The Touro Legacy

The oldest synagogue in the US celebrates its 247th anniversary this Hanukka, with a hint of good things to come.

By DAVID GEFFEN
Touro Synagogue Newport 311 (photo credit: Courtesy)
Touro Synagogue Newport 311
(photo credit: Courtesy)
Hanukka this year marks the 247th anniversary of the dedication of the oldest synagogue building in the US. The synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island, received a major endowment in 1854 in the estate of Judah Touro, whose father Isaac was the cantor of that synagogue prior to the American Revolutionary War. The building was then labeled the Touro Synagogue. Touro also left $60,000 for the construction of Mishkenot Sha’ananim in Jerusalem, a notable building dedicated 150 years ago.
The Newport synagogue was first used in December 1763 during Hanukka. In the 1940s the building was placed on the National Historical Register of the US. It is the only synagogue building that has appeared on an American and an Israeli stamp. The American stamp was issued in 1982 just before Rosh Hashana, and the Israeli stamp appeared in 1988 as a series of stamps for Rosh Hashana.
When my sister-in-law and brother-in-law were studying at the University of Rhode Island in the 1970s, my wife and I and our three small children spent the Fourth of July weekend with them. We visited the Touro synagogue. The building is maintained in pristine fashion and contains candelabra from the 18th century. The Torah scrolls are adorned with ornaments made by colonial Jewish silversmith Myer Myers. Our children were most fascinated with the the trapdoor behind the bima that the guide suggested may have been used to escape from the British soldiers when they came to capture the Jewish patriots.
The first Jews arrived in Newport in 1658 just four years after the initial American Jewish immigrants landed in New Amsterdam – New York – in 1654. They were attracted by the proclamation of the colony’s founder, Roger Williams, that “liberty should be weighed out to all consciences of the world.”
Other Jewish families from the British West Indies soon joined them, and by 1677 the group was large enough to need its own burial ground. During the same period, a congregation called Jeshuat Israel was founded.
Joined by a number of Marranos in the first half of the 18th century, the congregation continued to meet for prayers in homes and rented premises. In 1759 a decision was made to construct a synagogue building. The noted American architect Peter Harrison was asked to design the structure, even though he had never seen a synagogue. He was able to create, according to various experts, “one of the most perfect works of colonial architecture.” By studying the plans and drawings of a number of synagogues in Europe, Harrison became knowledgeable enough to accomplish his task in a very special fashion. Since he never received a fee for his work, it is assumed that he designed the building as a labor of love.
Four years were required to complete the synagogue. The 196,715 bricks used were imported from England. Not one nail was hammered; only wooden pegs were inserted to hold the sacred structure together.
It appears that the synagogue was modeled after the famed Sephardi synagogue in Amsterdam built in 1675. The construction in Rhode Island was completed in 1763, and the official dedication took place on Hanukka; The current anniversary, 247, is equivalent in Hebrew numerology to the letters resh, mem, zayin – the word remez: a “hint” for all the good to come for this congregation.
Isaac Touro settled in New York during the period when the British were still ruling there. His two sons, Abraham and Judah, became wealthy merchants in Massachusetts and Louisiana, and their financial assistance helped maintain the synagogue in the 19th century until it was closed for a period of time. The Touro inheritance ensured that the building was reopened and continually maintained.
After moving to New Orleans around 1800, Judah fought in the War of 1812, survived a serious wound and went on to become one of the leading merchants in the city. In his will he left major grants for all synagogues in the US, the largest sum going to the synagogue in Newport, where his father had served.
After the building was reopened following Judah’s death, it was renamed the Touro Synagogue and the street on which it is located became Touro Street. The original 1677 cemetery a few blocks away contains the grave of Judah Touro, who was reinterred there after being buried in New Orleans. The cemetery also bears the Touro name.
IN 1939 the Touro congregation played a notable part in Newport’s tercentenary celebration. Two of the key events centered around the synagogue. On June 23, interfaith services were held in the synagogue; on August 20 the congregation presented a monument to the city based on the theme of religious and civil liberty.
“Another ceremony,” according to the local paper, “that attracted nationwide attention was the reenactment of George Washington’s visit to the synagogue and famous address on religious liberty to the congregation given in 1790.”
The two major participants were W. Selden Washington, a descendant of the first president, and Philip Seixas, a descendant of Moses Seixas, leader of the congregation in 1790.
The Touro Synagogue was officially proclaimed a National Historical site by president Harry Truman in 1946. This tribute is visibly marked by a historical bronze plaque on the synagogue grounds, erected by the United States Parks Service. The inscription describes some of the highlights of the history of the building and the congregation.
Throughout the two and a half centuries of its existence, the synagogue has welcomed many famous visitors. The distinguished American Hebraist Dr. Ezra Stiles, a minister in Newport in the 18th century, spent numerous holidays there. In his papers at Yale University, there are descriptions in English and Hebrew of what he witnessed of the religious observances by the congregation in the 10 years before the Revolutionary War.
From Newport, Stiles moved to New Haven, Connecticut, and became the president of Yale College. A professor of Hebrew there, he urged his students to master the language so that they “would be able to understand the angels when they rose to heaven.”
In the 18th century many visitors from Palestine went to the synagogue to collect funds for “their suffering brethren in the Holy Land.” The best known was Haim Yitzhak Carigal of Hebron, who spent time in Newport and at the synagogue in the 1760s and 1770s. This Sephardi rabbi was described by Stiles in his diary, and the two exchanged letters in Hebrew, which are found in the Yale University archives.
Carigal left his real impact on American Jewish life through a sermon he gave at the synagogue on Shavuot in 1773. He delivered it in Ladino from a written text that he had prepared. The address was translated into English by Moses Seixas and was published in Newport during the summer. It was the first sermon preached by a Jew on American soil to be published in its entirety.
Every year now, distinguished visitors go to the synagogue and read the letter of George Washington sent to the congregation in 1790. Spelling out in clear terms the issue of religious liberty, the president provided the Touro Synagogue with another important foundation of the American Jewish heritage. He penned these famous lines: “Happily the government of the United States give to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.” These words form the border of the Touro Synagogue stamp issued by the US in 1982.


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