Free Tours At Historic Newport Synagogue Run Through December

NEWPORT, RI — Rhode Island residents only have a few more weeks to visit a historic Newport synagogue for free. Through the end of the year, residents can visit the John L. Loeb, Jr. Visitors Center and the Touro Synagogue on Sundays.

The tours have been available to the public since October in celebration of the visitors center's 10th anniversary. In December, tours will be offered every half-hour from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. The visitors center opens 30 minutes before the first tour and closes 30 minutes after the last one concludes.

While the visitors center has only been around for a decade, Touro Synagogue is the oldest in the country, dedicated in 1763. Each year, thousands of guests visit the two-level Loeb Visitors Center, which offers family friendly, interactive exhibits exploring religious freedom and the history of separation of church and state in colonial Rhode Island.

"At the core of the Center's exhibits is President George Washington’s 1790 Letter to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, which worshiped at what is now called Touro Synagogue," a release about the center reads in part. "In his letter, Washington promised that the government of the United States would give 'to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.'"

More information about the tours is available on Touro's website.