Touro Synagogue

Touro Synagogue Review

In 1658, more than a dozen Jewish families whose ancestors had fled Spain and Portugal during the Inquisition founded a congregation in Newport. A century later, Peter Harrison designed a two-story Palladian house of worship for the congregation. George Washington wrote a famous letter to the congregation in which he pledged the new American nation "would give to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance." Now the oldest surviving synagogue in the United States, it was dedicated in 1763 and its simple exterior and elegant interior remain virtually unchanged. A small trapdoor in the platform upon which the Torah is read symbolizes the days of persecution when Jews were forced to worship in secret. The John L. Loeb Visitors Center opened in 2009 with two floors of state-of-the-art exhibits and multimedia presentations interpreting early American Jewish life and Newport's colonial history. The last synagogue tour is generally one hour before the visitor center closes.