Masons, Jews, and Mosaic Pavements

If you have been to the colonial Jewish synagogues in Curaçao, Barbados, or Suriname, or the (Old or New) Jewish Cemeteries in Curaçao, you will begin no notice recognize an interesting pattern: black and white tiles arranged in checkerboard fashion surrounding entrances to buildings and around the base of gravestones.  This pattern can also be seen in the nineteenth-century Jewish houses in the Scharloo district of Curaçao. It is often referred to by the name "mosaic pavement." (Mosaic Pavement outside Neve Shalom Synagogue in Paramaribo, Suriname at Left.)

Mosaic Pavement in the Newer Jewish Cemetery in Curaçao

If you are a freemason, the pattern will seem doubly familiar. Mosaic pavement was (and is) a staple of both Masonic architecture and ritual objects. Masonic carpets and later floorings employed the mosaic pavement motif. used the pavement in the center of their sanctuaries either in tile or on a rug, usually surrounded by a border and with the symbol of a blazing star at the center. Although Masons were not the only people to use this type of flooring during this era, mosaic pavement took on special resonance within Masonic rites and are usually noted in emblem charts (like the one below) and were often used in Masonic lodges during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Emblematic chart and Masonic history of F[ree] and A[ccepted] M[asons] / Ramsey, Millet, & Hudson Steam. Lith. Co. (Kansas City, Mo. : W.M. Devore, publisher, c1877). Courtesy of the Library of Congress, LC-DIG-pga-02426

Samuel Lee, Orbis miraculum
London, 1659

Masons--like early American Jews--were interested in mosaic pavements for a reason.  Neo-classical marble checkerboard floorings reflected a general interest in antiquity, but they were also explicitly associated with Solomon’s Temple throughout the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries. While Amsterdam Rabbi Leon de Templo depicts the interior courtyard of the Temple Mount in his model as paved in uniform square tiles, other scholars of the Temple explicitly used the checkerboard motif for the Temple’s courtyard, such as Samuel Lee in the diagram to the left. By at least 1730, mosaic pavement design (often in the form of a floor cloth) was a mainstay of Masonic Temples because of the pavement’s Solomonic association. When early Masons met in coffee shops, they decorated the meeting spaces with Temple motifs.

Indeed, until the nineteenth century when lodges expanded their membership and more routinely acquired property, lodges used portable symbols, badges and signs to signal connections to Solomon’s Temple and set an appropriate mood for meetings. Other important Temple symbols used in masonic rites included the Ark of the Covenant and the pillars of Jachin and Boaz (the two pillars in the emblem chart above).  Even the apron worn by masons (such as George Washington below) has been read as related to ephod (apron) of the sacred garments of the Kohen Gadol, shown below on the left of the frontispiece of the Amsterdam Haggadah of 1695.

George Washington in Masonic Regalia, including the Masonic Apron. "Washington as a freemason," ( c1867). Courtesy of the Library of Congress, LC-DIG-pga-04176

Seder Haggadah shel Pesah (Passover Haggadah) (Amsterdam, 1695). Library of Congress, Hebraic Collection.

To learn more about connections between Jews and Masons, see my earlier post on Masonic Jews and my chapter on  "The Secret Lives of Men" in Messianism, Secrecy, & Mysticism: A New Interpretation of Early American Jewish Life (2012).  In my book, I talk about some of the key differences between the Jewish and Masonic uses of mosaic pavement, and the reasons why freemasonry was popular among early American Jews.

Rabbi's Houses in Colonial America

I have been thinking lately about Rabbi's houses in colonial America, in part because I will be speaking about early American Jewish houses at the AJS (Association for Jewish Studies) Conference in December, and in part because I have been transcribing a section of the minute books of Congregation Nidhe Israel in Barbados in which the Rabbi, his house, and his household keep getting mentioned.  Today the historical Rabbi's house in Curaçao is a tranquil oasis, but apparently during the colonial era the houses were vibrant places to visit or live.

In Curaçao, like in Barbados, Suriname, and Amsterdam, the Rabbi's house was part of the synagogue complex that also included a mikveh (ritual bath), school space, and the synagogue itself, called the “Snoa” in Curaçao and Esnoga in Amsterdam (Ladino: אסנוגה).  Although the house in Barbados has been destroyed, the Rabbi's house in Curaçao is still standing and is beautifully maintained as part of the exquisite Jewish Historical Museum.

Panorama of the Rabbi's House on Kuiperstraat (Stevan J. Arnold, ©2012)

 

Detail (Stevan J. Arnold, ©2012)

The Rabbi’s House was built in 1728 at 26-28 Kuiperstraat, in the heart of the older Punda neighborhood.  Although it became part of the a group of buildings that now form the synagogue complex, the house predated the placement of the synagogue: as the Jewish population on the island flourished, the congregation outgrew its initial space and moved in successively in 1671-75, 1681, 1690, 1703. In 1729 the fifth synagogue was destroyed in order to build the sixth (and final synagogue) adjacent to the Rabbi’s home.  Although early on a house was adapted to meet the congregation’s needs, both in 1703 and 1732, the community built a structure explicitly as a synagogue. The current house was likewise an extension of a predecessor.  In 1704 the Mahamad (Board of directors or council of elders of a Spanish-Portuguese Synagogue) bought a larger house for Rabbi Eliau (Elijah) Lopez and his successors.  This house was “revised” in 1728, the date it now bears (Emmanuel & Emmanuel, History, 51, 87-88, 93-95, 120-24, 143, 1163).  Unlike Merchant houses, which often housed offices or goods for sale and were located near the wharf, the “business” of the Rabbi’s house was primarily ritual and liturgical. By the 1730s the Snoa had to compete with a second synagogue and Jewish school in Otrobanda, though the Snoa complex still laid claim to being the house of the Island's Rabbi.

Panorama of the Rabbi's House (Photo by Stevan J. Arnold, ©2012)

Architecturally the house shares many features with its neighbors, including the graceful balconies (shown above and below) that were so popular in the Punda neighborhood during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that helped keep residents cooler. Like Amsterdam’s canal houses, older houses in Curaçao were usually built with brick.  Unlike in Amsterdam, however, where the brick was left exposed, in Curaçao the brick was typically covered in plaster or stucco (Winkel-151-55).The plaster was then whitewashed or painted in a “bright bold palette” not favored in the Netherlands.  Allegedly houses began to be painted because an early governor found the white-washed buildings “fatiguing to the eye” due to the way the reflected the tropical sunlight.

Balcony of the Rabbi's House (Photo Stevan J. Arnold, ©2012)

To visit this lovely historical house, pay the small entrance fee and enter through the main gates of the Snoa.

Resources:

• http://www.curacaomonuments.org 
• Emmanuel, Isaac S. and Emmanuel, Suzanne A., History of the Jews of the Netherlands Antilles (Cincinnati, OH: AJA, 1970). 
• Winkel, Pauline Pruneti, Scharloo: A Nineteenth Century Quarter of Willemstad, Curaçao: Historical Architecture and its Background (Florence: Edizioni Poligrafico Fiorentino, 1987).
  

 

First photo of Rabbi's House by Kent Coupé, 2008.  

All Photos courtesy of the Jewish Atlantic World Database and Stevan J. Arnold

 

Gravestone Resources

The Jewish Atlantic World Database has over 3,000 photos of gravestones.  Most of these are Jewish gravestones, though there are also stones from a slave cemetery in Newport and a Creole Cemetery in Suriname.  I have included in the database handouts for using gravestones in the classroom or for genealogical research on the resources page. For an introduction on why scholars use gravestones and what to look for in gravestones watch these short webinars:

 

Enjoy!

Keep This Classic Cemetery Open to the Public!

Beth Haim Ouderkerk is the most magnificent and important of the historic cemeteries in the Jewish Atlantic World. It is the birthplace of the unique Sephardic sepulchral tradition that spread throughout Hamburg, London, Newport, New York, and the Caribbean in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

The cemetery opened in 1614, and some of the oldest (and most famous) stones imitate the coffin-shaped style found in medieval Spanish Jewish cemeteries and Sephardic cemeteries in the Ottoman Empire. These stones have been memorialized in paintings and drawings by Dutch artists like Romeyn de Hooghe (1645–1708) and Jacob van Ruysdael (1628/9-1682). By the final quarter of the seventeenth century, a distinctive tradition emerged in the cemetery: flat table stones with a predilection for elaborate carvings that often include death’s heads, angels, biblical scenes, the hand of God cutting down the tree of life, and heraldic images. Members of the Sephardic elite in the colonies imitated these stones, and often even imported stones from Amsterdam before their death. This incredible cemetery has been open to the public and available as an important heritage site for travelers and scholars from around the world. The site is also a priceless resource for genealogists.

Gravestone featuring Daniel and the Lions, Beth Haim Ouderkerk (Photo by L. Leibman, 2009)

The recent economic crisis is also hitting Beth Haim Ouderkerk. The lack of donations have created a situation where the annual municipal subsidies may be withdrawn. The lack of these funds will halt maintenance work and make it difficult to keep the cemetery open to the public.

You can help! As this tax season ends and you consider making charitable donations, keep Beth Haim Ouderkerk in mind. You can also support the cemetery by purchasing books about the cemetery. All proceeds go to the Beth Haim.

To learn more about this classic cemetery, please enjoy the most recent newsletter (Thank you to Dennis Ouderdorp for being willing to share it!):
De Castro Newsletter 17-1

All photos from Beth Haim Ouderkerk by Laura Leibman, 2009.

Happy Mother's Day from Barbados

Happy Mother's Day from Barbados! Photos in are from Nidhe Israel Synagogue, Huntes Garden, St. Nicholas Abbey, Bridgetown, and other locations on the island. Music is the Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 in D Major, Czech Radio recording. All photos by Laura Leibman and Stevan Arnold.








Slideshow Version

Video Version

Jewish Heritage Travel: Newport, RI

Newport is one of those towns of breath-taking beauty that everyone should visit at least once in their lives. At the end of the nineteenth century, anyone who was anyone in New York society had a "cottage" (mansion) in Newport. Today, the Newport Preservation Society offers tours of many of the most elegant of these homes, along with colonial gems like the Hunter House.



Before the Revolutionary War, Newport was a crucial port of call on early trade routes. It was also home to one of the most important early American Jewish communities. The collapse of the economy following the war meant many members of the Jewish community left, but many fine examples of colonial architecture remain in the town, including homes of several prominent Jewish families. The Newport Historical Society offers a wide range of tours of local landmarks. Walking tours of Jewish Newport are also available through the Touro Synagogue, America's oldest synagogue and a national historic site. Military history buffs will want to visit Fort Adams.

Interested in visiting Newport? I recommend the Inn on Bellevue. The rates are reasonable and the location is superb. If you are staying for at least a week, it is worth asking if there is a special "extended stay" rate. Those with more to spend may want to try The Hotel Viking or the Hyatt Regency Newport Hotel & Spa, located on magnificent Goat Island.



All Photos by Laura Leibman, 2007.
Top: Cliff Walk
Second: The Breakers
Third: Fort Adams
Bottom: Touro Synagogue

Death Rituals: House of the Rounds

As my twin sister will attest, since an early age I have had an extreme fear of dead bodies. Once I was asked to be part of the women's chevra kaddisha in Portland, and although I was (briefly) tempted, I had to decline, as I knew I would never sleep again. I am not sure why this is. When I say I am afraid of "dead bodies," I mean dead people. Although I like live animals much better, I am not completely freaked out by dead animals: when I worked as a veterinarian's assistant, I had to deal with dead pets all the time. Sure I cried a lot, but once when asked to do so, I had to lump it and wash and prepare a dead schnauzer for an open casket funeral. It made me sad (and I felt like I needed to be paid more), but I went home, tucked myself into bed, and slept just fine. Dead people, however, are something else. I don't even like to work in cemeteries with recent burials, which for some reason I find more "creepy." Conveniently my research is mainly before the civil war, so I can usually avoid this problem. Kabbalah would say I am right to be wary of recent graves: according to Jewish mysticism there are at least three parts of the soul (nefesh, ruach, and neshama). After death these three parts of the soul suffer different fates, and the nefesh remains in the grave with the body until the body turns to dust. While in the grave, the nefesh undergoes the “pangs of the grave” (hibbut ha-kever). This means as well as being ritually impure, cemeteries are unhappy places.

Research interests aside, my fear of dead bodies is unfortunate, as one of the most important duties in Jewish life is to take care of the dead and prepare them for burial. Judaism has many rituals to help transition the body and soul of the deceased. In the Jewish Atlantic World one of the important places where these rituals took place was the "House of the Rounds" (Casa de Rodeos or Rodeamentos). This building served the same purpose as the tahara house in Ashkenazi cemeteries: it is where the ritual washing of the body occurred. A good depiction of this ritual was memorialized by the Prague Burial Society, which commissioned a series of paintings that depicted the various rituals performed by the Chevra Kaddisha (burial society) from sickbed to burial. In the Spanish-Portuguese rite, the eighteen members of the burial society also made seven circuits (hakafot) around the coffin.

“The Seven Circuits,” Bernard Picart (1673-1733), c. Royal Library of the Hague

Picart's eighteenth-century drawing depicts one such ceremony in the House of the Rounds in Amsterdam's Beth Haim Ouderkerk. The original seventeenth century tahara house was replaced in 1705 by the current building which still stands and was renovated in 1966 (below). One of the thoughtful features of this house was the wooden extension for Cohenim. Although most Jews could visit the dead after burial, those descended from the priestly family (Cohenim) are not permitted to walk in cemeteries. As Joachim Jacobs notes in his fabulous book Houses of Life, the extension allowed the Cohenim to "follow the hakafot through a window, without being under the same roof as the dead person (69)" Near the house, and right next to the entrance to the cemetery by the canal, is the separate section for the Cohenim that allowed them to see their relatives' graves without entering the cemetery proper.

Exterior of the Beth Haim Ouderkerk House of the Rounds;
the Cohenim's wooden extension (black) is on the left (Photo L. Leibman)

Interior of the House of the Rounds today with the
Death's head and washing stations shown in Picart's drawing (Photo L. Leibman)

New Cohenim Section near the House of the Rounds,
Beth Haim Ouderkerk (Photo L. Leibman)

Many other cemeteries in the Jewish Atlantic World used a House of the Rounds in the cemeteries. Few remain today, though two exquisite examples occur in Curaçao, one in the older Jewish cemetery (Beit Haim Bleinheim), and one in the newer Jewish cemetery (Beit Haim Berg Altena). Like Amsterdam's Beth Haim Ouderkerk, the older Jewish cemetery in Curaçao paid attention to the special needs of the Cohenim and even built a special house from which they could visit the dead and yet not violate Jewish law. The presence of the House of the Rounds is an important ritual element of the Jewish Atlantic World.

House of the Rounds, Beit Haim Bleinheim, Curaçao (Photo L. Leibman)
House of the Cohenim, Beit Haim Bleinheim, Curaçao (Photo L. Leibman)

House of the Rounds, Beit Haim Berg Altena, Curaçao (Photo L. Leibman)

The Adventuresome Traveler: Suriname

Interested in taking a vacation to a Jewish Heritage spot off the beaten track? Try Suriname! This former Dutch colony used to be the Las Vegas of the colonial world, and was once an important sugar plantation community. Merchants from as far away as Newport, Rhode Island came to the colony to revel and make their fortunes. It was also the home of many important early American Jewish families who lived both on sugar plantations and in the main city of Paramaribo. They built synagogues in the typical Dutch Caribbean style with rich mahogany and sand floors. One of these exquisite synagogues is still in use in Paramaribo: the synagogue complex includes a museum, one of the earliest still-functioning mikvaot in the Americas as well as elaborately-carved gravestones transferred from one of the early cemeteries.

Looking for a place to stay? The Krasnapolsky is located in a safe neighborhood a block and a half from the Neve Shalom Synagogue. It has internet access and a helpful staff. The airport is quite a ways outside of Paramaribo, so you will want to arrange ahead of time with the hotel for transportation. Across the street from Krasnapolsky is a wonderful bookshop that has a wide range of English titles. Take a look at Cynthia McLeod's novel The High Price of Sugar: it's about the Jewish colonist families in Suriname.

If you keep kosher, you may want to inquire with the synagogue about renting the Shabbos apartment that has a kitchen. You'll also want to bring lots of packaged goods with you: fresh fruits and vegetables are easy to get, but many of the imported items at the local stores are from Asia, not the United States, and items with hechshers aren't as easy to buy here as in other parts of the Caribbean.

If you stay in Paramaribo, you will want plan to spend a day to traveling downriver by boat to the ruins of Jodensavanne, or "Jew's Savannah." This was the location of one of the earliest Jewish settlements in the Americas and was once a thriving plantation community. The site has been excavated by the Jodensavanne Foundation and the cemetery and synagogue ruins are easily accessible. The travel agency on the first floor of the Krasnapolsky can help you arrange a trip with a reliable guide.

Getting to Suriname isn't easy: flights are infrequent from the United States, and if you haven't traveled recently in the tropics you will need to get vaccinated (particularly if you plan to go to Jodensavanne). Suriname also requires a visa, even for Americans. The application form has a few surprises. Also be careful if you plan to change planes in Trinidad/Tobago: they are very strict about the amount of time they require for transfers and have no problems with keeping visitors an extra day as a penalty for "illegal transfers."

All of these hurdles are worth it: the Jewish community of Suriname is friendly and the trip to Jodensavanne is haunting. Read more about the Jewish community of Suriname in their own words.

Synagogues: Jamaica

The Jewish community of Jamaica recently held a conference on the Jewish Diaspora of the Caribbean (Jan. 12-14, 2010). I'll have more to say about this fabulous conference in future posts, but in the meantime, I wanted to highlight the architecture of Kingston Synagogue Kahal Kadosh Shaare Shalom of the United Congregation of Israelites.

This magnificent building was built in 1885 and then reconstructed in 1911 following an earthquake that destroyed much of Kingston.

The building recalls the architecture of many of the older Spanish-Portuguese synagogues of the Caribbean: it has sand floors and rich mahogany. The women's section is in an upstairs balcony held up by pillars. Like the Curacao congregation, this synagogue has an organ. Today the gardens of the synagogue also house gravestones from one of the destroyed cemeteries.

Enjoy the Video of Eli Gabay (sp?) singing in the synagogue.