Loeb Center offering final free visits to mark conclusion of 10th anniversary

NEWPORT — In celebration of the tenth anniversary of the Ambassador John L. Loeb Jr., Visitors Center at the Touro Synagogue National Historic Site free visits have been offered to all Rhode Island residents. These complimentary tours will conclude at the end of December, during which time the property is opened to the public on Sundays only. On the remaining Sundays of December 2019, synagogue tours will be offered every half-hour from 11:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. The Loeb Visitors Center opens a half-hour before the start of the first 30-minute synagogue tour and closes a half-hour after the last synagogue tour has ended.
The Loeb Visitors Center, located at 52 Spring Street in Newport, welcomes thousands of guests each year, serves as the gateway to guided tours of Touro Synagogue, the nation’s oldest synagogue, dedicated in 1763.
The Center’s two floors of interactive, family-friendly exhibits celebrate America’s unique heritage of religious freedom. Visitors to the Center learn how religious liberty and the separation between church and state in colonial America, unique in the world at that time, originated in Rhode Island, setting the stage for the ratification and adoption of the Bill of Rights, including the First Amendment right guaranteeing religious freedom. At the core of the Center’s exhibits is President George Washington’s 1790 Letter to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, which worshipped at what is now called Touro Synagogue. In his letter, Washington promised that the government of the United States would give “to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.”
The Loeb Visitors Center was constructed by the George Washington Institute for Religious Freedom, through the generous support of Ambassador John L. Loeb, Jr. The Visitors Center is operated by the Institute in collaboration with the Touro Synagogue Foundation and Congregation Jeshuat Israel at Touro Synagogue.
To mark the 10th anniversary of the center, Ambassador Loeb is offering a limited number of copies of the award-winning book, “A Genesis of Freedom: The Story of the Jews of Newport, RI, and Touro Synagogue,” available free of charge, including shipping. To request a copy, send an email with “Book Request” in the subject line to info@gwirf.org and include your name, address and telephone number. To request by mail, please write to The George Washington Institute for Religious Freedom, P.O. Box 670, Purchase NY, 10577.
To learn more about the George Washington Institute for Religious Freedom, a 501c3 non-profit organization, please visit www.gwirf.org. For a “virtual” tour of Loeb Visitors Center exhibits, visit the “Welcome” page at loebvisitors.org.