Congregation Jeshuat Israel

Congregation Jeshuat Israel was the resident congregation at Touro Synagogue for the past 140 years until it’s recent eviction by the synagogue’s trustee, Congregation Shearith Israel of New York City. Congregation Jeshuat Israel now conducts services in the the Levi Gale House, it’s home and office, at 85 Touro Street, opposite the Touro Synagogue. Although our services are orthodox and follow the Nusach Sefard liturgy, we welcome all levels of observance for those who desire to pray with us. We serve the Newport/Aquidneck Island Jewish community and have a full-time Rabbi to meet our spiritual, educational, and life cycle needs. Our Rabbi and congregation members are involved in the secular life of our local communities providing various charitable and social functions throughout the year. Our Loeb Visitors Center, adjacent to Patriots Park just below the synagogue and operated by the TSF Newport, continues to tell the story of colonial Jewish founders of Newport and of their fight for religious freedom in the United States.

Touro Synagogue, dedicated in 1763, is the oldest synagogue building in the United States. A structure of exquisite beauty and design steeped in history and ideals, the synagogue is considered one of the ten most architecturally distinguished buildings of 18th century America and the most historically significant Jewish building in the United States. The congregation was founded in roughly 1658 by descendants of Conversos who fled the Inquisitions in Spain and Portugal and who themselves left the Caribbean seeking the greater religious tolerance that Rhode Island offered. In his famous letter to the “Hebrew Congregation in Newport,” written in 1790, President George Washington pledged that our new nation would give “to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.”

Touro Synagogue has been and continues to be a symbol of religious freedom for all Americans. It was designated a National Historic Site in 1946.