USA > Rhode Island > Newport County > Newport > Touro Synagogue of Congregation Jeshuat Israel, Newport, Rhode Island > Part 6
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6
[ 59 ]
other colonies in North America looked to Newport as the mother community of their faith. When the Congregation Jeshuat Israel, after a hundred years, built a synagogue in Newport, they were aided with funds from congregations in both North and South America and in England. They were particularly aided by the services, without pay, of Peter Harrison, the most distinguished of Colonial architects. Neither a Jew nor a professional archi- tect, he already had designed a library and a market for the town and Anglican churches for Boston and Cambridge; and he crowned his work with the Newport Synagogue. All these buildings are still famous, but the Synagogue has been singled out by the Federal government for perpetuation as a national historic site.
Each of us who now came from a distance to the venerated shrine had an interest stronger than tourist curiosity. The Colonel's Jewish ancestors had gone from Spain to England instead of to Holland and America; but they, too, had been exiles. The Minister, a Baptist, knew that the earliest settlers in Rhode Island had been of that denomination and had been refugees. The Catholic Judge was our escort to the Synagogue, proud of Newport's record of fellowship of Protestant, Catholic, and Jew.
The Touro Synagogue is a square brick building, which stands at an angle to Touro Street, so that the Ark can face directly east. Inside the massive fence of stone and iron is a monument with a bronze tablet on which are words taken in part from the Rhode Island Charter of 1663: "Dedicated to the principle that all and everye person and persons may from tyme to tyme and at all tymes hereafter frellye and fullye have and enjoye his and theire owne judgments and consciences in matters of Religious Concernments."
Inside the door of the synagogue are memorable words of George Washington, who, when he was President came here in August, 1790, was welcomed by the warden of the congregation, and in his reply nobly confirmed the fundamental rights of men, not merely to toleration but to fellowship.
"The Citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy, a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship.
[ 60 ]
It is now no more that toleration is spoken of as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people, that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights. For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, and to perse- cution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support."
On the other side of the entrance is a memorial tablet to Isaac Touro, "Rabbi of this Synagogue from its dedication 5523-1763 until the American Revolution," the dates symbolically commem- orating a Jewish year, a Christian year, an American year."
Somehow all these elements seem to meet in the interior of the Synagogue, which at first sight looks like many a fine New England church. It is white except for the domed ceiling, which is blue with silver stars. The twelve pillars, six on a side, that support the gallery represent the tribes of Israel; but they are cut from the trunks of New England trees, and the capitals are Ionic. Above them Corinthian columns rise to the beams on which the ceiling rests. The Ark is in form a superb Georgian cupboard against the east wall, beautifully carved and painted white. The lamp before the Ark, with its perpetual flame, the bronze candelabra hanging from the dome, and the clock on the gallery are the work of eight- eenth-century craftsmen in the strong yet graceful style of their period. And against another wall is the seat of the presiding warden, not a mimic throne, but a high pew with a solid rail in front of it.
To my mind's eyes, Washington now seemed visibly present, listening to the welcome of the congregation and rising to respond in words I imagined I could hear as he reached his grave conclusion: "May the Children of the Stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other inhab- itants, while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig-tree, and there shall be none to make him afraid. May the Father of all mercies scatter light and not darkness in our paths, and make us all in our several vocations useful here, and in His own due time and way everlastingly happy."
I suppose the rabbi and the warden on that occasion opened
[ 61 ]
the Ark and revealed to Washington the magnificent scroll of the Law, which the Newport Jews are said to have brought from Spain through all their wanderings. Perhaps they showed him, beneath the central reading desk, the secret underground passage, never needed in Rhode Island, but like the hidden shelters used by their forefathers in the dread days of the Inquisition. These things, and the different tenets of Jew and Christian, did not divide the hosts from their honored guest. They were all Americans together, valu- ing justice and equality, and desiring to live in peace. For that matter, this exchange of courtesies between the Jews of Newport and Washington was only one of the notable events of that August day. For he had come on his first visit to Rhode Island since the state had belatedly ratified the Constitution of the United States and thereby entered the Federal Union. If the Jews welcomed him, so did the clergy and the Masons and the freemen of Newport. Let the union of states bring with it a union of minds and hearts.
The Colonel and I talked as we went out into the bright sun of the bitter change in the relations between races and religions since the centuries of Roger Williams and George Washington. An unspeakable generation of hatreds has led the nations through an unutterable war, and once more homeless men wander over the face of the violent earth looking for refuge in a world full of anger and brutality. Did mankind learn nothing in the long struggle that established, in principle at least, the "inherent natural rights" of men? Must we, without faith in those principles, go through the whole struggle again, fumbling our way to the light of reason and justice? If we must, then we must. It is the price we have to pay if we are to survive at all in a life worth living. But there have been some gains, the Colonel and I believed, which promise not to be lost. Whole nations are resolved that their governments shall "give to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance." Millions of men and women in their daily lives instinctively practise fellow- ship in religion and fraternity in race. These are the seeds of the only good future mankind can have. No pilgrim who visits the Touro Synagogue will forget that here the American government has put its approval on a shrine that may be cherished for ages by the people.
[ 62 ]
MAN DOTH NOT LIVE BY BREAD ALONE
UGUST 31, 1947 was a lovely summer day. The city of Newport was bustling with preparation for the annual parade of Gay Nineties floats. Some of the displays were even to recall Rhode Island's earliest days, when Newport was a great commercial and fishing port. But that same morning, by train and plane and car, visitors from distant cities were arriving for a ceremony that was to commemorate not only the beginnings of the city itself, but the growth of religious freedom as a basic principle in the development of American life as a whole.
These visitors, many of them known to the whole nation, came to see and take part in the dedication of the Touro Synagogue in Newport as a national historic site. The beautiful eighteenth- century structure had been designated as such by the United States Department of the Interior on March 5, 1946, and the formal dedication of this first Jewish house of worship to be so honored was to take place early this Sunday afternoon.
The services began at one o'clock. Carl Van Doren, the noted American historian, acted as master of the formal ceremonies. The Honorable Joseph W. Martin, Jr., Speaker of the House of Repre- sentatives, delivered the main address. Dr. David de Sola Pool, rabbi of the Spanish-Portuguese Synagogue in New York City, gave the benediction. (Many members of the Congregation Shearith Israel are direct descendants of the Jewish families who first settled in Newport in 1658.) Miss Patrice Munsel, youngest star of the Metropolitan Opera, enriched the occasion with her fine soprano voice. Dr. Francis S. Ronalds of the National Park Service, Department of the Interior, unveiled the tablet on the outer wall of the Synagogue, concluding the ceremonies.
Many other dignitaries of church and state participated,
[ 63 ]
including Governor John O. Pastore of Rhode Island, and the Honorable Edward G. Gladding, Mayor of the City of Newport. The White House was represented by a presidential aide. Many other notables, including Senator Theodore Francis Greene, Admiral Thomas Ross Cooley, Colonel Earl Metzger, were present.
President Harry S. Truman sent the following message to Dr. Bernard C. Friedman, President of Congregation Jeshuat Israel of Touro Synagogue:
"I am happy to congratulate the Congregation Jeshuat Israel and the community of Newport, Rhode Island, on the setting apart of the Touro Synagogue as a national shrine. It is fortunate that the venerable fabric of the Synagogue, opened on December 2, 1763, a century after the founding of the Congregation, is still in use and admired by all lovers of good architecture.
"The setting apart of this historic shrine as a national monument is symbolic of our tradition of freedom, which has inspired men and women of every creed, race and ancestry to contribute their highest gifts to the development of our national culture.
"I trust that through long centuries to come the spirit of good-will and tolerance will ever domi- nate the hearts and minds of the American people."
The audience filled the little synagogue, overflowed the lawns outside, and crowded the porch and windows of the Jewish Community Center on the other side of the street. A public address system broadcast the proceedings to the hundreds of people gathered outdoors. Protestant, Catholic and Jewish, they had come to witness a physical ceremony of truly spiritual significance. By their presence they demonstrated, as Mr. Van Doren said, that "there can be no great nations without faithful memories of great deeds and great thoughts. When, as this afternoon, a generation honors a shrine consecrated to justice and holiness, that generation does honor to the best in itself as well as to the shrine. Those who here
[ 64 ]
pay tribute to history now make further history, and become themselves a part of it."
Through the facilities of radio, press and screen, Americans throughout the country participated in the event. In the wide- spread interest aroused by this historic occasion, there was manifest the feeling that in the United States, people of many creeds, of many backgrounds and ancestries, live together in peace, because here people and government share the faith that freedom is the birthright of all men.
The Editors
[ 65 ]
FG
6/8/2012 2637955 21 00
HF GROUP - IN
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.