Touro Synagogue and Aaron Lopez
Congregation Jeshuat Israel (“Saviour of Israel”) is also known as the Touro Synagogue. Noteworthy artifacts include a 500-year-old Torah scroll from the Esnoga in Amsterdam, as well as a clock and two charity boxes from Bevis Marks in London.
Aaron Lopez, a prominent Newport merchant, was associated with brothers David and Abraham Lopez. While his relationship to Isaac Lopez in Boston or Gabriel Lopez in London remains uncertain, families residing in Newport before 1777 include Lopez, Rivera, and Mendez.
Research Resources for Sephardic Jews in Newport, Rhode Island
- Rhode Island Jewish Historical Association
- Rhode Island Jewish Museum
- Rhode Island State Archives – Rhode Island Jewish Historical Notes
- Colonial Jewish Burial Ground
- The Center for Jewish History houses the Touro family (Newport, R.I.) Papers and Aaron Lopez Papers.
Books About Sephardic Jews in Newport, Rhode Island
- Touro Synagogue of Congregation Jeshuat Israel, Newport, Rhode Island
- Aaron Lopez and Judah Touro; a refugee and a son of a refugee by Morris Aaron Gutstein
- The story of the Jews of Newport; two and a half centuries of Judaism, 1658-1908 by Morris Aaron Gutstein
- To bigotry no sanction; a Jewish shrine in America, 1658-1958 by Morris Aaron Gutstein
- The Jews of Newport by Leon Hühner
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