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Touro Synagogue’s future uncertain, as long-time Newport congregation faces eviction A long-running battle over control of the country’s oldest synagogue has escalated again in Newport, RI.
A leader of the Newport Jewish congregation being evicted from Touro Synagogue is calling the move a “shameful power grab.” Louise Ellen Teitz, the co-president of Congregation Jeshuat Israel, says she received a letter in October notifying the congregation that it “must vacate the Premises” by January 31, 2022. On the first day of February, Congregation Shearith Israel, the New York congregation that owns Touro Synagogue, filed a motion in Rhode Island District Court to evict Congregation Jeshuat Israel from the premises. That means the local congregation that has worshiped in the historic building for more than a century may have their lease terminated altogether. Louis Solomon, the president of the New Yorkbased Congregation Shearith Israel, said the move is not intended to displace congregants. “What we are doing is changing the board that's going to be overseeing Touro Synagogue. It's now populated by the [Congregation Jeshuat Israel] people. And we're going to terminate that,” he said. “Nothing is going to change with respect to the congregants. Nothing is going to change with respect to the rabbi. We hope he will stay.” In Newport, however, Teitz says the court filing has sent shockwaves through the Jewish community. “If what you really want to do is change the board, the way you do that, as far as I know, is you become a member and you work from within the organization,” she said. “That's how you change the board, unless you're sort of trying to do an outside coup.” A COMPLICATED RELATIONSHIP The history of why these two congregations are intertwined goes back hundreds of years. Touro Synagogue was built in 1763. When the British occupied Newport during the Revolutionary War, many Jewish families left the city. By the early 19th Century, the New York-based Congregation Shearith Israel was entrusted with the synagogue and its upkeep. Decades later, during the 1880s, the local Jewish community in Newport had grown and wanted to reopen the synagogue for regular services.
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The Bay • March 2022
In 1903, Congregation Jeshuat Israel, a Jewish Orthodox assembly, leased the synagogue for five years. That lease was extended for another five years in 1908. Technically, Congregation Jeshuat Israel hasn’t had a new lease since then. Nearly a century later, disagreement arose between the two communities when Congregation Jeshuat Israel tried to sell a historic pair of bellshaped ornaments that adorn the torah, called rimonim, to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston for over $7 million. Congregation Shearith Israel objected, arguing that the sacred finials weren’t the Newport congregation’s to sell. This dispute led to a years-long court battle that culminated in 2017, when a federal court decided that New York’s Congregation Shearith Israel owns the building and the historical artifacts
inside. The Newport congregation attempted to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court in 2019, but the court declined to intervene. As a result, Congregation Jeshuat Israel’s legal claim to Touro Synagogue remains as merely a holdover lessee. Teitz, the co-president of the Newport congregation, said this legal situation puts her community in a precarious position. “As long as we don't have a long-term lease, they control everything,” she said. “Because if we don't do what they want, they simply will terminate the lease, as they have now done.” ESCALATING TENSION Congregation Shearith Israel cites several recent events that contributed to their decision. In 2021, controversy arose after leaders of the New York
Photo by Antonia Ayres-Brown.
By Antonia Ayres-Brown
