RI AG Intervenes For Touro Synagogue

NEWPORT, RI—Rhode Island's attorney general says the court made a mistake when it decided the Touro Synagogue belongs to Congregation Shearith Israel in New York, and not to the Newport community that worships there. Touro Synagogue is the nation's oldest Jewish synagogue. Its history dates from the mid-eighteenth century.

Atty. Gen. Peter Kilmartin is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse the decision made by the First Circuit Court of Appeals. He has filed a 'Friend of the Court' brief to say the circuit court erred because it failed to consider "any Rhode Island law on charitable trusts, which is binding on a federal court in this type of case."

The dispute between the two congregations was decided in 2016 in favor of Newport. But then the New York congregation appealed.

“We remain deeply disappointed in the Court of Appeals’ ruling,” Kilmartin said. “Touro Synagogue represents an important piece of Rhode Island history and as Judge McConnell properly determined in an exhaustive decision, the Synagogue should be held in a charitable trust with the Newport Jewish congregation as the beneficiary."

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