STORIES OF JODENSAVANNE
Description of The Jodensavanne 1828
Today all that remains of Jodensavanne, the first permanent Jewish plantation settlement in the Americas, is a brick ruin of the formerly grand synagogue, the first of any architectural significance in the New World. Additionally there remain two overgrown...
Creole Jews: Negotiating Community in Colonial Suriname
“I was born in 1936. My mother came from an orthodox family; she was Portuguese. As a little boy, her father still lived at Jodensavanne. He visited the city [Paramaribo] only during the [Jewish] holidays. At home, we lived quite kosher and made our own salted beef...
Creole languages and their uses: the example of colonial Suriname
This article describes the sources for, and the origins and uses of, the creole languages in the Dutch colony of eighteenth-century Suriname – those created and spoken among slaves on the plantations, among the free black Maroons in the jungle villages and among the mixed...
The Jodensavanne in 1859
Lieutenant G.W.C. Voorduin (1830-1910) was stationed as a naval officer for six years in Suriname and the Netherlands Antilles. In Suriname he produced beautiful watercolors, including of Jodensavanne, Albina, and the Waterkant in Paramaribo. He also made some...
Swearing in of the civil divisions in 1770
This is part of the official journal of Governor Jan Nepveu, describing the swearing-in of the civilian divisions at Torarica, Jodensavanne, and Para. En passant one gets a good impression of the Savanne. From the description it is easy to conclude that the Jodensavanne division...
The Archive of The Dutch-Portuguese-Israelite Congregation in Suriname Until Around 1864
According to the information in the church archives, the foundation of the Portuguese Jewish congregation in Suriname probably took place in the year 5422 (1661/62). When the congregation was several years old, the Hebrew nation in Suriname acquired from the...
Pomtajer: exploring the potential of under-utilized specie in domestic cuisine and gastronomy
Dutch artist and culinary journalist Karin Vaneker researches and explores the potential of Pomtajer (Xanthosoma spp.) in domestic cuisine and gastronomy. This venture started in 2003, when someone asked (her) if the highly popular Surinamese oven dish Pom was of...
Rare and Newly Restored 18th-Century Synagogue from Suriname
To Be Highlight of Israel Museum’s New Synagogue Route
A newly restored 18th-century synagogue from Suriname – one of only two remaining examples – will be a highlight of the Israel Museum’s newly installed Mandel Wing for Jewish Art and Life, on view beginning July 26, 2010, when the Museum opens its expanded and...
Recife, Vicus Judeorum: The Space of Judaism in Dutch Recife
My project focuses on the spatial question of the Jewish community in Dutch Recife (1630-1654), its parallel with the building of urban space and its relevance for the social interaction of Jews with the other groups that divided that space. I am interested in comprehending...
Still Life: Sephardi, Ashkenazi, and West African Art and Form in Suriname’s Jewish Cemeteries
The present essay examines from a historical viewpoint the art of selected tombstones from Suriname’s oldest Jewish burial plots, which date from the late seventeenth through the early nineteenth centuries. Particular attention is given to influences resulting from the...
The Beth Haim Cemetery at Jodensavanne in 1946
On 1943-46, during the Second World War, a group of war internees carried out a cleanup and research programme at the Jodensavanne. They made a complete inventory of the Beth Haim cemetery, and produced an accurate map. They tried to decipher as many stones as...
What Remained of the Cemetery and the Synagouge of The Jews-Savannah in Suriname
About ten hours rowing from Paramaribo - more than fifty kilometers in a straight line - there was a village at the time, which was named after the Jews living there, the Joden-Savanna. This one Jews, from Portugal, had come to Suriname in different groups and...