Stories from Jewish Barbados, the Pearl of the Caribbean

Join this tour of Jewish Barbados. Visit the restored Nidhe Israel synagogue (1654), its adjacent cemeteries, and the recently discovered Mikveh. Learn how a group of Sephardic Jews, fleeing the Portuguese Inquisition in Brazil, made their way to Barbados and secured the protection of Oliver Cromwell, the English Protestant leader. This early Sephardic community later grew with new arrivals from England and was key in developing the British sugar industry. After its decline and mass emigration of Jews from the island, a subsequent wave of Ashkenazi refugees formed the core of today’s tiny 50-person community, giving Neal the distinction of being 2% of the entire Jewish population of Barbados.