Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By richards on August 4, 2017

It was those ornaments, known in Hebrew as rimonim, that sparked the latest dispute. In 2011, Jeshuat Israel, seeking money, decided to sell them to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston for more than $7 million. When Shearith Israel tried to stop the sale, Jeshuat Israel sued, claiming it owned the objects, and the synagogue itself.

The courts found Shearith Israel helped maintain the unused synagogue and its cemetery in Newport through the 19th century. Finally, in the late 19th century, enough Jews moved to Newport to warrant the reopening of the synagogue. The newcomers organized as Jeshuat Israel and entered into a 1903 lease agreement with Shearith Israel, for use of the building and its fixtures, for a nominal rent of $1 a year.

The lower court, Justice Souter wrote, had relied on a conscientious and exhaustive historical analysis, in coming to its ruling. But instead of entangling itself in history, and with it, doctrinal arguments being made by the groups Shearith Israel was historically Sephardic, while Jeshuat Israel was mostly Ashkenazi he wrote the court should just look at the 1903 agreement and other contracts as it would in any other civil law case.

You should do what you would do if there were two bowling leagues who had some contracts with each other, said Eric Rassbach, an attorney with the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, who wrote a friend of the court brief supporting Shearith Israel in the case. Its just a lot cleaner that way.

Shearith Israel was founded in the Colonial period by 23 Spanish and Portuguese Jews in what is now Lower Manhattan. Since 1897, the Orthodox congregation has met in a Tiffany-designed neo-Classical building on 70th Street and Central Park West.

Congregation Shearith Israel is gratified by the First Circuits unanimous decision reaffirming our lawful, outright ownership of Newports Touro Synagogue and the precious rimonim at issue here, said Louis M. Solomon, the lead attorney for Shearith Israel and also the congregations president.

Looking ahead, he said, I really dont see any reason why we cant go back to the relatively harmonious relationship that existed between our sister congregations for more than 100 years before they decided to sell something that didnt belong to them.

Gary P. Naftalis, a lawyer representing the Newport congregation, said it was considering an appeal. We are disappointed with the panels ruling and are reviewing our legal options, he said.

A version of this article appears in print on August 4, 2017, on Page A20 of the New York edition with the headline: New York Congregation Owns Oldest U.S. Synagogue, Court Rules.

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New York Congregation Owns Oldest Synagogue in the US, 180 Miles Away, Court Rules - New York Times

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