Saving Monticello: The Newsletter
The latest about the book, author events, and more
Newsletter Editor - Marc Leepson
Volume XX, Number 3 March 2023
“The study of the past is a constantly evolving,
never-ending journey of discovery.” – Eric Foner
Here’s a quick, two-part Jewish-American History quiz that has connections to the Levy and Nunez families: Name
the oldest Jewish Congregation in the United States and the oldest synagogue in
the country. Hint: They are two different entities.
If you said Shearith Israel in New York City and Touro
Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island, you are correct. Congregation Shearith
Israel has the distinction of being the first Jewish Congregation in the
nation, having been founded in 1654 by Sephardic Jews who had immigrated to
Nieuw Amsterdam, as the city was then known, from Brazil.
Touro Synagogue, formally known as Jeshuat Israel, is the
second oldest congregation, having been founded a few years later, also by
Sephardic Jews. But it holds the honor of being the oldest American synagogue,
as its current building was erected 1763.
Shearith Israel’s massive Beaux Arts building on Central
Park West (the Congregation’s fourth, in photo below) is a relative newcomer,
having been completed in 1897.
Members of the Nunez and Levy families have been associated with Shearith Israel since around 1735 when Uriah Levy’s great grandmother Maria Caetana Nunez (known as Zipporah), and her husband, David Mendes Machado, moved to New York from Savannah, Georgia, when he was appointed hazzan at Shearith Israel.
Fast forwarding to the late 19th century, Louis
Napoleon Levy—Jefferson Levy’s brother, fellow attorney, and real estate
business partner—served as the president of Shearith Israel for many years
beginning in 1895.*
Which brings us to something I just learned: the longtime and not always harmonious relationship between Shearith Israel and Touro, and L. Napoleon Levy’s role in the late 1890s and early 1900s dispute between the two congregations that had its roots in the mid-18th century—and ramifications that continued until 2019.
It’s a very long and complicated story, spelled out in legal
documents that run to hundreds of pages. What follows is a short summary of the
dispute, which centered on which party owned the physical Touro building
and religious ornaments housed there.
The ownership question hinged on the fact
that in the mid-1700s religious institutions in Rhode Island could not
incorporate or own land. So when a group of Jews in Newport raised the funds to
buy land for its synagogue—including money donated by Shearith Israel—three
community leaders were chosen to serve as trustees for the building and land:
Jacob Rodrigues Rivera, Moses Levy, and Isaac Hart.
Soon after that, around the time the Touro Synagogue
was consecrated in 1763, a noted silversmith named Myer Myers made an elaborate
pair of silver Rimonim (finials for the synagogue’s Torah) for the
congregation. In 1793, after most of Newport’s Jews departed the city during
the Revolutionary War, regular services ended; by 1822, there were no Jewish
people in the city.
Some of the departed Newport Jews joined
Shearith Israel. They brought with them the Rimonim and other religious articles,
which were kept at Shearith Israel for safekeeping, with the understanding that
they would be returned to Touro once worship services started again. The word
“Newport” was engraved on their bases so as not to confuse them with a similar
pair owned by Shearith Israel.
During the time that Touro (below) was inoperative
Shearith Israel helped take care of the synagogue, including holding the
building’s keys and making it available for occasional funerals, high holiday services,
and special occasions. During that time period, too, Shearith Israel
became the official trustee for Touro—although as with the case of the original
and subsequent trustees, Shearith Israel never owned the building or the
Rimonim.
In the 1870s Jews began returning to Newport and religious services began again at Touro. The new rabbi, Abraham Pereira Mendes of London (in photo below), was chosen by Shearith Israel, in its role as Touro’s trustee. In 1894, the Rhode Island Legislature granted articles of incorporation to the newly named Jeshuat Israel congregation which to this day worships at Touro Synagogue.
Shearith Israel returned the Rimonim to Jeshuat Israel in the late 1800s or early 1900s. During that time, though, a series of legal battles took place between Shearith Israel and Touro over the former’s concern that Newport synagogue was moving away from Sephardic forms of worship. To make matters more complicated, in March 1899 Touro’s congregants split into two groups, both claiming control of the synagogue. Following several lawsuits, the synagogue temporarily closed.
One group, calling itself “Touro
Congregation,” tried to hold services in the building, but was forcibly removed.
There was a brief reconciliation, but on January 1, 1901, Shearith Israel and like-minded
Touro congregants closed the synagogue. A year later, a group made up primarily
of members of the self-described Touro Congregation broke into the building to
pray and then staged a sit-in. It lasted for a year during which regular
religious services were held.
Meanwhile the Newport and New York congregations faced off in the courts. A federal judge ruled in January 1903 for Shearith Israel in a case that was argued by L. Napoleon Levy, the congregation’s president. In David v. Levy Jeshuat Israel, agreed “to admit and recognize without qualification the title and ownership of L. Napoleon Levy and acting trustees [of Shearith Israel] to the synagogue building, premises and fixtures…”
That situation remained in effect—with Jeshuat Israel running Touro Synagogue, Shearith Israel acting as trustee for the building—for more than a century. Then, in 2012, the two congregations once again faced off after the Touro moved to sell some items to raise funds for restoring its building. That included, according to court documents, a $7.4 million offer from the Boston Museum of Fine Arts for the Rimonim.
On June 29, 2012, Shearith
Israel issued a letter demanding that Jeshuat Israel cease and desist from
selling the Rimonim, based on the fact that it remained the trustee of the
building and its contents. When mediation attempts failed, both sides were to
trial in 2015. The case is officially called Congregation Jeshuat Israel v. Congregation Shearith Israel.
A year after a U.S. District Court Judge ruled in 2016 against Shearith Israel the congregation appealed that order to the U.S. Court of Appeals in Boston, which overturned the decision. Touro appealed that decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, which declined to take up the case on March 18, 2019. And today the Rimonim remain in Touro—and Shearith Israel remains the trustee of Touro Synagogue.
At least that’s how I read it. You can read the detailed history of the entire matter—up to the 2016 ruling—on line at https://bit.ly/TourovShearith
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THE DOC: Steven Pressman’s great documentary, “The Levys of Monticello,” continues to appear at film festivals across the country. Here are details on three upcoming screenings:
On Wednesday,
March 22, it will be part of the New Hampshire Jewish Film festival with a
in-theater screen. Steve Pressman will take part in a Q&A following the
screening. Details: https://tinyurl.com/47sydvf3
On Wednesday, April 19, There’ll be an in person screening at the Center for Jewish History at the American Jewish Historical Society in New York City. Details: https://bit.ly/AJHSLevys
EVENTS: The highlight of my March is a Q&A I will be doing on Tuesday, March 14, at the Hill School auditorium in Middleburg, Virginia, following a screening of “The Levys of Monticello.” The event, sponsored by the Middleburg Library Advisory Board (the Library's Friends group) begins at 6:00 p.m. Details: https://bit.ly/ScreeningMB
If you’d
like to arrange an event for Saving
Monticello or for any of my other books, email me at marcleepson@gmail.com
For details on other upcoming events, check the Events page on my website: https://bit.ly/NewAppearances
GIFT IDEAS: For a personally autographed, brand-new paperback copy of Saving Monticello, please e-mail marcleepson@gmail.com I also have a few as-new, unopened hardcover
copies, along with a good selection of new copies of my other books: Flag: An American Biography; Desperate
Engagement; What So Proudly We Hailed; Flag:
An American Biography; and Ballad of
the Green Beret: The Life and Wars of Staff Sgt. Barry Sadler.
