Isaac Touro | |
|---|---|
 portrait by Gilbert Stuart | |
| Born | 1738  |
| Died | 1783 (aged 44–45) |
| Occupation | Rabbi |
| Children | Judah Touro |
Isaac Touro (1738 – 8 December 1783)[citation needed] was a Dutch-born American rabbi. He was a Jewish leader in colonial America. Born in Amsterdam, in 1758 he left for Jamaica. In 1760, he arrived in Newport, Rhode Island, to serve as hazzan and spiritual leader of Jeshuath Israel, a Portuguese Sephardic congregation.[1][2] Soon after his arrival, the congregation built the Touro Synagogue, which is the oldest synagogue in the United States.
When the American Revolution broke out, Touro was a Loyalist, and when the British captured Newport in 1776, he remained in the city with his wife Reyna and their children, while many of his Whig congregants fled. In 1779, he moved with the British to New York, but he had no means of supporting himself there, and was dependent on British charity, so in 1782 he moved to Kingston, Jamaica, where he died in 1783.
His sons Abraham and Judah were renowned philanthropists.
- ^ Henry Samuel Morais. Eminent Israelites of the Nineteenth Century: A Series of Biographical Sketches, p. 336.
- ^ "Judah Touro".