Isaac Touro
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The Reverend Isaac Touro (1738 - 1783) was a Jewish leader in colonial America. He came from Amsterdam in 1758, to serve as hazzan and spiritual leader of Congregation Jeshuath Israel in Newport, Rhode Island. Soon after his arrival, the congregation built the Touro Synagogue, which is today the oldest synagogue in the USA.
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 Jamaica, where he died in 1783. [1]
His sons Abraham and Judah were renowned philanthropists.
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