In the Jewish community of Newport, Passover this year is bittersweet because of a major change at Touro Synagogue.
A unanimous ruling by the Rhode Island Supreme Court cleared the way for the eviction of the Newport congregation that has worshipped at Touro for generations, bringing closure to a long legal dispute at North America’s oldest surviving synagogue.
Congregation Jeshuat Israel, a tight-knit community of Orthodox Jews who have worshipped at Touro for more than a century, handed over the keys to the building’s owner, Congregation Shearith Israel of New York.
“We rejoice that the Rhode Island courts applied the law,” said Louis Solomon, President of Shearith Israel. “We took possession last Thursday, and last Friday we had services.”
In some ways, this was a straightforward landlord-tenant dispute. But the case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court and back again. There was a lot at stake for both sides.
The ruling does not exactly come as a surprise to Congregation Jeshuat Israel, but that doesn’t make it any less disappointing for them, especially on the eve of Passover.
The leadership of Congregation Ahavath Israel, Touro’s new tenants, was sympathetic. President Paul Tobak and secretary-treasurer Jim Herstoff are Newporters themselves.
It’s not a big town. And the community of Orthodox Jews is even smaller. So everyone is treading carefully. Emotions run high on this issue. It’s a sore subject for some, especially now.
“It wouldn’t have mattered when it landed; it wasn’t a good day,” Tobak said. “So the dust hasn’t settled yet.”
Rabbi Stephen Belsky of the outgoing Congregation Jeshuat Israel summed up the mood this way: “There’s sadness. There’s anger. There’s anxiety. There’s concern. I think everybody just needs to chill for a while.”
Jeshuat Israel’s president Michael Pimental, was off on a business trip most of the week. He couldn’t be reached for comment.
For him, the eviction means leaving the place that’s been his family’s spiritual home for five generations. Touro is not just his house of worship, it’s the setting for almost every important milestone of his life.
“I was married here to my lovely wife Sarah; my son’s bris was held here; we mourned my mom’s passing here; and we’re planning for my daughter’s Bat Mitzvah in the building,” he told Rhode Island PBS Weekly in 2002.
The fallout between landlord and tenant started in 2012, when the Newport group tried to sell a set of antique silver bells — called rimonim — that were cast by a Jewish contemporary of Paul Revere.
The New Yorkers objected. The Newporters pushed back. Things pretty much went downhill from there.
Pimental insisted it was all a big misunderstanding.
“It was really a righteous thing,” he said. “We were looking to endow in perpetuity a living, breathing congregation with a rabbi in residence.”
Instead, they found themselves being accused of trying to sell their landlord’s valuables.
Congregation Jeshuat Israel believed the bells and the synagogue belonged to them.
The district court was sympathetic. But the appeals courts have all backed Congregation Shearith Israel’s claim.
The property at the heart of this dispute is a national historic site. Built in 1763, Touro Synagogue is an important landmark for American Judaism and religious freedom.
President George Washington visited in 1790. The rabbi at the time bent the president’s ear about the importance of creating “a Government, which to bigotry gives no sanction, to persecution no assistance.”
Washington echoed the rabbi’s language in his thank-you note and added his own fervent wish that Jews should thrive in the United States of America.
During the early 19th century, the Newport Jewish community started to dwindle. Touro’s original congregation entrusted the building to the older, more established Congregation Shearith Israel in New York.
Shearith Israel was America’s first Jewish community, established in 1654, nearly more than a century before Touro. Both were established by Sephardic Jews.
Touro sat vacant for decades until Newport’s Jewish community bounced back. In 1903, Shearith Israel signed a lease with Congregation Jeshuat Israel for a dollar a year.
Fast forward to 2004, when it came time to celebrate 350 years of American Judaism, the guest of honor at Touro, hosted by both congregations, was Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg.
In her speech, Ginsberg spoke about how the vision expressed in Washington’s letter meant unprecedented opportunities in America.
“What is the difference between a New York City Garment District bookkeeper and a Supreme Court justice? Just one generation. My life bears witness,” she said.
“Where else but in the USA could that happen?”
Now that the courts have cleared the way for a new chapter in Newport, Lou Solomon of Shearith Israel has high hopes for Touro’s future.
“Now is a time to rebuild, both within the community and the building itself,” he said.
“We’re going to talk in a year, I hope, and you’re going to see there’s a vibrancy because of people coming in for new programming and also because the community will have rebuilt itself.”
“I’m going to do everything I can to make the Jewish people of Newport feel welcome,” said Paul Tobak of the incoming Congregation Ahavath Israel.
But the Newport schism has been tough on everyone.
Last weekend, both congregations held Passover services, Congregation Ahavath Israel at Touro and Congregation Jeshuat Israel across the street.
Neither one had a minyan, a quorum of 10 adult men required to say certain prayers.
“Hopefully we can all relearn to live together as one community, whether as separate congregations or together,” said CJI’s Rabbi Belsky. “Just as long as there’s mutual respect, and caring, and love.”
Thursday morning brought a small but important step in that direction. Both congregations said Passover prayers together with Rabbi Belsky presiding.
