Judah Touro

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Judah Touro (Newport, Rhode Island, June 16, 1775 — New Orleans, January 13, 1854) was an American businessman and philanthropist.

His father, Isaac Touro, was the hazzan at the Touro Synagogue in Newport; after the British captured Newport, Isaac and his family moved to New York in 1780, and then in 1782 to Jamaica. In 1783 Isaac died and his wife, Reyna, moved the family to Boston, to live with her brother, Moses Michael Hays; Reyna died in 1787, and Judah and his siblings were raised by his uncle. In 1801 or 1802, Judah went to New Orleans, where he opened a store; he eventually became a prominent merchant and shipowner. Though in poor health, he enlisted in Andrew Jackson's army in the War of 1812; physically incapacitated from fighting, he volunteered to carry ammunition to the batteries in the battle of New Orleans, in which, on Jan. 1, 1815, he was so seriously wounded as to be given up for dead, but was saved by a friend.

Judah Touro's lasting fame, however, was as a philanthropist. He contributed $40,000 — an immense sum at the time — to the Jewish cemetery at Newport, and bought the Old Stone Mill there, at that time thought to have been built by Norsemen, giving it to the city: the park surrounding it is still known as Touro Park. In New Orleans, he used his business profits to buy and endow a cemetery, and to build a synagogue, an almshouse and an infirmary, as well as a Christian church for a minister whom he greatly admired. He was a major contributor to many Christian charities in New Orleans, as well as to such varied causes as the American Revolutionary War monument at Bunker Hill, and the relief of victims of a large fire in Mobile, Alabama.

At his death, his estate provided endowments for nearly all the Jewish congregations in the United States, bequests to hospitals and orphanages in Massachusetts, and the seed of a trust to support almshouses in Jerusalem. He is buried in the Jewish cemetery of Newport.