Public Laws of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. Including: “An Act to Secure and Appropriate the Touro Jewish Synagogue Fund (pp. 476-78).

(AMERICAN JUDAICA).

Providence

1844

By the first quarter of the 19th century the synagogue of Newport Rhode Island (established in 1763) was used infrequently as the community there had dwindled. It was Abraham Touro’s bequest to the legislature of the state for “supporting the Jewish Synagogue in the State” that spurred the town to safeguard this architectural jewel. Endowing the building, even when it was not in use, protected it. It would come into regular use again when Eastern European immigrants reconstituted the Newport Jewish community. See Benton H. Rosen, The Touro Synagogue Fund, A Fiscal Review in: Rhode Island Jewish Historical Notes, pp. 236-44.