For such a small state, Rhode Island has had a major impact on one of the most important tenets of the U.S. Constitution. It refused to ratify the Constitution (it was the last of the 13 colonies to do so) until assurances were made that a Bill of Rights including – most importantly for us as Jews – complete religious freedom would be a part of it.
The story has it that George Washington was miffed at Rhode Island for holding out and would not visit. Once the colony joined the Union, he returned to the city, and from this third visit to the synagogue (he visited it twice as a general), came the famous letter he wrote to the congregation. In response to a note from shamash Moses Seixas sending his good wishes to the administration, President Washington wrote, in part, that America “gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.“ And he added, “…May the children of the Stock of Abraham…continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other Inhabitants….”
This was the guarantee of religious freedom; Jews were not here by tolerance, but by right.
From the beginning, Rhode Island welcomed people of all religions, and Jews found a home there. The earliest Jewish residents came from Barbados and were of Spanish and Portuguese origin. As the Jewish community grew, it requested that a rabbi be sent from Amsterdam to Newport to guide them. Nineteen-year-old Issac Touro, a yeshiva student, was the only one willing to come as the chazzan (he was not ordained). After being in Newport for a time, he worked towards the creation of the first synagogue. Peter Harrison, a well-known architect, was hired, and the beautiful structure we see today was built, completed in 1763. It is now on the National Register of Historic Places.
Isaac Touro also immediately demanded that a school be built adjacent to the synagogue; through the school is the entrance to the women’s balcony.
Isaac Touro guided the synagogue through the Revolution, when the British occupied the city. A loyalist, he offered the use of the synagogue to the British, and they occupied it for three years as their field hospital. But Isaac Touro had another motive: at a time when most of the town was being destroyed, the shul remained untouched.
The building is almost a complete square and is considered one of the finest examples of colonial architecture: from its columns to the ornate chandeliers to the brass candlesticks – a gift from a member in honor of the bar mitzvah of their son and so inscribed in Hebrew. One of its treasures is a 500-year old sefer Torah, gifted to it from Amsterdam when the synagogue was founded.
Touro Synagogue is the oldest functioning synagogue in the United States, is orthodox, and has minyanim twice a day and on Shabbat. Three sitting presidents, along with other notable personages, have been among its visitors – George Washington as mentioned above, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and John F. Kennedy (who was married in Newport but not at the shul). A special “box” is on one of the side walls (the only part of the shul that is not symmetrical), and this is where the president of the shul and dignitaries sit. The president of the shul today, who is a woman, sits upstairs.
Photography is not allowed inside the building, so these are taken from the open doorway.
After the tour of the shul – hosted by a knowledgeable and interesting guide – and the visitor’s center, we spent a few hours in the afternoon walking around Newport. We found, by accident – as we got lost looking for our car which we had parked on a side street – a kosher vegan restaurant under the supervision of the rabbi of the Touro Synagogue.
As in Salem, we walked past old buildings from the 1700s still being lived in. Large and small ships fill the harbor. Lots of shopping, lots of tourists, a mixture of old and new – Newport was a delightful place for a pretty summer afternoon.
This had been an enjoyable, educational day, with what turned out to be beautiful weather.