December 2 1763 – 26 Kislev 5224
The Touro Synagogue, the oldest in the United States, opened in Newport, Rhode Island. Sephardic Jews in Jamaica, Surinam, London and Amsterdam sponsored the building and wealthy merchant Judah Touro endowed its upkeep in his will. The synagogue featured an innovation – a upper women’s gallery with a low balustrade offering female worshippers an open view of the rest of the sanctuary – a plan imitated by most other early American synagogues.