By car we drive from Paramaribo over the Highway towards the Indian village Powakka, (there you will get a tour) we continue to the plantation Ayo where we cross with the ferry to the Jodensavanna.
There we have lunch and get extensive explanation from the guide about the Jodensavanna.
You can also take a dip in the Suriname river and use the healing source.
If the school of the indigenous village Powakka is open we will also visit it.
Jodensavanne was the largest Jewish settlement in this hemisphere in the 17th century, and the synagogue, of which a ruin remains, is the first of architectural significance in America and one of the oldest in the Western Hemisphere.
Jodensavanne was the first and then only place in the New World where Jews were offered a (semi-)autonomous settlement.
Jews fleeing the Spanish Inquisition were welcomed in Suriname, first by the English and later by the Dutch colonists, to settle and establish plantations along the banks of the Suriname River.
In order to attract Jewish colonists, the then colonial government offered the Jews special privileges, including freedom of religion, freedom of property and the right to have their own court and jurisdiction.
Today, the ruins and cemeteries can still be visited and the story is illustrated with authentic photos and images.
The guide will bring history to life for you by telling, while you can feast your eyes, so that you can form a good picture of what life was like at that time. For the Jewish plantation owners, for their slaves and for the freed slaves.
A piece of unique history in Suriname.
1 daytour Euro 75 per person
