The Synagogue

It’s called the House of Peace and it was built in 1842 as an Orthodox temple but nowadays welcomes Reform Jews and even non Jews here in the middle of Paramaribo.

Suriname has a long history of Jewish settlers in the Dutch colony and while I was in Scotland Layne and Dale paid a visit to their 17th century plantation outside Paramaribo. 

Jodensavanne (Jewish Savannah) was founded in the early 1600s and got a boost in population when in 1660 when Portugal decided it was time for some Jewish persecution in neighboring Brazil. 

At its height the community had about 500 Jews and 9,000 slaves but it was isolated in the jungle on the Suriname River and got attacked from land and water by natives and neighboring French and so forth so they retreated to the city and helped build a synagogue on the site of the current structure. 

Nowadays the Neveh Shalom synagogue has between 40 and 100 members and lives next door to the main mosque in town. Orlando the caretaker told us they are good neighbors and friends.

There aren’t many more multicultural societies than tiny Suriname where everyone manages to get along.

For Layne who describes herself as a cultural Jew this sort of encounter is a reminder of the past when Jews were in the habit of fleeing. 

Nowadays Israel is the focus of a great deal of animosity all around the world but in Suriname its peace as usual. 

There are four synagogues in the world with their floors covered in sand. 

It’s symbolic of the need for silent worship in their countries of origin. Apparently one other such synagogue is in St Thomas in the YS Virgin Islands. 

It is forbidden to touch the scrolls so they use a pointer to mark the hand written text: 

Orlando the caretaker who fortunately speaks English. 

There is also a layer of sand above the ceiling under the roof. That is there for a practical reason, it’s to act as a fire extinguisher in case something catches light. 

It was a partly overcast day yesterday and we had some rain which pushed temperatures down into the upper 80s which felt pretty comfortable for us after the intense heat we’ve been having above 100 degrees. 

And then we went to have a late lunch at a Javanese eatery, noodles with chicken and with rice, Bami they call it and the plates came piled so we will have lots of leftovers. 

We stopped on the way home at Choi’s for some fresh squeezed orange juice.

We are both fighting off head colds which we suspect we may have got from peripatetic Dale, so Layne tackled the don’t yourself orange squeezer at Choi’s:

It’s a good middle class store, not cheap but with two outlets in the. It’s and with brands we recognize. Not to mention a slogan we remember from Publix in Florida.

It’s time to get driving. GANNET2 is ready and with a rocket launch scheduled Tuesday evening we want to leave Monday morning to go to French Guiana and the European Space Agency launch pad.