2020 Cohort
Touro Synagogue
(Reform Jewish)
New Orleans, Louisiana
Touro Synagogue in New Orleans is the oldest synagogue outside of the original 13 colonies, and the sixth oldest synagogue in the United States.
Touro Synagogue by Kerry Tapia
Touro Synagogue by Kerry Tapia
2020 Cohort
Touro Synagogue
(Reform Jewish)
New Orleans, Louisiana
Touro Synagogue in New Orleans is the oldest synagogue outside of the original 13 colonies, and the sixth oldest synagogue in the United States.
Under 18th-century French law, Jews could not live or worship in Louisiana. Upon the negotiation of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, they were granted religious freedom. In 1828, local merchants formed two Jewish congregations, ultimately merging into Touro Synagogue in 1881. The congregation is named for Judah Touro, a benefactor of the synagogue and son of the namesake of Rhode Island’s Touro Synagogue, a National Trust Historic Site. In 1908, the New Orleans congregation commissioned architect Emile Weil to build a new synagogue on prominent St. Charles Avenue. The Moorish and Byzantine elements of the synagogue pay tribute to the congregation’s Sephardic heritage and differentiate its architecture from nearby Christian churches.
Today, Touro Synagogue consists of a multi-generational congregation of Reform Jews who have faced the challenges of Hurricane Katrina, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and antisemitism together. The congregation identifies as “an anchor for the New Orleans secular community as well, both historically and presently.” Touro Synagogue helped incubate and house four charter schools in eight years, and it runs a hydroponic garden to supply produce to the local food pantry and partners with other local organizations to campaign for voter rights, immigration reform, and other key social and environmental justice issues.
A $125,000 National Fund grant with $5,903,000 in matching funds raised by the congregation allowed Touro to complete several improvement projects: the replacement of the flat roofs on the chapel, the connector between the sanctuary and the chapel, the Education Building and the Social Hall, the removal and replacement of the previous HVAC systems throughout the building with a new, energy efficient, modular system, the addition of an elevator in the Education Building that allows access for everyone to the upper floors, the installation of a large gender-neutral family bathroom on the first floor of the building, and the reconfiguration and restoration of the administrative spaces and lobby to increase both their functionality and beauty.
Stories and Media Coverage
Read more about how the National Fund for Sacred Places is helping congregations around the country rehabilitate their sacred places.
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