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The Hurva Synagogue ruin, photographed in 1980. The synagogue was proposed in the 1840s and built between 1854 and 1864. When it was dedicated in 1864 the name given was, “Beth Ya’akov”, but it’s place on the ruins, hurva, of the old synagogue…

The building, the oldest Synagogue in the US, is angled to the street on a rise so that the ark inside faces Jerusalem. Only the elegance of the entrance porch, with arching inside a pedimented Ionic enclosure and the same generous spread of stairs…

  For over two centuries, the small synagogue standing on top of a hill on a quiet street in the New England seaport community of Newport, R.I., has occupied a unique place in American history -- not only as a part of the American Jewish experience…