HUNTS BAY JEWISH CEMETERY - Parish of St Andrew

 Located in St. Andrew Parish, on the industrial outskirts of Kingston, just off Spanish Town Road, the Hunts Bay Cemetery is the country's oldest extant denominational graveyard and one of the oldest Jewish burial grounds in the Americas.  

  Beginning in 1661 with the English conquest, Jews, most identifying as Spanish Portuguese, took up residence in Port Royal and involved themselves mostly in commerce. The narrow peninsula and high water table led the community to establish their cemetery across the harbour at Hunts Bay. The earthquake of 1692 destroyed much of Port Royal and many Jews left to form and join emerging congregations elsewhere across the island. Nonetheless, Hunts Bay continued to receive burials into the early 1800s. Over three hundred and fifty tombstones remain at Hunts Bay and roughly half bear markers with legible epitaphic information. No burial registers remain. The extant layout adheres to a pattern of rows and is ordered more by chronology than by family. Burials are of a south-east orientation which we believe would have been towards the cemetery's gates.

 The cemetery is now a Jamaica National Heritage Trust Site and like Jamaica’s latter historic Jewish cemeteries, which ring this Caribbean island, Hunt’s Bay cemetery is not wholly preserved, accessible, or undisturbed yet it contains a century and a half of gravestone imagery and epitaphic language. Two hundred years since it was closed for burials, its distinctive burial pattern and cemetery site design remain apparent. 

 Hunts Bay’s oldest legible grave dates to 1672. The cemetery served the local colonial Sephardi community for well over one hundred years  with family names that include Aguilar, Baruh Alvares, da Costa Alveranga, de Lucena, de Leon, Gabay, Nunes and Lopes Torres. It incorporates versatility as evidenced by multi-lingual epitaphs in Hebrew, Portuguese, Spanish, and English; Jewish and Christian calendar systems; and fused artistry. The burial ground reveals burial practices and identities of the first generations of New World Israelites in the specific context of Jamaica. 

 Hunt's Bay Cemetery bears witness to the time when Jamaica was an emerging and variant colony characterized by political tolerance and abundant undeveloped terrain. This was a period when Jamaica’s Jews adhered to their faith yet were distant if not isolated from rabbinical authority. 

 The Hunt’s Bay Jewish Cemetery holds evidence for an Island whose motto became: "Out of Many, One People." 

On Wednesday 6th of June, 2022 there was a fire at the historic Hunts Bay cemetery.

What makes the Hunts Bay cemetery an historic site ?

Located in St. Andrew Parish, the Hunts Bay Cemetery is the country's oldest extant denominational graveyard and one of the oldest Jewish burial grounds in the Americas.  

  Beginning in 1661 with the English conquest, Jews, most identifying as Spanish Portuguese, took up residence in Port Royal and involved themselves mostly in commerce. The narrow peninsula and high water table led the community to establish their cemetery across the harbour at Hunts Bay. The earthquake of 1692 destroyed much of Port Royal and many Jews left to form and join emerging congregations elsewhere across the island. Nonetheless, Hunts Bay continued to receive burials into the early 1800s. Over three hundred and fifty tombstones remain at Hunts Bay and roughly half bear markers with legible epitaphic information. No burial registers remain.

 The cemetery is now a Jamaica National Heritage Trust Site and like Jamaica’s latter historic Jewish cemeteries, which ring this Caribbean island, Hunt’s Bay cemetery is not wholly preserved, accessible, or undisturbed yet it contains a century and a half of gravestone imagery and epitaphic language. Two hundred years since it was closed for burials, its distinctive burial pattern and cemetery site design remain apparent. 

 Hunts Bay’s oldest legible grave dates to 1672. The cemetery served the local colonial Sephardi community for well over one hundred years with family names that include Aguilar, Baruh Alvares, da Costa Alveranga, de Lucena, de Leon, Gabay, Nunes and Lopes Torres. It incorporates versatility as evidenced by multi-lingual epitaphs in Hebrew, Portuguese, Spanish, and English; Jewish and Christian calendar systems; and fused artistry. The burial ground reveals burial practices and identities of the first generations of New World Israelites in the specific context of Jamaica. 

How did the fire start ?

On June 6th 2022 someone not familiar with the methods and procedures for clearing historic sites, initiated a brush clearing of the cemetery. This was undertaken against advice and without permission either from Jamaica National Heritage Trust, which owns the site, or United Congregation Israelites, the site's stewards.  Fire was utilized to clear the brush and it unsurprisingly got out of control. The fire department was called to put out the fire. An assessment is required to determine the extent of the damage to the structures.

It is concerning and unsettling that someone, however well meaning, without expertise or permission, would execute so dangerous an intervention on this sacred and historic site.

The importance of historic site documentation

Since 2007, two organisations (CVE and JJCPF) have documented Jamaica's remaining 14 Jewish cemeteries and are in the process of bringing them to public awareness via a searchable online database. Unfortunately, the fire at Hunt's Bay points to the criticality of this work. The Hunt's Bay cemetery was documented in 2008/2009 and is available on the database thanks to the Jamaican Jewish Cemeteries Preservation Fund (jjcpf.org) See Cemetery Database — Jamaican Jewish Cemeteries Preservation Fund (jjcpf.org)

searchable database. We’ve so far uploaded 2 cemeteries with a 3rd to be uploaded this month. See Cemetery Database — Jamaican Jewish Cemeteries Preservation Fund (jjcpf.org)

Kingston

After the calamitous earthquake of 1692 destroyed much of Port Royal, many Jews relocated across the harbor to the emerging commercial capital of Kingston. Soon Jews also resided in Spanish Town, the seat of government, and in many of Jamaica’s small seaport towns. By the early 1700s, about eighty Jewish families resided in Jamaica. By 1730 their numbers had climbed to nearly one thousand, and by 1800 Jewish cemeteries ringed the island. In both Kingston and Spanish Town, the Portuguese and the English-German Jews established separate congregations and cemeteries. Today, Jamaica is the final resting place for, by my count, roughly 10,000 Jews. The one cemetery that remains open for burial is roughly three acres in size, located in the heart of Kingston and is today referred to as the Orange Street Cemetery. The United Congregation of Israelites Jamaica maintains the cemetery which is approaching its 200th year.

 Kingston’s first Spanish Portuguese cemetery, referred to as the North Street cemetery, was in the old downtown area of the city, south of the Orange Street Cemetery. It was the final resting place for congregants of the Spanish and Portuguese Kahal Kadosh Sha’ar Ha Shamavim (Holy Congregation Gates of Heaven) KKSA. The cemetery was approximately two acres in size. The fledgling congregation acquired it in 1714. In 1880, after roughly eight generations of interments, it closed for burial. In 1913 the graves were leveled – in other words their brick bases removed - and the tombstones placed in position on the ground. In 1950 the site was sold to a commercial entity. At that time approximately 100 gravestone markers were moved to the perimeter of the Orange Street cemetery and 68 markers were relocated to Memorial Garden at the synagogue on Duke Street in Kingston.

 By the early 19th century, KKSA must have figured that their cemetery would soon be full. After all it held a century of burials of Kingston’s Spanish Portuguese faithful. In 1822, the congregation purchased roughly one and half acres of land a few blocks north which would eventually become a part of today’s Orange Street Cemetery.

 While we have no record of the burial pattern at the North Street cemetery, at the extant new cemetery ground, burials are clearly organized in North/South rows beginning in the Southwest corner. Burials of children were also arranged in rows, starting in the Southeast Corner. For roughly sixty years the two cemeteries co-existed. 

 Parallel to the Spanish Portuguese, English German Jews established themselves in Kingston. According to Philip Wright, the first cemetery, at Lower Elletson Road, occupied about one acre. It was acquired in 1787, closed for burial in 1880 and found derelict in 1960. The second English German congregation cemetery, on the northeast corner of Windward and Elletson Roads, again according to Philip Wright, opened in 1826.

 By the time of the Great Fire of 1882, which burned both the English German and the Spanish Portuguese synagogue buildings, the Jewish population had begun to dwindle, and after those losses, the Spanish Portuguese and English German congregations merged, forming a new congregation which they would call the Kahal Kadosh Sha’ar Ha Shalom (Holy Congregation – Gates of Peace) KKSS, also known as the Amalgamated Congregation. Upon doing so, the newly amalgamated congregation purchased a parcel of land for a cemetery. The parcel, roughly one and a half acres in size, was adjacent to the cemetery of the former Spanish Portuguese KKSA congregation which became known as the Old Ground, not to be confused with the North Street Cemetery which by this time has been closed for burial for two years. The parcel newly purchased by the Amalgamated Congregation was referred to as the New Ground and by 1883 burials began, starting in the Northwest Corner, also in North/South rows.

 Considering that congregational life in Jamaica was not always harmonious, it is not surprising that some KKSA congregants resisted joining the new Amalgamated Congregation yet their cemetery, the Old Ground, was filling up, leaving them with few empty plots for burial. So, according to Jacob Andrade, they brokered a deal with the Amalgamated Congregation whereby the lower third of the New Ground would be for their deceased congregants. So, by the turn of the century, there were two separate yet adjacent cemeteries, one belonging to the Spanish Portuguese and filling up fast and the other belonging to the Amalgamated Congregation, with its lower third reserved for use by the Sephardim. 

 By 1921, after almost forty years, the old holdout Spanish Portuguese congregation closed its doors and joined the Amalgamated congregation which formerly changed its name to the United Congregation of Israelites, as it is still known. Today, about fifteen feet of wall, that likely once separated the two cemeteries remains. My hunch is that the newly united congregation removed most of the wall but left the fragment as a testament to their history or perhaps there is a halakic reason for leaving a fragment.

 Yet to be discerned is the boundary of that one third of the New Ground reserved for the Spanish Portuguese congregation. Perhaps burials adhered strictly to it. Perhaps not. Perhaps Spanish Portuguese congregants would rather have been squeezed into the Old Ground than be buried in the portion reserved in the New Ground. Judaism has two main customs regarding burial orientation; one points feet toward the cemetery gate and the other, towards the Land of Israel. Both customs indicate a belief in resurrection. The latter reflects a belief in the primacy of the Land of Israel. At the Orange Street Cemetery, all the thousands of monuments, spanning 200 years, point southeast in the direction of the cemetery gate. The tombstones at Orange Street, notably, do not point northeast to the Land of Israel.

Spanish Town - Parish of St Catherine

In 1692, an earthquake and tsunami wrought terror and destruction on Port Royal, British colonial Jamaica’s capital city. The government decamped inland, to what had been the capital under Spain’s colonial rule, St. Jago de la Vega. As “Spanish Town,” it reclaimed its central position as the new British colonial government seat. Spanish Town was superseded in this role by Kingston, a port city that today encompasses the remains of Port Royal, when the British officially named Kingston as Jamaica’s capital in 1872.

 The Jews who moved to Spanish Town following Port Royal’s natural disaster immediately purchased land for a cemetery, on the southern end of White Church Street. Testamentary documents from the 18th century and field research in the 20th century (1930s, 1960s) indicate activity as early as 1702, with a number of burials attested from the 1720s until a century later. Transcriptions reflect markers in a single language, or some association of Hebrew, Portuguese or Spanish, and English.

 In 1704, Spanish Town Jewish residents acquired another plot of land (on Monk Street) and began building a synagogue, Neveh Shalom, which followed the Sephardi rite. Membership was predominantly but not exclusively Sephardi.

 In the 1790s, a new Ashkenazi congregation built its own synagogue, Mikveh Yisrael, and established a cemetery opposite the first. These burial grounds were recently partially cleared of accumulated rubble, revealing numerous grave sites, the latest date being 1930. However there is likely a gap of several decades before this final burial.

 Based on gravestones extant, the most recent of the Jewish burial grounds in Spanish Town, with visible markers from 1824-1894, was located on a lot adjoining the Neveh Shalom Synagogue. In the mid-19th century, Neveh Shalom was struck by lightning and suffered several fires. Financial relief was provided by Jamaica’s House of Assembly. By the turn of the 20th century, local Jewish inhabitants were following the government powers to Kingston. Both synagogues were definitively closed by 1907, following decades of dwindling and intermittent use.  Some of the gravemarkers (of varying lengths, and mostly marble) were affixed to the 6-ft. high North wall. Other stones were transposed elsewhere. The property was ceded to the Parish Council in 1956 with a view to developing a social project.

 The site today is surrounded by the St. Catherine Parish Infirmary (Spanish Town), on grounds also known as Mulberry Gardens. There are prominent mounds of debris and rubble, partially the result of the destruction of the synagogue and the burial structures. Historian James Robertson has noted signs of recent agricultural endeavors. All that remains of the Jewish material history are vestiges of a compound wall, some ledger stones saved from the destruction the graveyard knew, and traces of the synagogue, a building likely built by African Jamaican artisans.

Annotto Bay

A small stoned-walled burial ground on open land west of the village, long since disused, has been obliterated by recent development. It seems to have been originally for victims of the cholera epidemic of 1850, since there were five graves so marked. 

Cemetery information sourced from:

RD Barnett & P. Wright, The Jews of Jamaica Tombstones Inscriptions 1663 - 1880: Ben Zvi Institute

Falmouth - Parish of Trelawny

This town was founded in 1790 and for much of the nineteenth century most of its retail trade was in the hands of Jewish merchants. The burial gound in Duke Street was purchased early in the century from Edward Moulton Barrett of Wimple Street. London, owner of most of the land on which the town was built. 

Cemetery information sourced from:

RD Barnett & P. Wright, The Jews of Jamaica Tombstones Inscriptions 1663 - 1880: Ben Zvi Institute

St Ann's Bay - Parish of St. Ann

Remains of a disused burial ground, unfenced and neglected, on the west side of the Gully Road to Moneague, a few hundred yards from its junction with the main coast road. 

Cemetery information sourced from:

RD Barnett & P. Wright, The Jews of Jamaica Tombstones Inscriptions 1663 - 1880: Ben Zvi Institute

Montego Bay - Parish of St. James

The old burial ground. a congregation was formed here in 1844 and a synagogue was consecrated the following year, but during the latter part of the century the congregation declined, and the synagogugue had fallen into disrepair sometime before it was destroyed in the hurricane of 1912. 

Cemetery information sourced from:

RD Barnett & P. Wright, The Jews of Jamaica Tombstones Inscriptions 1663 - 1880: Ben Zvi Institute

Lucea - Parish of Hanover

Jews Burial Ground - Burial ground adjoining the parish churchyard. A walled enclosure which is disused and derelict. The gatepost inscribed: "Jews Burial ground - Lucea 1833". 

Cemetery information sourced from:

RD Barnett & P. Wright, The Jews of Jamaica Tombstones Inscriptions 1663 - 1880: Ben Zvi Institute

Savanna-La-Mar - Parish of Westmoreland

A few tombstones partially buried in the yard or garden dwelling, 22 Beckford Street, are the only visible remnant of the eighteenth century burial ground. Joseph Ezikias Da Silva in his will dated 1768, bequeathed 100 pounds for an enclosing wall and iron gates, and portions of the wall and gate were still standing in the 1930's. 

Cemetery information sourced from:

RD Barnett & P. Wright, The Jews of Jamaica Tombstones Inscriptions 1663 - 1880: Ben Zvi Institute

Lacovia - Parish of St Elizabeth

Tombstones partially buried, on the property of Mrs. Estrella Robinson, behind a small shop opposite the school house on the main road. Lacovia, now a small village, was in 1723 designated the capital of St Elizabeth Parish, and for half a century shared this honor with the town of Black River, the Assize Courts and Vestry Meetings being held alternately in each. Edward Long, History of Jamaica (1774) describes Lacovia as "mostly inhabited by Jews".

Cemetery information sourced from:

RD Barnett & P. Wright, The Jews of Jamaica Tombstones Inscriptions 1663 - 1880: Ben Zvi Institute

Rowe's Corner- Manchester Parish 

Near Alligator Pond. Burial ground established by Mrs. Rebecca Sampson.

Cemetery information sourced from:

RD Barnett & P. Wright, The Jews of Jamaica Tombstones Inscriptions 1663 - 1880: Ben Zvi Institute