By Lauren S. Stahl October 9, 1998
Suriname's history of colonization, sugar plantations and slavery compares with that of the Caribbean. In 1667 Suriname became a Dutch colony when, at the Treaty of Breda, it was traded to the English for Manhattan. The Dutch allowed the Jews religious freedom in their semi-autonomous colony within the larger colony of Suriname. By 1684, Jews numbered 163 and enslaved approximately 1,000 Africans. Jodensavanne was once the largest Jewish agrarian settlement in the New World. By the mid-1700s the price of sugar decreased and by 1830 Jodensavanne was abandoned. The Jews moved to the capital, Paramaribo and to other Caribbean islands. There are still two functioning synagogues in Paramaribo.
This was CVE's second time performing documentation at Jodensavanne. In May of 1997, CVE joined Rachel Frankel, Architect, in documenting the brick remains of the synagogue Berache ve Shalom. This August of 1998, the expedition documented Casipora Cemetery, one of the two Sephardic Jewish cemeteries in Jodensavanne, and the so-called Slave/Creole Cemetery of Jodensavanne.
In addition to CVE, STINASU (Foundation for Nature Conservation in Suriname, a semi-governmental agency) provided support for the expedition. STINASU arranged logistics, jungle clearing, transportation and accommodations for the team. The team included CVE volunteers and others, including Surinamers, U.S. citizens, Jews, Christians, and African Americans. All learned from each other and were highly motivated in the hard work at hand. SJS (Foundation for Jodensavanne, a recently revived organization) plans to conserve and maintain Jodensavanne's synagogue and cemeteries as a historic site.
Due to the irregularity of flights to and from Suriname, it took an average of 20 hours to get to Paramaribo. The CVE group stayed at the Eco Resort, a clean and reasonable American-style hotel, in the center of the tourist district in Paramaribo. The upscale resort-like, Hotel Torarica, nearby, as well as other small hotels and restaurants in the vicinity, provided swimming, exercise equipment and meals. Paramaribo, Suriname's capital city, sits on the banks of the Suriname River. Some of the city's streets are lined with old Mahogany trees and there are many Dutch colonial-style historic wooden buildings. The city's population is diverse. It includes Indonesians, Indians, Chinese, Koreans, Caribbeans, Creole, and more. The cuisine of the Suriname is as varied as its population, plenty of which the group got to sample.
On the second day of CVE's stay in Suriname, we traveled about 50 miles upriver from Paramaribo to Jodensavanne by riverboat; historically the way one traveled to Jodensavanne when it was an active community (Figure 1). The four-hour boat ride provided a tour of the lush jungle and occasional plantation remains residing on the riverbanks. Three quarters the way up river, we stopped on a sand bar for river swimming.
Although our guides from STINASU spoke English with us, there were also conversations in Dutch (the official language of Suriname) and the local Creole dialect. Hebrew and Portuguese languages also had a strong presence, as they were transcribed and translated from the epitaphs of the tombstones of Casipora Cemetery.
The expedition team completed a great deal of work in the eight days it spent at Jodensavanne. At Casipora Cemetery 214 gravestones were found, photo-surveyed, dimensioned, inventoried and located to scale. The team's Jewish scholar, Dr. Aviva Ben-Ur, transcribed and translated the epitaphs. With the exception of two prism-shaped grvestones, all were horizontally laid slabs of various types of limestone and marble, measuring approximately 2.5' x 6'x 6"
Findings of the work of the expedition team indicate that the cemetery may have existed prior to the 1667 exchanged of Suriname from the English to the Dutch and that the cemetery was active for over two hundred years. Many of the deceased were rabbis, their wives, and hazans. Epitaphs indicate that women held leadership roles, including that of plantation master and hazan (who most probably led the women in prayer). One epitaph describes an individual plantation owner as "virtuous and honorable" and states that he died subsequent to beating his "rebellious Black slaves." Imagery expressive of identity of the deceased includes mohel, mother, Levite, Cohen, youth and Spanish noble Imagery expressive of the ideologies of the community includes messianic hope. Tombs with Hebrew and Portuguese (or Spanish) languages epitaphs are not translations of each other. Rachel Frankel and Aviva Ben-Ur hope to publish the findings and documentation as a complete archive. Prior this expedition, two inventories have been attempted by others, but none has been published.
While in the jungle location of Jodensavanne, we stayed in the house of Mr. Stuger in the settlement of Redi Doti. Redi Doti is about two miles from Casipora Cemetery. Mr. Stuger also led the clearing of the cemetery and the road leading to it. Each morning some of us walked to the site of Casipora Cemetery in order to watch the rainforest at daybreak; its birds, lizards, biting ants and, one can not forget, mosquitoes. A note about the food in the jungle, it was rustic and not for the faint of stomach.
Jodensavanne's second Jewish cemetery is located a few miles north of Casipora Cemetery. It was established subsequent and adjacent to the community's second synagogue built in 1685. The community's first synagogue is believed to have existed within close proximity of Casipora Cemetery. Despite the establishment of the second cemetery, some families and individuals continued to use Casipora Cemetery. Near the second Jewish cemetery is the so-called Slave or Creole Cemetery. The expedition team concluded, in fact, that this cemetery is most likely one of the earliest Freeman's cemeteries in the Americas.
The strenuous work, intense heat, and rustic living proved somewhat of a survival test but nonetheless provided the opportunity for me to travel to the rainforest and document an unusual and rich historic Jewish site. As a Jew and architectural conservator, Jodensavanne was particularly fascinating in what it showed me of its uniqueness and similarities to Jewish sites in other lands.