I am lying on a sunbed in the courtyard of a delightful pink-and-white hotel sipping a delicious cocktail and watching the sun go down over the west coast of Barbados. I could easily relax here for months amid the pristine white-sand beaches and clear blue waters of this easternmost Caribbean island. But there are places to explore and stories to be told. And one of the most compelling is that of the Jews of Barbados, who over the centuries met with impressive economic success despite occasional anti-Jewish sentiment.

Indeed, this laid-back island has a singular Jewish history that stretches back to the 17th century. It’s a legacy that Britain’s King Charles, then still the Prince of Wales, highlighted in 2019 when he toured Barbados and visited Nidhe Israel Synagogue, a moment now memorialized by a plaque hanging in the historic house of worship.

In 1628, a group of 300 Dutch Sephardi Jews left Recife, Brazil, then under Dutch rule, and settled in Barbados, which had been claimed by the English only three years earlier. This was the first wave of Jewish settlement on the island.

Almost 30 years later, a second group of Jews left Brazil. This time, they went first to Amsterdam and then to London, seeking official clearance to immigrate to Barbados from Britain’s lord protector, Oliver Cromwell. In 1654, he granted the petitioning Jews a letter of safe passage.

The man bearing that precious letter on the sea journey was Dr. Abraham de Mercado. His son, David Rafael de Mercado, who traveled with him, brought pioneering sugar-milling technology first developed in Recife that would revolutionize the Barbados sugar industry.

Neal Rechtman, a native New Yorker who now lives on the island and offers tours of local Jewish sights, explained the importance of de Mercado’s machine to me. “David Rafael de Mercado invented a new device to be put inside a Dutch windmill,” he said, “a mechanism that turned the windmill itself into a sugar factory.” Sugar cane already was grown on Barbados, but crushing it was a laborious process—until, Rechtman said, the Jews arrived.

One might assume, given the Jewish contribution to the sugar trade, that Jews would have become powerful plantation owners, too. But a 1688 law prohibited Jews from owning more than three acres of land—and, crucially, from having more than three slaves.

No sooner had the Jews arrived in Barbados than they built two synagogues: a small one in Speightstown, in the northern part of the island, which no longer exists, and Nidhe Israel, opened in 1654 along with a cemetery and mikveh. At the time of its construction, Nidhe Israel was the first synagogue building in the Western hemisphere. Following extensive restoration over the last few decades, it now stands at the heart of the Synagogue Historic District in central Bridgetown, Barbados’s lively capital on its western coast.

Some of the island’s wealthiest Jews of the 17th and 18th centuries are buried in the cemetery adjacent to Nidhe Israel, along with the celebrated rabbi Raphael Hayyim Isaac Carregal. An itinerant teacher and Sephardi Jew, Carregal was born in Hebron in 1733, then in the Ottoman Empire, and is thought to have been the most-traveled rabbi in history before the invention of railroads. He died in Barbados in 1777.

At its peak in 1750, census data shows a distinct Jewish population of 800, out of 18,000 white islanders. Around the same time, a number of Jews opted to marry into the local English community in an effort to assimilate. As a result, many Barbadians today claim to have Sephardi ancestors somewhere in their family tree.

The fortunes of the Jewish community paralleled that of the local sugar industry. When a hurricane hit Barbados in 1831, devastating the sugar business, it likewise set in motion the decline of the island’s Jewry. The storm, which killed some 1,500 in Barbados and flattened much of the island, also destroyed the original Nidhe Israel; 90 worshipers raised funds for its reconstruction, which was completed in 1833.

But by 1929, most Jews had left the island. The synagogue was sold and subsequently used as commercial offices and a law library until the Jewish community reclaimed the site in the 1980s.

In the early 1930s, a new wave of Jews arrived, this time Ashkenazim fleeing persecution in Nazi Europe. Today, the island is home to descendants of those Jews as well as a handful of transplants from Britain and the United States—altogether, about 100 Jews. The Nidhe Israel congregation, which is affiliated with the Conservative movement and holds regular Friday night services, brings in a rabbi from the United States for major festivals. In winter, the population swells as tourists arrive; some years, more than 150 people attend Hanukkah festivities.

Now, the community is promoting Nidhe Israel as a destination for weddings and bar and bat mitzvahs. Think of them as simchas in the sun. You might even try a cocktail or two. 

Read about Barbados’s Jewish history and plan your visit at synagoguehistoricdistrict.com. Learn more about the island’s contemporary Jewish community at Jewishbarbados.org.

Make the Synagogue Historic District in Bridgetown your first stop. Built in 1750, the onetime Jewish school has been transformed into a state-of-the-art museum that explores Jewish life in Barbados through interactive exhibits, videos and hands-on installations.

Next door, Nidhe Israel Synagogue’s coral-pink exterior is a tropical counterpoint to the typical Dutch Sephardi design of its interior. The light-filled sanctuary features stark white walls, arched windows and a central bimah surrounded by wooden benches. Columns support the women’s balcony above and large brass chandeliers hang from the double-height ceiling.

In the adjacent cemetery, stroll among rows of tombstones with epitaphs written in Hebrew, Portuguese and English and be on the lookout for the resting place of sugar pioneer David Rafael de Mercado. His distinctive 1658 triangle-shaped marker—the oldest in the cemetery—was carved in Italy.

Chabad of Barbados, which offers kosher takeout as well as Shabbat morning services and meals, is situated along the island’s west coast within walking distance of a range of accommodations.

In 1751, George Washington and his older half-brother, Lawrence, lived for two months at Bush Hill House, a small plantation home just outside Bridgetown that is today open to tourists as George Washington House and Museum. Barbados was the only country outside America visited by Washington.

Mount Gay Rum, one of the island’s biggest employers, runs 45-minute-long tours at its factory. Screen the short film explaining the process of rum production and then enjoy a tasting session of different kinds of rum—some, but not all, are kosher.

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Jenni Frazer is a veteran Jewish journalist and former assistant editor of The Jewish Chronicle. Now a freelancer, she writes for many publications in Britain, the United States and Israel.