• • A gravestone in the Nevis cemetery. I p t was a stunningly beautiful day, a perfect day in the tropics. But I wasn't sitting on the magnifi- cent Pinney's Beach with the few other tourists who were on the remote islnd of Nevis. Instead I was sitting in the island police station. The police officer was speaking on the phone in a patois I couldn't understand. He turned to me. "Make a right on Government Road. You'll see the funeral home?' he said. "They have the key!' A few minutes later I was open- ing a rusty gate and found myself in an old, but well kept burial ground. Seventeen worn gravestones lay recumbent The engravings on them were barely decipherable. Most of the gravestones appeared to be inscribed in either Spanish or Portuguese and Hebrew. • The shade provided by a large fig tree had helped to preserve one stone in its entirety. It read: "Here lies the body of Bathsheba, the beloved wife of Roland Gideon!' Bathsheba died in childbirth on Aug. 8, 1684. Bathsheba was a member of an all-but-forgotten Jewish community that once flourished on the cap- tivatingly lovely Caribbean island of Nevis. Few people have heard of this now-tranquil Leeward isle. Yet during the 18th century, Nevis was a very popular place indeed and European aristocracy flocked to the island, especially to partake of the local hot mineral springs which were said to cure rheumatism and other assorted Rediscovering Nevis now a rubbled - ruin, sits adjacent to the island's power station. The school and baths have never been found. There is a path, known as the Jew's Walk, which leads to the cemetery. And the cemetery, with its mute gravestones, is all, really, that re- mains. And if it weren't for one man, it's doubtful we'd even have the burial ground to stir our memories. Thirty years ago, while on a cruise, Philadelphia attorney, Robert D. Abrahams, and his wife, Florence, learned about the Jewish history of SUSAN LUDMER-GLIEBE Nevis from a New York rabbi. They Special to The Jewish News had never been to Nevis but they decided to visit the island. They promptly fell in love with ills. The British built "great houses" salt, sugar and molasses and return- ed to her tropical home with timber, Nevis and purchased a ruined sugar and gave lavish dances and balls. plantation called Morning Star, During the island's heyday, Nevis soap and European goods. The community was large and which they have spent decades was also home to a substantial Sephardi Jewish community, one that wealthy enough to have a synagogue, restoring. The plantation wasn't the only had been in existence for over a cen- mikvah, graveyard and school. tury. One quarter of the island's white There's even a tale that Nevis native thing Abrahams wished to bring back son Alexander Hamilton received his from the past. "I got permission from population was Jewish, in fact. Historians tell us that most of the elementary education at the Jewish the island government to restore the Jews of Nevis were merchants, many school. His illegitimate status sup- graveyard?' Abrahams explains. In 1972, after considerable work, of them involved with the sugar and posedly denied him admission to the the cemetery was rededicated. slave trades. These Jews had Anglican parish school. By 1800, for reasons still unclear, Abrahams insures that the cemetery migrated from Brazil and islands like the community had disappeared. remains in good shape. "I send a Barbados. Roland Gideon, along with his Some say that the hurricane of 1772 gardener every two weeks to keep it brothers Samson and Abraham, was the cause of the Jews' departure. clean?' Abrahams, who's a self-confessed sought their fortunes on Barbados Others suggest that petitions to ex- pell them, signed by envious traders, history buff, tried to find out all he and then moved on to Nevis. Some women, like Esther might have pushed the Jews onwards. could about the community. After Pinheiro, were more fortunate than Possibly they left the small island — discovering nothing in the local ar- Bathsheba Gideon. When her hus- it's only 36 square miles — for a chives, he went abroad in his quest for band, a merchant, died, Esther car- larger Jewish community like that on information. The Abrahams are the only ried on his trade. She and a crew of St. Thomas. Over the centuries, the remnants known Jews on Nevis. As I walked five were frequent visitors to the port of New York. Arriving on her sloop, of the once-thriving Jewish communi- back to the center of town, I wondered the Neptune, she sold the colonists ty fell into disarray. The synagogue, about the two couples who were The remnants of a forgotten Jewish community are rescued from the encroaching jungle THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS 63