In Rhode Island, Nation's Oldest Synagogue Awarded Government Funds

November 13, 2003

Source: The Associated Press

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/nat-gen/2003/nov/13/111305619.html

On November 13, 2003 The Associated Press reported that "the nation's oldest synagogue will receive a $375,000 grant under a new government policy allowing religious institutions to qualify for historic preservation funds. Touro Synagogue was dedicated in 1763. Until this year, historically significant structures used for religious purposes had been ineligible because of concerns about the separation of church and state. 'It's the second designation we've made,' after Old North Church in Boston, Interior Secretary Gale Norton said Thursday. The synagogue 'reminds people who visit from all over the world that you cannot move forward if you're intolerant,' said Rabbi Mordechai Eskovitz, the congregation's spiritual leader... The new policy has drawn criticism from Americans United for Separation of Church and State. 'What the administration is trying to do is shift the traditional church and state separation,' said Robert Boston, assistant director of communications for the Washington-based group."