved piece, crafted by an unknown master in the early years of the colony. Further, the Church contains costly tapestries, and candelabras of sorts, that must have cost a small fortune to those who have donated them........."
(from: De "geschiedenis der kolonie van Suriname, samengesteld door een gezelschap van geleerde Joodse mannen aldaar" 1791; translation Philip Dikland, 2000)

In 1860, the Dutch naval officer and painter G. W. M. Voorduin visited the Jodensavanne. He made two pictures, and a short description:

"..........Its former splendour is still reflected in the expensive Church Jewellery, mostly gifts from well-to-do congregation members...... The Synagogue is a large and sturdy stone building, with a vaulted roof supported by columns, and a spacious women's gallery. Its elegantly carved seatings and prayer platform reflect its former greatness. The pattern of the former village, supposedly consisting of 4 intersecting roads, cannot be recognized in the few scattered cottages........."
(G. W. M. Voorduin, Gezigten uit Nederlands West-Indie, 1860 ; translation P. Dikland, 2000)

The 1873 geographer G.P.H Zimmermann found the unused synagogue still in fairly good condition:

".....From a distance, the Church seems a stone jungle, a mighty tomb. Inside, Time has frozen since the last Rabbi spoke his final blessing ; a decayed red velvet cloth still covers the Speakers' table ; Ancient Copper Candelabra placed against the unstable walls ; the cells are empty, and empty is the old courtroom ; cold and sombre and gloomy the corridors, where only one's own footsteps awake the slumbering echoes ; and it is with a feeling of relief that thou leaveth this decayed sanctuary......."
(G.P.H. Zimmerman, 1873 ; translation P. Dikland, 2000)

So, Voorduin in 1860 and Zimmermann in 1873 visited the Synagogue still complete and almost ready for use. But this had changed completely at the beginning of the twentieth century. The 1906 researcher Pincus Hilfman found only a ruin. It cannot be assumed that nature was responsible for this rapid destruction. Probably a large part of the building has been demolished and the building materials re-used. Even during the 2nd world war synagogue bricks were removed for various purposes.

This free-for-all situation was stopped in 1972, when the unique historic value of the Jodensavanne site was finally recognized and protected by law. Since then, the site has not deteriorated.