Rhode Island: Newport's Jewish history

In 1790, George Washington visited Newport, Rhode Island.

A few days later, he wrote a letter to the synagogue members - Sephardim who had fled the Inquisition, settled in the Dutch West Indies, were expelled in the 1650s and came to America.

Congregation Jeshuat Israel (established 1658) is now Touro Synagogue (dedicated 1763), the oldest synagogue in America. It was designated a National Historic Site in 1946. In 2001, the National Trust for Historic Preservation selected Touro to become part of its collection of historic sites.

The letter assured Jews of full citizenship in the US.

Wrote Washington, “…the government of the United States… gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance… every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree, and there shall be none to make him afraid.”

Each year, the letter is read aloud in the synagogue; this year the date was August 22 and some 150 people gathered to hear the 63rd annual reading.

Following the reading, guests visited the Ambassador John L. Loeb Jr. Visitors Center, which opened last August. It is a state-of-the-art museum spotlighting Touro's role in the birth of religious freedom and contributions Jews have made to America. Loeb funded the center; his ancestors were among Touro's first congregants, including the first spiritual leader, Isaac Touro.

Guests also toured the Colonial Jewish Burial Ground, near the synagogue, where many founding families are buried. Perhaps the most notable is Judah Touro, a Newport-born philanthropist whose donation funded the restoration and maintenance of the cemetery, the second oldest Jewish cemetery in America.

For more information on the annual event, see the Rhode Island Jewish Voice & Herald for the story by Nancy Abeshaus. For more on the Touro Synagogue, click here.

Reunion: Dokshitsy diaspora, August 20-22

Are you a descendant of Dokshitsy?

Your destination this summer should be the Dokshitsy Diaspora Reunion, August 20-22, in Warwick, Rhode Island.

Aaron Ginsburg has been planning this for some time, and people are coming from Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York.

It's a chance to meet other descendants.

Speakers will include Eva Fogelman, who will speak on the psychology of remembering your Dokshitsy roots. A National Archives speaker is anticipated.

Also coming will be Joel Alpert. He created the Dokshity website and coordinated placing the Yizkor book English translation online. Another participant was born in the town.

The reunion will be held at the Radisson Providence Airport Hotel, with special rates for Dokshitsy descendants.

Visit the Dokshitsy Facebook Page here for more information or visit JewishDokshitsy.org for much more, including gravestone photos.

Catskills Institute: New website, new content

Tracing the Tribe is delighted to announce that the new website of The Catskills Institute, created by Professor Phil Brown - its president - is now ready.

Phil, a Brown University sociology professor, and I met years ago when our daughter attended the school.

He's a Catskills kid whose parents were involved in the White Lake hotel industry, while my grandparents built a large, popular bungalow colony - Kauneonga Park - at the other end of the lake.

He also spoke at the IAJGS New York 2006 conference to a packed room.

Visit the new website here.

The Catskills Institute is very grateful to Brown University for its support through the Scholarly Technology Group and the Center for Digital Scholarship. Elli Mylonas, Ann Caldwell, Robin Ness, and Kerri Hicks spent countless hours developing this new archive and its website.

Thousands of items from the Catskills Institute Archives have been scanned in at high resolution, and accompanying metadata provides much useful background information.

Visitors can now search for all sort of materials by hotel or bungalow colony name, by type of object (e.g. menu, postcard, stationery) or by thumbnail.

Alfred Landis created beautiful drawings of Catskill properties for postcards and a whole section of the site is devoted to Landis' art. We know there was a Landis card for Kauneonga Park but no one seems to have a copy of it.

Catskills "kids" can post comments and queries on the bulletin board - no telling whom you might find from your childhood summers in the mountains!

Phil and many others have created this new archive and website which preserves the legacy of the Jewish Catskills. So many of us grew up there, either as annual summer visitors from the city or as year-round residents. Geneabloggers.com's Thomas MacEntee grew up in Liberty, not far from Kauneonga Lake.

There are plans to keep adding more material, so donations are always in order to provide for the addition of many additional origial materials and make more resources accessible.

Take a look at the site and leave a comment, ask a question, enjoy the site and its resources.

Rhode Island: Touro synagogue's money problems

The JTA reported that the oldest Jewish synagogue in the US - Touro Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island - has canceled public tours and fired the last two paid staff members.

There are plans to open a museum of American Jewish history.

Summer 2009 already reserved group tours will be offered, but no new ones will be booked.

A National Historic Site, the popular Jewish tourist destination was built in 1763. The National Trust for Historic Preservation named it the country's first religious historic site in 2001.

Tracing the Tribe has previously posted about Touro Synagogue. Search for "rhode island" and previous postings will pop up.

Rhode Island: Touro Synagogue

Talk about energy efficiency. The Touro Synagogue's low-watt bulb in its eternal light - ner tamid - has burned for more than a century since the building was electrified in the 1880s.

The Los Angeles Jewish Journal's story on the historic structure in Newport, Rhode Island, also touched on other curiosities of history.

Built nearly 250 years ago, Touro - the oldest synagogue in the United States and the only one remaining from pre-Revolutionary times - is famous for its longevity, architectural elegance and status as a symbol of American civil liberty.

Any mention of the synagogue (for example, this one) must include a reference to the 1790 letter from George Washington assuring Touro's congregants and all "Children of the Stock of Abraham" that "happily the Government of the United States ... gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance."

Yet for most people, Touro is a tour stop, a footnote in American Jewish history, or at best, a chapter heading. Even Rabbi Mordechai Eskovitz, who had always included Touro (and Washington's letter) in the history classes he taught, "presumed it was just a museum," he said, "not a functioning synagogue."

That is, until he heard they were hiring.

"I thought, 'What a great opportunity to relive Jewish history,'" said the rabbi, who has led the congregation for the last 12 years.

With about 130 families, Congregation Jeshuat Israel's services are Orthodox Sephardic - men pray from benches surrounding the reading platform while women sit in the upstairs gallery. It is not affiliated with any major denomination. The congregation's family includes tourists, Newport Naval Station officers and local families. Some 30,000 visit each year on weekday tours. Attendees range from the Orthodox to liberal and Chasidim.

It is history in action. Set on one of the town's highest points, it faces east towards Jerusalem. In 1759, Dutch-born hazan Rev. Isaac Touro commissioned architect Peter Harrison to draw the plans. Records indicate Harrison never sent a bill, and called it a "labor of love."

Early day visitors included President George Washington and minister Ezra Stiles - who would become Yale University president - studied Hebrew with Touro's rabbis. During Stile's office, Hebrew was a requirement for all students and valedictory speeches were given in Hebrew and are part of the school's seal. More contemporary visitors included Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy, and various Jewish celebrities.

According to the story, this year is the 350th anniversary of Newport's Jewish community - the second in North America. Its earliest founders came from Curacao, four years after a group of Jewish families arrived in New York in 1654.

The Jews of Rhode Island chose Roger Williams' colony because it was founded as a haven of religious tolerance more than 100 years before the American Revolution.

It is the National Park Service's only Jewish National Historic shrine. The rabbi says that many visitors rediscover their own connection to Judaism on a visit. Additionally, he says that Jews are building or buying summer homes near the synagogue and he's raising money to build a new mikva to replace the old one that has not functioned for 50 years.

Following a complete restoration in 2006, the sanctuary reopened with its original candelabra and candlesticks and inscriptions dating to the 1700s. A 500-year-old Torah scroll is displayed.

And also among the "artifacts" uncovered by the crew was the original light bulb from the ner tamid, which, when replaced in its socket, glowed once again -- a fitting symbol in a building that has always been a symbol.

Read more here

Jewish genealogy in Boston, Sept. 23

The Jewish Genealogical Society of Greater Boston (JGSGB) has scheduled "Faith, Family & Freedom in Colonial Jewish Newport, Rhode Island," with speaker Keith Stokes, a direct descendant of the Touro family of 18th century Newport. The Touro synagogue is named for the family.

The presentation is from 1.30-4.30pm Sunday, September 23, at Waltham's Gann Academy. For directions, click here. Admission is free for members, $5 for others.

A Newport native, Stokes is a frequent national, state and local lecturer in community and regional planning, historic preservation, and interpretation with an
expertise in early African and Jewish American history.

He will include images of early Jewish families and historic structures that still exist where they once lived, worked and worshipped. The program will also offer images and artifacts from Stokes' family, from 18th-century Newport and Boston through 19th-century Richmond, Virginia, and back to Newport in the 20th century.

Mark your calendars now for more interesting JGSGB events:

October 14:
Henry Wellisch (Toronto), "The Austro-Hungarian Empire; Conventional and Non-Conventional Resources"

November 11:
Moshe Tessone, "Contemporary Sephardic Communities in America - History and Overview"

December 2:
Judith Romney Wegner, "Jews Down Under: Tracing My Colonial Ancestors"

See the JGSGB website for more information.

Touro Synagogue celebrates Washington Letter

The Touro Synagogue Foundation, in Newport, Rhode Island, will celebrate the 60th annual reading of George Washignton's historic letter, "To the Hebrew Congregation at Newport," on Saturday, August 18 and Sunday, August 19.

Activities celebrate and commemorate George Washington’s famous letter, written a year before the Bill of Rights was ratified, providing an unequivocal guarantee that the new country would be a safe haven for religious minorities.

Shabbat morning services begin at 8.45 a.m. Saturday, followed by a 2 p.m. lecture, “Viewing Colonial Newport Through the Prism of Jewish History,” presented by Stephen Kaplan, followed by a choice of three guided walking tours. A gala reception will take place that evening.

The letter reading will take place at 1 p.m. Sunday at the Touro Synagogue, with the keynote address by Brown University president Ruth Simmons.

For details, including reservations and fees, click here.