Once the centre of Jewish life in the colony

Jodensavanne was a Jewish plantation community in Suriname, and for a time the centre of Jewish life in the colony. It was established in the 1600s by Sephardi Jews and became more developed and wealthy after a group fleeing persecution in Brazil settled there in the 1660s. It sits in what is now the Para District, about 50 km south of Paramaribo, on the Suriname River.

At its height around 1700, Jodensavanne was home to roughly 500 plantation owners and 9,000 enslaved people who were forced to work its sugarcane plantations. The community faced regular attacks from Indigenous peoples, slave revolts, and even raids from the French navy, and eventually relocated to Paramaribo. Clearing of grave sites and maintenance of the synagogue ruins has been carried out at various times from the 1940s to today.

Jodensavanne, together with the Cassipora Cemetery, was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in September 2023, under the name Jodensavanne Archaeological Site: Jodensavanne Settlement and Cassipora Creek Cemetery.