The Mikvé Israel-Emanuel Synagogue ( he, בית הכנסת מקווה ישראל-עמנואל; en, The Hope of Israel-Emanuel Synagogue), in

Willemstad, Curaçao Willemstad ( , ; ; en, William Town, italic=yes) is the capital city of Curaçao, an island in the southern Caribbean Sea that forms a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It was the capital of the Netherlands Antilles prior ...

, is the oldest surviving synagogue in the Americas. It is commonly known as the ''Snoa'' (short for

esnoga The Portuguese Synagogue, also known as the Esnoga, or Snoge, is a late 17th-century Sephardic synagogue in Amsterdam, completed in 1675. ''Esnoga'' is the word for synagogue in Judaeo-Spanish, the traditional Judaeo-Spanish language of Sephardi ...

, an old Portuguese and

Judaeo-Spanish Judaeo-Spanish or Judeo-Spanish (autonym , Hebrew script: , Cyrillic: ), also known as Ladino, is a Romance language derived from Old Spanish. Originally spoken in Spain, and then after the Edict of Expulsion spreading through the Ottoman E ...

word for synagogue) and is a major tourist attraction in Curaçao, with one notable group of visitors including Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands and her family, in 1992. The community (congregation ''Mikvé Israel'') dates from the 1650s, and consisted of

Spanish and Portuguese Jews Spanish and Portuguese Jews, also called Western Sephardim, Iberian Jews, or Peninsular Jews, are a distinctive sub-group of Sephardic Jews who are largely descended from Jews who lived as New Christians in the Iberian Peninsula during the ...

from the Netherlands and Brazil. In the nineteenth century there was a breakaway

Reform Reform ( lat, reformo) means the improvement or amendment of what is wrong, corrupt, unsatisfactory, etc. The use of the word in this way emerges in the late 18th century and is believed to originate from Christopher Wyvill's Association movement ...

community (Emanu El); the two merged to form the present community in 1964. The community is now affiliated with Reconstructionist Judaism. The first synagogue building was purchased in 1674; the current building dates from 1730. One visitor to the synagogue observed, upon entering through a quiet courtyard, viewing the azure stained glass windows and walking across a sand covered floor toward the carved mahogany Holy Ark that the sand floors remind congregants "of how its Jewish ancestors on the Iberian peninsula covered the floors of their makeshift prayer houses so that their footsteps would be muffled and the suspicion of potential denouncers would not be aroused." With its three high vaulted ceilings, the Holy Ark and the pulpit, the galleries, the benches and the chandeliers, the interior of the synagogue bears a marked resemblance to the

Portuguese Synagogue The Portuguese Synagogue, also known as the Esnoga, or Snoge, is a late 17th-century Sephardic synagogue in Amsterdam, completed in 1675. ''Esnoga'' is the word for synagogue in Judaeo-Spanish, the traditional Judaeo-Spanish language of Sephar ...

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

. Attached to the synagogue is the Jewish Historical Cultural Museum, whose collection includes replicas of artistic tombstones from the Beit Chaim Bleinheim in Curaçao, the oldest Jewish cemetery still in use in the Western Hemisphere. The other Dutch island in the Caribbean with a historical synagogue is

Sint Eustatius Sint Eustatius (, ), also known locally as Statia (), is an island in the Caribbean. It is a special municipality (officially " public body") of the Netherlands. The island lies in the northern Leeward Islands portion of the West Indies, s ...

, where the ruins of the ''Honen Dalim'' synagogue of 1739 still stand on the ''Synagogepad''. An even older synagogue existed at Jodensavanne,

Suriname Suriname (; srn, Sranankondre or ), officially the Republic of Suriname ( nl, Republiek Suriname , srn, Ripolik fu Sranan), is a country on the northeastern Atlantic coast of South America. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north ...

, ''Beracha ve Shalom'' ("Blessings and Peace"), built between 1665 and 1671. Unlike the Curaçao synagogue, however, these other synagogues are no longer in use. File:Curaçao synagogue2.jpg, sanctuary with mahogany bemah File:Curaçao synagogue4.jpg, view through shuttered windows File:Curaçao synagogue3.JPG, mahogany bemah showing sand floor File:Curaçao synagogue5.JPG, western facade, Hebrew inscriptions over entrance File:Curaçao synagogue6.JPG, courtyard view looking outward

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Curacao synagogue Synagogues in Curaçao Sephardi Jewish culture in the Caribbean Sephardi Jewish culture in the Netherlands Sephardi Reform Judaism Sephardi synagogues Spanish and Portuguese Jews Reconstructionist Judaism in North America Reconstructionist synagogues 18th-century synagogues Buildings and structures in Willemstad

See also

References