The first synagogue built in America, Touro Synagogue was built in 1763 from a design
by architect Peter Harrison to serve a congregation of Jews who had come to the New World
to escape the horrors of the Inquisition in Spain and Portugal.  It was named for Rabbi
Isaac Touro who had established the first congregation in 1658.   It was to Newport's
Jewish congregation that President George Washington wrote to express his wish for a
nation where all religions could worship in freedom from persecution.   Touro Synagogue was
declared a National Historic Site in 1946.