PROFESSOR Karl Watson explaining the purpose of the mikvah yesterday. (Picture by Cherie Pitt.)

A MAJOR historical Jewish structure was recently uncovered close to the synagogue in The City.

University of the West Indies students, led by doctoral candidate Michael Stoner, uncovered a mikvah during an archaeological dig.

A mikvah is a ritual bath used primarily by women for cleansing before marriage and after the monthly menstrual flow.

The students were guided by a demarcation made about ten years ago by an Englishman named Noner, during a restoration in the carpark. Their original task was to find the Rabbi's house.

Manager of the Nidhe Israel Museum, which is housed on the same compound, Celso Brewster, said the discovery of the mikvah was a great find and would be a "very big" visitor attraction. The museum and synagogue already draw a large number of visitors to the historic site.

"Hopefully it [the mikvah] will add significantly to heritage tourism," Brewster said.

He explained that while excavations were done in the cemetery in the past, the effort by the students over the past month was the first major one done on that side of the compound.

The original synagogue was built in 1654 and was destroyed by a hurricane in 1831. A reopening ceremony for the synagogue and what archaeologists believe to be the Synagogue Complex was held in 1833.

(YB)