9 March 1773 – 14 Adar 5533
Reverend Ezra Stiles, the Congregational Minister and future President of Yale University attended a Megilla reading on Purim evening at the synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island. He described Rabbi Raphael Hayyim Isaac Caregal as being “dressed in a red garment with the usual Phylacteries and habiliments, the white silk Surplice; he wore a high fur cap, had a long beard. He has the appearance of an ingenious and sensible man.” This episode stands in stark contrast to the world of 18th century European Jewry. At a time when Mendelsohn was fighting for the right to reside in Berlin, Jews in the New World could live anywhere they liked and worship as they pleased without disturbance.
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