Touro Synagogue Opens Loeb Visitors Center
Newport, Rhode Island's First Synagogue is a National Historic Site
Aug 18, 2009
Touro Synagogue is a cobblestone's throw from trendy 21st-century Newport Harbor, however, America's oldest standing synagogue with an active congregation dates back to 1658. It all began when 15 persecuted Sephardic Jewish families set sail from the Caribbean to begin a new life in Rhode Island's port city. They were lured to the newly formed state by Governor Roger Williams' belief in liberty of conscience and the separation of church and state.
The History of Touro Synagogue
The founding Jews practiced in private homes until they numbered 200 by 1763. Yet despite integrating into the community, they lacked a synagogue, a cemetery and a rabbi. Isaac Touro, a 19-year-old-rabbi from Amsterdam agreed to go to Newport where he convinced Peter Harrison, a Quaker architect, to build a synagogue. He'd never seen one and feared he'd build a church, which accounts for his Palladian-inspired Touro Synagogue that resembles Amsterdam's temple. And it was built on an angle to face due east and where the men sit downstairs and the women sit in the upper galley. Today, the building retains its authenticity: all wood and brass is original, interior columns are wood tree trunks, and the artifacts date from the synagogue's founding. The oldest item is a 500-year-old Torah, handwritten on deer skin, and a present from the Amsterdam congregation.
In 1776 and during the American Revolution, British soldiers seized Touro Synagogue and used it as a hospital. Thankfully, the building was not destroyed, unlike 300 others in Newport. The temple languished for many years thereafter, being used only for civic ceremonies. It reopened as a religious house of worship in 1883 to become one of America's 10 architectural gems and a symbol of religious freedom. The building was completely restored in 2006. Its original colonial-green interior color was found under 18 layers of lead-based paint.
Today's Congregation Jeshuat Israel has approximately 110 member families. The congregation sponsors varied programs of religious, educational, social and cultural activities. Life-cycle events include Bar/Bat Mitzvahs and weddings.
George Washington and Touro Synagogue
Rhode Island was the last of the 13 original colonies to sign the Constitution, and President George Washington went to the state to thank its citizens. When Newport's Jewish colony asked him to define freedom of religion, he wrote his famous 1790 Letter to the Hebrew Congregation of Newport. In it he pledged that the newly formed United States would give "to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance." He believed that toleration of one's belief was an inherent natural right that also extended to the Jews who were maligned for centuries, beginning with their expulsion from Spain in 1492.
Ambassador John L. Loeb Jr. Visitors Center at Touro Synagogue
It took 12 years and $12 million for the Loeb Visitors Center to open on August 2, 2009. Ambassador Loeb is the sole financier and a descendant of Isaac Touro and his sons, Abraham and Judah. He remembers being ridiculed in his younger years for his Jewish roots, which inspired him to undertake the visitors center project. Its mission is to educate guests to understand the origins and meaning of America's commitment to religious freedom. It also marks the role of the Jewish people in building the multicultural foundations of a new nation.
Ambassador Loeb has been granted the right to be buried in the synagogue's cemetery, which was purchased in 1677 and has not been used in over a century. The Touro Synagogue founders and nine prominent families are interred there. Although closed to public access, the cemetery can be viewed from its corner location at Zion Place and Bellevue Avenue in Newport.
"As the curator, your remarks make me feel wonderful," said David Kleinman when a visitor commented that the center's video, multimedia and interactive exhibits breath live into the past. His hope is that visitors will interpret the center's message not as purely religious but an American history one as well.
The stunning, two-story building is highlighted with an interactive "Portrait Tree." The floor-to-ceiling framed images are from Loeb's personal database of Early American Jewish Portraits. A nearby touch screen panel allows the visitor to scroll over the portraits for highlights of the person's life.
The second-floor is not to be missed. A colorful backdrop depicts scenes of Newport's colonial community and has multimedia vignettes with earphones. The actors showcase an era taken from the diaries of Reverend Ezra Stiles who was an 18th-century Congregational minister in Newport.
Steps from Touro Synagogue and the Loeb Visitors Center is downtown Newport and Thames Street, which is a quaint thoroughfare of shops and restaurants. The harbor is there, too, complete with boats and luxury yachts.
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