In 1946, largely through the efforts of Arthur Sulzberger, publisher of the New York Times, the synagogue was one of the first buildings designated a National Historic Site by the Interior Department. In 1919 a YMHA was established, and in 1926 a historic house was moved to a site opposite Touro for use as a community center. The congregation's longest-serving clergy, beginning in the 1940s, were Cantor Ely Katz and Rabbi Theodore Lewis.Ī second Orthodox congregation, Ahavas Achim, which existed from 1915 until 1981, participated in a United Hebrew School. An agreement reached in 1903 permitted Shearith Israel to lease the building to an Orthodox congregation of its choice and participate in the selection of a rabbi. Though there were fewer than 100 Jewish families in Newport, two groups vied for Touro's use. Its ownership, retained by the founding families, was transferred to New York City's Shearith Israel in 1894. Keith Stokes, a business leader and historian currently living in Newport, is a sixth-generation descendant of Judah Touro and his free African-American mistress, Ellen Wilson.Īlthough the synagogue reopened for summer visitors, it was not reconsecrated until 1883, when Rabbi Abraham Mendes arrived. In 1854, the magnanimous bequest by Abraham's unmarried brother Judah, of New Orleans, provided for the perpetual care of the synagogue and cemetery. Two years earlier, Abraham Touro provided funds to maintain the synagogue in memory of his father, Isaac, who had been the congregation's first ḥazzan. The first reference to Touro Synagogue occurred in 1824, when the nearby street, originally known as Griffin, was renamed Touro. In 1822, Moses Lopez, the last Jew, departed for New York City. Washington's reply, perhaps America's most important expression of religious liberty, proclaimed "For happily, the government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should discern themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support." The statement reflected the language of the invitation to Washington, but it help set the tone for religious liberty in the United States.Īs Newport's economy continued to decline, however, Jews sought opportunities elsewhere. When he returned to Newport on August 17, 1790, Washington received a congratulatory letter from the Hebrew congregation, written by ḥazzan Moses Seixas, a fellow Mason. In 1781, President George Washington visited the synagogue when it housed Rhode Island's General Assembly and Supreme Court. Most fled the lengthy British occupation. When it appeared in the Newport Mercury, his was the first Jewish sermon published in North America.ĭuring the Revolution, Newport's Jews were loyalists and patriots. In 1773, Ḥayyim Caregal, a rabbi from Hebron in the Holy Land, preached in Newport. Ezra Stiles, the Congregational minister who became president of Yale College, documented the synagogue's dedication in 1763 as well as other aspects of Jewish communal life. It accommodated approximately 30 Jewish households or 200 people, less than two percent of the town's population. Peter Harrison, a Newporter and one of the colonies' most distinguished architects, designed an exquisite two-story brick building with a central bimah based on prototypes in Amsterdam and London. He gained renown as a merchant, shipper, and manufacturer.Ĭongregation Yeshuat Yisrael (Salvation of Israel) was established in 1756, and land for a synagogue was purchased three years later. By far the most successful was Aaron Lopez, who emigrated from Portugal in 1752. Several Jewish merchants flourished through trade with American ports, the West Indies, England, and West Africa. Newport's Jewish community was reestablished during the 1740s, when settlers arrived primarily from New York City. Jews Street was identified in John Mumford's map drawn in 1712. The Jewish cemetery, consecrated in 1677, was the subject of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem published in 1854. In 1658, approximately 15 Jews from Barbados settled in Newport. Newport became the first of five rotating capitals in a state still known officially as Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. Roger Williams, also an outcast from the Puritans' dominion, had founded Providence, at the head of Narragansett Bay, three years earlier. Founded in 1639 by religious dissenters from the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Newport is a city in Rhode Island, located at the southern tip of Aquidneck Island in Narragansett Bay. Virtual Jewish World: Table of Contents| North America| United States| Rhode Island
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