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TOURO SYNAGOGUE
OF CONGREGATION JESHUAT ISRAEL NEWPORT, RHODE ISLAND
FOUNDED 1658
THE OLDEST SYNAGOGUE BUILDING IN THE UNITED STATES DEDICATED 1763, DESIGNATED A NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE, 1946
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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01892 3588
GC 974.502 N47TO
TOURO SYNAGOGUE OF CONGREGATION JESHUAT ISRAEL NEWPORT, RHODE ISLAND
FOUNDED 1658 DEDICATED 1763
DESIGNATED AS A NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE, 1946
PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS OF TOURO SYNAGOGUE NATIONAL HISTORIC SHRINE, INC.
COPYRIGHT 1948 BY THE FRIENDS OF TOURO SYNAGOGUE NATIONAL HISTORIC SHRINE, INC. NEWPORT, RHODE ISLAND
ELEVENTH PRINTING MARCH, 1977
WARD'S PRINTING NEWPORT, RHODE ISLAND
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
I
Some Notes on The Touro Synagogue
By D. de Sola Pool
7
II
Peter Harrison
14
By Fiske Kimball
III
The Jews of Newport, R. I. in Pre-Revolutionary Days
16
By Dr. Morris A. Gutstein
IV Judah Touro 24
By Leon Huhner
30
V
Eulogy at the grave of Judah Touro
By Rev. Isaac Leeser
VI
The Jewish Cemetery
35
By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Dana
VII
Touro Synagogue as a National Historic Site
42
By Thomas J. Allen
VIII
Address
44
By Cornelius C. Moore
IX
The Restoration of Touro Synagogue
By Rabbi Lewis
48
X
The Good Future
59
By Carl Van Doren
63
XI
Man Doth Not Live by Bread Alone
By the Editors
DEDICATED 1763: DESIGNATED A NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE, 1946 EXTERIOR OF TOURO SYNAGOGUE
MADE BY ABRAHAM TOURO, ESQ,
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SOME NOTES ON THE TOURO SYNAGOGUE
BY D. DE SOLA POOL Rabbi, Congregation Shearith Israel, New York, N. Y.
HE TOURO SYNAGOGUE in Newport, dedicated on the first day of Hanukah, December 7, 1763, has the distinction of being the oldest synagogue building in the United States. It is antedated in the Western hemisphere only by the Mikveh Israel Synagogue in Curacao, consecrated in 1732, and by the Zedek ve Shalom Synagogue in Paramaribo, Surinam, which was dedicated in 1737. In the United States, the first building ever erected for a synagogue was dedicated in New York City in 1730. But it had to yield to the city's growth after a little over a century of use, and the very street, Mill Street, on which it stood, has long since disappeared. At the time when Newport Jewry was building its synagogue, there were Jewish communities also in New York City, Charleston, Savannah, Phila- delphia and Richmond. But none of these possesses a synagogue comparable in age to the Newport synagogue. Newport, the second oldest Jewish community in the United States, is proud to possess not only the loveliest but also the oldest synagogue building in the country.
When the synagogue was planned, Newport Jewry was made up of a small group, in the main of Iberian background. In the cemetery at the top of the street on which the synagogue stands, one may read inscriptions on their tombstones in Hebrew, English, Spanish, Portuguese and Latin, languages which testify to the general culture of Newport's Jews. But these Jewish settlers were but few in number, and they said of themselves in 1759 that they were "a congregation yet in its infancy." They therefore wrote to their fellow congregations a letter in which they said,
[ 7 ]
said Intentions, we have Likewise by Subscription design to Build a Synagogue; and for furthering our purchased a suitable Lot of Land, whereon we gregation in this Town we, therefore, have Lately "Sincerely desirous to establish a regular Con-
raised a small Fund wherewith to Begin, and carry on the Work and which in due Time we hope to see fully completed. At present finding our Abilities not equal to our wishes, for finishing the Work in
so short a time as we desire, we have resolved to
crave the Assistance of the several Congregations in America."
In reply, the New York community sent £149.0.6, about one-tenth of the total cost of the structure. Smaller contributions were made by Congregation Shaar Hashamayim in Jamaica, Congregation Shaar Hashamayim in London, Congregation Mik- veh Israel in Curacao, and Congregation Neveh Shalom in Surinam. From New York there were later received other gifts, such as the perpetual lamp hanging before the Ark that was the gift of Samuel Judah, the brass candlesticks set in front of the Ark and on the reading desk which were presented by Samuel Hart, and a hundred pounds of wax for making candles that was given by Hyam Myers. Of the other candelabra in the synagogue, the large central one containing representations of a human head was given by Jacob Pollock. The two smaller ones in the same style were presented by Naphtali Hart Myers and Aaron Lopez, while the six branched chandeliers were given in the name of Abraham, the three-year-old son of Jacob Rodrigues Rivera, and the six brass candlesticks were presented by Enoch Lyon.
The architecture of the building follows the standards of the Sephardic synagogues which look to that of Amsterdam as their mother synagogue. It is in this tradition that the seats are arranged not facing the Ark, but along the north and south walls at right angles to the Ark, so as to keep clear the space between the reading desk in the center and the Ark at the east end of the structure. In the same architectural tradition as that of the Amsterdam (1675) and the London (1701) Sephardic synagogues, the "banco" or
[ 8 ]
seat for the presiding officer, the "Parnas Presidente", is set in the middle of the north wall.
In the schoolroom adjoining the north gallery there is pre- served another link with the historic Sephardic synagogue in London. This is a copy of a painting made in London in 1675 by Aron de Chavez. The original is on canvas which cost £1.17.6, while the artist was paid but £5 for his work. It presents the initial Hebrew words of the ten commandments with Spanish translation between the lines, and Moses and Aaron flanking the giant twin tablets. The only other painting in the building is over the Ark where there is depicted the two tablets of the ten com- mandments, surmounted by the crowns of the Torah, the priest- hood and the royal house of David.
A striking and indeed unique, feature of the Newport synagogue building is the underground passage which starts beneath the reading desk and goes off towards the street. This may have been built for storage space, though local tradition, which often shows fine imagination, whispers that it was a hiding place and an unfinished channel of escape, constructed by men who in their new world of American freedom had not fully thrown off the boding sense of persecution and terror that had haunted their past.
The Touro Synagogue has its place in the general history of Newport. For from the days of the Revolution when the Jews of the town were scattered and Jewish religious services were no longer held, it was occasionally put to other uses. Thus, in 1780 the General Assembly of the State of Rhode Island held its first meeting in the synagogue building after the evacuation of Newport by the British. In the words on the tablet affixed to the building when it was officially designated as a national historic site:
"Here in 1781-84 the Rhode Island General Assembly met, and during Washington's visit to Newport in 1781 a town meeting was held here. The state supreme court held sessions here at that period."
Although there was some revival of the Jewish community of Newport following the Revolution, the remnants of the com-
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munity gradually moved away to such towns as New York, Boston, Richmond or Savannah. There was no rabbi, reader or shochet (ritual slaughterer) left in Newport, and by 1791 the synagogue was virtually closed. The scrolls of the Torah were then carefully taken to New York and deposited there in the care of Congregation Shearith Israel. The proprietary rights in the syn- agogue and in its cemetery were eventually vested in the trustees of that congregation. They still technically hold the legal title to the land and the building,
"in trust nevertheless and for the uses and purposes following, that is to say, to take possession of the said premises herein above described and every part thereof and to use and apply the same, or cause the same to be used, occupied and employed for the maintenance therein of the usual and stated Reli- gious Services according to the Ritual, Rites and Customs of the Orthodox Spanish and Portuguese Jews, as at the time practiced and observed in the Synagogue of the Congregation Shearith Israel in the City of New York."
In 1822, Moses Lopez, the last survivor of the old Newport Jewish community, left the town. From that time onwards the synagogue remained closed except on rare occasions when it was opened for the funeral of a member of one of the old families whose remains were brought back to Newport for interment in the ancestral cemetery. On one occasion the synagogue was opened for a member of the Hart family, a lady over eighty years of age, who came from Savannah to revisit the synagogue and sit once more in the seat she had occupied in her childhood. She took with her from the cemetery of her fathers in Newport a handful of earth eventually to be added to her grave in Savannah.
On August 2, 1850, "after a suspension of about sixty years" the synagogue was reopened for religious services
"by a few of the children of Israel temporarily sojourning in this city, and thus continued during the warm season whilst the requisite number remained to form a congregation."
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However, the synagogue was not opened regularly in summer during the following two or three decades, even at the height of the season. Nevertheless, occasional public services were held, and the synagogue was not infrequently opened for private worship by Judge Philip J. Joachimsen in the 1850s, and in the next decade by Lawrence Blumenthal and his son the physician, Dr. Mark Blumenthal.
In 1881, the synagogue was used for services on the High Holy days in the fall, and by 1883, the Jewish permanent settlers in the town were once more numerous enough to reorganize the communitiy and open the synagogue regularly for Sabbath services.
At that time the synagogue received the gift of a scroll of the Law from Mr. Alfred A. Marcus, of Boston, a descendant from a family of the Newport community of a century earlier. Later he gave a parchment scroll of the Book of Esther in a Pales- tinian olive wood case, and still later a silver breast plate for the Torah and an olive wood frame for the Omer counting. In 1892, the congregation received two pairs of silver bells for the Torah from Mrs. Edward Cohen of Washington, D. C., a descendant of Moses Michael Hays of the Revolutionary community in Newport.
Prior to the reorganization of the community in 1883, on occasions when religious services were held in the synagogue, the scrolls of the Torah and other necessary ritual objects had to be brought from Congregation Shearith Israel in New York, to which they were returned when the synagogue was once more closed.
From 1883, the story of the synagogue has been one of continuous and uninterrupted development. From that time on, the synagogue served not only the local community, but also the special needs of the uniformed Jewish men training at Newport. Thus, at the end of September, 1883, the Rev. Mr. Mendes wrote to the commander of Fort Adams and the commander of the training ship, saying that:
"I am informed that there are among the men under
your command several of the Jewish persuasion. I therefore beg to present to your notice the fact
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the High Holy Days of our faith will take place as follows: New Year, Tuesday and Wednesday, October 2nd and 3rd, Day of Atonement, Thurs- day, October 11th. I venture to request that you will in the exercise of your authority, permit such men to attend the services of the synagogue and to take part in the solemnities of the season."
Among the visitors to the synagogue in the second half of the nineteenth century, there could often be found descendants of the pre-Revolutionary Newport Jewish community. Thus, when the synagogue was first reopened for religious services in 1850, it is recorded that the services "were performed by several individuals including descendants of some of the old congregation of the second, third and fourth generation." Or again, in 1855 the synagogue was visited by Naphtali Phillips at the advanced age of 82 years, who recorded that he visited it "after an absence of fifty years." He recalls also "I was married in this town 58 years ago."
Because of the historic interest of the synagogue building, its fine harmonious architecture, and its outstanding character, there were always numerous Christian visitors as well as those of Jewish faith who sought out the building. Indeed, the visitors' book of the synagogue for the eight years ending in 1861, shows a record of 103 Jewish visitors and no less than 762 Christian visitors. Among those who found their way to the synagogue and signed the visitors' book were men and women from all over the United States, from Hungary, Poland, Morocco, London, Curacao, Honolulu, Melbourne, Barbados, Gibraltar and Peking.
But the Touro Synagogue was now no longer only an his- toric shrine to be sought out by visitors. Gradually it was becoming once more the generating center of an active Jewish religious life. By 1926, there were in Newport approximately 125 Jewish families with some hundred children of school age. The old synagogue with its one class room could not accommodate a religious school for this number of children and they were sometimes compelled to meet in the open air on the synagogue grounds, even in the biting cold of winter. Nor could the simple old synagogue building make
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room for the numerous communal activities which were centered in the congregation. Therefore at that time, the Jewish community purchased the old Sheffield house, facing the Mall, moved it to a plot of land on Touro Street opposite the synagogue, and recon- structed it to serve as a Jewish community center.
In 1759, the little Jewish community in Newport in appeal- ing for help to build the synagogue had written:
we reflect on how much it is our Duty to Instruct Children in the Path of Virtuous Religion; & how unhappy the portions must be of those Children and their Parents who are thro necessity, educated in a place where they must remain almost Totally uninstructed in our most Holy and Divine Law, our Rites & Ceremonies;
A century and a half later this new building was added to the synagogue, the educational, social and communal activities of the Jewish community of Newport having outgrown the fac- ilities of the ancient synagogue. But their shrine remained and remains the spiritual center of Newport Jewry, and a beloved shrine of pilgrimage for Americans of every faith. Fitting indeed has been the action of the United States government in making it a national site "for the inspiration and benefit of the people of the United States."
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PETER HARRISON
BY FISKE KIMBALL Director of Philadelphia Museum of Art
ETER HARRISON, the prince of the Colonial amateur architects, was born in England - probably at York - on June 14, 1716. He settled at Newport, Rhode Island in 1740, where he married and, in partnership with his brother, became a solid merchant in the import trade. The brothers moved in 1761 to New Haven, where Peter in 1768 became Collector of Customs, and lived until his death, April 30, 1775.
His fame rests in his designs in architecture, the most academic in the Colonies before those of Jefferson. The first drawings of his that we know are maps of Cape Breton and of Newport, the earliest being of 1745. In 1748 he designed the Redwood Library in Newport, following an engraving in Edward Hoppus' edition of Palladio, published in London in 1735. This itself follows a design by William Kent - the "proper priest" of Lord Burlington, the great English amateur - later engraved in Isaac Ware's Designs of Inigo Jones and Others, 1745, "a Garden Seat for Sir Charles Hotham". The Library was the first building in America to have a full temple portico, foretelling the classic revival.
All details of the Library were also drawn from English books, such as Kent's Designs of Inigo Jones, 1727, "with some additional designs" including those of Lord Burlington's villa at Cheswick from which, or from Hoppus' repetition of the motif, the Palladian windows were derived. The bookcases came from a plate of Batty Langley's Treasury of Designs, 1745.
The same plate of Langley also served for the altarpiece of King's Chapel, Boston (1749-54). Other of its details were drawn from James Gibbs' Book of Architecture, 1728, and his Rules for Drawing, 1732.
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PETER HARRISON, EsQ.
1716 1775 DESIGNER OF THE TOURO SYNAGOGUE
From a painting by Louis Sands (Copied from Smibert) Owned by the Redwood Library, Newport, R. I.
For the Brick Market in Newport (1761) he followed the favorite academic formula of an order of pilasters over a high basement, as embodied notably in Inigo Jones' Somerset House, illustrated in the Vitruvius Britannicus, 1715.
For all these designs Harrison received no pay, taking his reward in votes of thanks and pieces of plate.
In 1761, also, he gave the design for Christ Church in Cam- bridge, Massachusetts, and for this, a little off his beat, he did accept a payment of £45.
For the Synagogue in Newport - though it was built in 1762-63, after he left there - there is again no record of any payment in money. As before, he turned for inspiration to his books. The general scheme of the interior is that of one proposed for Whitehall Palace, illustrated in Kent's Designs of Inigo Jones - a two-storied hall with colonnaded aisles, Ionic below, Cor- inthian above. Again, for the Ark of the Covenant, he followed the plate of Langley he had used for the altar of King's Chapel; the panel above was based on an overmantel in Kent's Designs. Other details were drawn from Gibbs and Ware.
All these were combined with rare sense of harmony and proportion. The little building, lovingly preserved, is well worthy of its status as a National Monument, one of the most perfect works of Colonial architecture.
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THE JEWS OF NEWPORT, R. I. IN PRE-REVOLUTIONARY DAYS
BY DR. MORRIS A. GUTSTEIN
Rabbi, North Park Congregation Shaare Tikvah, Chicago, Illinois Formerly Rabbi, Congregation Jeshuat Israel, Newport, R. I.
N A SMALL street in Newport that less than two centuries ago was barren land, in the outskirts of a growing and striving city then on the verge of becoming a metropolis, there stands a beautiful shrine, an old synagogue. No glamor or splendor of marble strikes the eye of him who beholds this sanctuary. No display of riches and wealth invites the attention of the passer-by. Yet awe-inspired and aware of a mighty past stand those who tread the "lone floors where reverent feet once trod."
With admiration and reverence one stands in this holy place before the mystery of Time and God, where the present vanishes, and the past flashes before the mind in beautiful pictures, making an everlasting imprint on one's memory.
The history of this synagogue is the history of the Jews of Newport. It is the most fascinating chapter in the history of the Jews in America.
Nature has bestowed upon Newport great beauty of environ- ment. It was not the insignificant price of Aquidneck Island-forty fathoms of white beads, ten coats and twenty hoes-which per- suaded John Clarke, Anne Hutchinson, William Coddington and other refugees from religious intolerance to purchase the island. What persuaded them was the surrounding sea, the fine commodious harbor, the luxuriance of the foliage and the variety of the country- side of that pleasant spot which in 1639 became Newport.
THE FIRST CODE In the spirit of Roger Williams who advised them to purchase
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that land, the settlers of Newport adapted the spirit of religious equality and tolerance in the very first principles of their government. The code of laws, drawn up in 1647, concluded: "And otherwise than thus what is herein forbidden, all men may walk as their consciences persuade them, every one in the name of his God. And let the saints of the Most High walk in this colony without molestation in the name of Jehovah their God, forever and ever."
Such sentiments could have no other effect than to invite to the shores of Newport all those who because of their religious convictions could find no resting place elsewhere. Among these were Jews. Barely a decade after its settlement, the city thus received in its harbor a few Jewish families who had not been altogether welcomed by the stern Calvinists in what is now New York.
The first documentary evidence of the presence of Jews in Newport dates from 1658. In that year the document reads: "Wee mett att ye House of Mordecai Campunall and after Synagog Wee gave Abm Moses the degrees of Maconrie." This not only points to the early settlement of the Jews in Rhode Island, but it is the basis for the theory-which has been questioned by some-that the craft of Masonry was first introduced into America through the early Jewish settlers in Rhode Island, who seemed to have worked the degrees after religious services which were held in private houses.
In 1677, the "Jews and their Nation Society or Friends," purchased a plot of land for a burial ground. This is preserved to this very day, and is located at the beginning of the famous Bellevue Avenue, which at that time was named "Jews' Street."
The city grew gradually and with it the Jewish community. Practically a century was to pass from that time before the Jewish community of Newport became outstanding and laid the founda- tion of what is now the oldest synagogue building in America.
STRANGERS WELCOME
In 1684, the General Assembly voted: "In answer to the petition of Simon Mendez, David Brown, associates being Jews presenting to this Assembly bearing date June 24, 1684, we declare
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they may expect as good protection here as any strangers being not of our nation residing amongst us, in His Majesty's colony, ought to have, being obedient to His Majesty's laws."
Towards the end of the seventeenth century the Newport Jewish community was greatly increased by a large group of settlers who came from Curacao. These Jews, like their coreligion- ists already living in the city, were of Spanish-Portuguese origin. With their natural energy and ability, which they immediately set to good use, they brought new grace to Newport.
The Jews found the city of Newport in its full bloom in the beginning of the eighteenth century. When Dean Berkeley was greeted by the people of every background upon his arrival in New- port in 1729, he is quoted as having said: "The town of Newport is the most thriving place in America for bigness."
The "bigness" was not solely in the economic and commercial pursuits of the island, but equally so in religious, cultural and social enterprises. It was an index of the vitality of religion in the life of the people to note in a town of but small streets and about a half dozen lanes and wharves, three Baptist churches, two Congre- gational, one Church of England, and one Friends' house of wor- ship. At this time the Jewish congregation still held its services in private homes.
As the seed of religion was sown in the beginning of the colony, so was the seed of culture and education. In 1640 the city had a school supported by taxes. In the beginning of the eighteenth century, book-sellers flourished in Newport. As early as 1705 an attempt was made to establish a printing press in the city. In 1732 Newport had its first newspaper from the press and editorship of James Franklin, a brother of the famous Benjamin.
Dean Berkeley, upon coming to Newport found the city to be intellectually fruitful. He found here a receptive audience for his "Philosophical Society for the Promotion of Knowledge and Virtue by Free Conversation," which was organized for the purpose of discussing "Divinity, Philosophy, Morality and History." As one chronicler records: "The Quaker, the Baptist and the firm supporter of the Church of England maintained each his part; but
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the Quaker preacher and the Jewish Rabbi alike tenacious of their rules and doctrine, listened respectfully to the preaching of Berkeley."
The Philosophical Society was the intellectual forerunner of the Redwood Library, that living testimony of the culture of Newport in the early part of the eighteenth century. The Jew played his part in this intellectual growth of the city. Among the earliest members of the Redwood Library in 1747 were Abraham Hart, Moses Lopez and Jacob Rodriguez Rivera.
JEWISH MERCHANTS
These men were three outstanding Jewish merchants of colonial Newport. In the commercial prosperity of the town the Jews occupied high rank. By the middle of the eighteenth century, Jewish merchants in town owned seven vessels engaged in inter- colonial and foreign trade.
As active as they were in business, so were they active in manufacturing. As early as 1705, they had introduced into the colony the manufacture of soap. They joined in the established foundries as workers of brass and iron. They also worked as silversmiths. In the Seventeen Forties the Rivera family established the first spermaceti candle factory. The year 1750 saw "The Scotch Snuff Manufactory, Between Lopez Rivera & Cordoza in Comy." In 1753 the General Assembly granted a license to Moses Lopez for the manufacture of potash. And in 1761 James Lucena introduced in the colony the manufacture of Castile soap.
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