One of the Western Hemisphere's oldest synagogues is an unprepossessing building of buff-colored coral stone and mortar tucked away on a side street in Barbados's capital, Bridgetown, and surrounded by the centuries-old graves of the island's Jewish settlers.
The first synagogue on the site was built about 1651 by Jews from Recife, Brazil, fleeing Portuguese lands to English territories during the Inquisition. The original building was destroyed in a hurricane in 1831, and rebuilt two years later. (Curacao's synagogue, built in the 1660's, is the oldest continually operating synagogue in the hemisphere.) The Bridgetown synagogue, deconsecrated early in the century, was seized by the Barbados Government about five years ago and scheduled for demolition. But through the tenacity of the island's tiny Jewish community, it is now a Barbados National Trust property and is undergoing a $1 million restoration. The building, a short walk from the main shopping district, is to be rededicated as a synagogue when the restoration is finished by next winter. It will remain a National Trust property.
Today, the building's exterior, with its balustraded roofline, lancet-shaped windows and thick walls with rounded corners, appears much as it did in the 1830's, the prosperous days of Barbados's Jewish community, which led the island's sugar industry.
Walking down the narrow streets in the district, a visitor finds it easy to imagine the life of the community, which in those days numbered about 800. Many of them lived a block from the temple, on what was then known as Jew Street. Today it is Swan Street and has stores selling clothing, jewelry and dry goods, while carts at curbside spill over with pineapples, bananas, mangoes and melons. But looking up to the second floor, one can still see the reconstructed balconies, where in the cool breezes of the evening a century and a half ago the men might have sat and conversed building to building.
The history of the synagogue is in many ways the history of this community. The Recife refugees stopped on Barbados en route to Holland and other safe havens in the British Empire that Oliver Cromwell had recently opened. The English settlement on Barbados was established in 1627; the first Jewish settlers arrived a year later. They prospered in the sugar industry and built their temple, Kahal Kadosh Nidhe Israel, in the early 1650's. Public worship for Jews in Barbados came in 1654, three years before England allowed it.
After the storm and rebuilding, an item in The Barbados Globe of April 1, 1833, fairly glowed with praise about the new structure: ''It is 37 feet high and receives considerable strength from the rounding of the angles, which are capped with large antique centers uniting a balustraded parapet all round, the roof being so little elevated as not to be perceived . . . . the whole of the exterior is lightly tinged of stone color and scored out in blocks. The appearance altogether is classical and chaste.''
Over the next century, the sugar industry dwindled and many of the Jews either left or converted to Anglicanism. By the mid-1920's, only one observant Jew was left, Edmund Baeza. In 1929, he negotiated the deconsecration and sale of the temple to Henry Graham Yearwood, a Bridgetown lawyer. A temple of Sephardic roots in London, the Bevis Marks Synagogue, acted as trustee and supervised the deconsecration and sale of the temple and contents. Bevis Marks became custodian of the Torah and silver breastplate, pointer, cup and candle sticks.
Over the next 60 years, successive owners modified this classical and chaste building. The lancet arches above the windows were removed, and the windows became louvered squares. The balustrade and original roof were covered. A full second floor was added, replacing the women's gallery that projected from three sides of the interior and overlooked the altar. A lowered ceiling and new floor were put in. The building was used alternately as a warehouse, the headquarters of a horse racing club, a law library and the offices of a wholesale trading company. The cemetery outside, containing graves dating to the 1660's. received harsher treatment. For years it was used as a dump site. Rubble and trash covered the stone graves. Soon after the sale of the temple, another migration of Jews to the island began, this time from Europe. The first to arrive was a Pole from Lublin named Moses Altman. (His grandson, Paul Altman, a real-estate agent on the island, has been the prime force behind the restoration, which is being supported by the American Jewish Congress, the Commonwealth Jewish Trust, the Canadian Jewish Congress and private donations.) The property fell increasingly into disrepair. Finally, in 1983, the Barbados Government seized it, intending to raze the building and erect a courthouse. The site is across the street from the current one. The island's Jewish community, which numbers about 60, and other interested Barbadians petitioned the Cabinet to turn the building over to the National Trust. It did so in 1985 and renovation work, led by Paul Altman, began two years ago.
All the additions of the last 60 years were removed, and the building was stripped down to its two-foot-thick walls made of coral stone rubble and mortar - a virtually hurricane-proof bulk. That the original roof timbers remain intact is no surprise; they are five times thicker than modern building specifications would require - again, hurricane-proofing by a community that had lost its place of worship. The windows are now framed by double sets of peach-colored shutters, louvered inside and solid outside. The copper hood over the main entrance has been replaced, and the original roof and its detailed balustrade have been uncovered. The double steps to the women's entrance have been rebuilt and the doorway restored.
The main task now is to restore the interior to its appearance when the temple opened in 1833. Thus the interior will remain traditional. The bimah, or reader's desk, will be widely separated from from the ark in the center of the synagogue. Benches downstairs and in the gallery will form horseshoes facing the interior rather than the ark. When the synagogue is reopened, however, men and women will not be segregated for services. Inside, the gallery with its honeycomb latticework has been replaced. Eight chandeliers copied from the originals, which wound up in the Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum in Delaware, are being installed along with a dozen wall sconces. A circular stained-glass altar window, with a Star of David at its center, has been installed. Faux marble columns divide the space on the main floor, made of alternating squares of black and white Italian marble.
The restoration project is negotiating with the London synagogue for the return of the silver and the torah. Other property was held in the Barbados Museum, including a mahogany bench, a marble laver, the Hanukkah lamp and an antique clock. These are returning to the temple. New benches, with seating for 300, are being copied from the original in island mahogany.
The temple's main gates, which had been at a private home, are back in place in the stone wall surrounding the property. The cemetery, with 400 graves, has been cleaned and the stones repaired. Some are inscribed in Hebrew, English and Ladino, a blend of Spanish and Hebrew spoken in the Sephardic community.
These stones tell many stories. One says, ''Underneath this tomb lies the earthly remains of Benjamin Massia . . . . He had been reader of the Jews Synagogue for many years without fee or reward and performed the office of Circumciser with great applause and dexterity.''
Today a new community of winter visitors leaves pebbles as calling cards on the edges of these tombtones, which are testament to a small Barbadian community that has kept its history alive. RECLAIMING THE PAST The Synagogue The Bridgetown Synagogue will be open this winter Monday through Friday from 9 A.M. to noon.
It is an easy walk from the downtown shopping district. From Broad Street, turn north onto Coleridge Street and walk past Swan to James Street. Turn left on Synagogue Lane to the main entrance. There are graves to the left and right of the path. From other parts of the island, one can take a taxi and ask the driver to stop at the Central Police Station on Coleridge Street, which faces the women's entrance to the synagogue. Barbados also has a reliable bus service with a terminus in Bridgetown. From the bus station on Fairchild Street, walk over either bridge across the Inner Basin to Trafalger Square. Walk north on High Street and turn left onto James Street. Take the next right, on Synagogue Lane.
More information: Synagogue Restoration Project, Post Office Box 256, Bridgetown, Barbados; telephone 809-432-0840. Other Sites The Barbados National Trust has several other interesting properties, including a sugar windmill with its machinery intact, a couple of signal stations with dramatic views, and the trust's headquarters building dating from the 1890's, originally the winter home of Marshall Field.
The trust also holds plantation-house tours on Wednesday afternoons from January to April; admission is about $5. More information: Barbados National Trust, Pine Road and Tenth Avenue, Belleville, Barbados; 809-426-2421.
The Barbados Museum and Historical Society, in the old military prisons of the British garrison in Bridgetown, traces the history of Barbados from the days before settlement and examines the island's natural world. The museum (809-427-0201) is open Monday through Saturday from 9 A.M. to 6 P.M. Admission is $4. Reading A detailed study of the cemetery and the Jewish community was made in the 1950's by a businessman and sometime historian, E. M. Shilstone. His book, ''Monumental Inscriptions in the Jewish Cemetery in Bridgetown, With Historical Notes From 1630,'' was reissued this year by Macmillan Caribbean (Roberts Stationery Barbados). It was originally published in 1956.
More information on the Jewish settlement of Barbados is available from the Barbados Board of Tourism, 800 Second Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10017; in New York, 212-986-6516; in California, 213-380-2198; elsewhere, 800-221-9831.
Photos of Bridgetown Synagogue in Barbados (Nancy Sharkey); map of Bridgetown, Barbados, indicating synagogue (NYT)