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The Incredible, Unknown Story of Judah Touro
Touro Law Center in New York. Photo: Wiki Commons.
There are synagogues, streets, a hospital, and a major Jewish university system named after Judah Touro. His name is associated with the highest level of charity for both Jewish and secular institutions. But few people know his remarkable life story.
Judah Touro was born in Newport, Rhode Island, on June 16, 1775, to Chazan Isaac Touro and Reyna Hays.
His father, Chazan Isaac Touro, was born in Amsterdam in 1738. He migrated to the New World in 1758 at the age of 20. In 1760, Chazan Touro was appointed as the spiritual leader of Yeshuat Yisrael in Newport, one of the first Portuguese Sephardic congregations in the American colonies.
Under the leadership of Chazan Touro, Yeshuat Yisrael constructed a new synagogue building, which today is the oldest synagogue building in the United States with daily services. (It is the second oldest synagogue after Congregation Shearith Israel, the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue, in New York City.) Chazan Touro was a close friend of leading Colonial academic and the future President of Yale College, Ezra Stiles.
Shortly after the outbreak of the American Revolution, Newport was taken by the British, and the Jewish supporters of the revolution fled. The synagogue closed, and Chazan Touro ran with his family to Kingston, Jamaica. He died there on December 8, 1783. Subsequently, Judah’s mother returned to the United States with her children, welcomed by her brother, Moses Michael Hays, who had helped found Boston’s first bank. She died in 1787, and Hays became the guardian of the Touro children. He raised them and later trained them in his business.
At the age of 22, Judah Touro successfully oversaw the sale of a valuable shipment to the Mediterranean, indicative of his early financial and business acumen.
Starting Anew in New Orleans
In 1801, Touro left for New Orleans, located in the French territory of Louisiana, which was then a small town of approximately 10,000 inhabitants and home to only a handful of Jews. Some conjecture that he moved because he had asked his uncle for permission to marry his daughter, Catherine Hays, but his uncle did not agree. Touro never married, but his move to New Orleans brought with it tremendous financial success.
Through hard work, frugal living, and conservative investments, Touro became one of New Orleans’ wealthiest men. Commenting on the small apartment he lived in, he observed, “I have saved a fortune by strict economy, while others had spent one by their liberal expenditures.”
He was confident New Orleans would grow and invested in properties that he bought for cash, on which he built buildings and then collected rent. The Louisiana Purchase encouraged the region’s growth, and he continued to prosper.
In the War of 1812, he volunteered with the Louisiana Militia under Andrew Jackson. He was seriously wounded during the Battle of New Orleans and was left for dead. A Christian friend and fellow soldier, Rezin Shepherd, found him and saved his life. Touro and Shepherd would remain close for the rest of their lives.
Little Connection to Judaism
Touro’s name will always be remembered as one of the foremost in American Jewish philanthropy. However, what is not well known is that until he was almost 70, he had little connection to Judaism or to the Jewish community. He had inherited traditions from his parents, but the connection was so weak that his charity was overwhelmingly directed to non-Jewish and even Christian causes.
There are records of charity he gave for churches, almshouses, an infirmary for sailors suffering from yellow fever, and for the relief of victims of a large fire in Mobile, Alabama.
He donated generously to American causes and funded the purchase of the Old Stone Mill in Newport, so that the historic landmark could be given to the town. In 1840, Touro gave $10,000 to complete the Bunker Hill Monument, which had been floundering for years. In fact, there is a fascinating poem by America’s great orator, Daniel Webster, at the dedication ceremonies in 1843, thanking Touro and Amos Lawrence for their funding of this monument:
Amos and Judah—venerated names
Patriarch and prophet press their equal claims.
Like generous coursers running “neck to neck,”
Each aids the work by giving it a check,
Christian and Jews, they carry out one plan,
For though of different faith, each is in heart a Man.
One of Judah Touro’s few Jewish donations from his early years was $20,000 (approximately $1 million in today’s currency) given to the Jewish Hospital in New York City, now known as Mount Sinai Hospital.
The Power of Caring
In 1840, Gershom Kursheedt arrived in New Orleans from New York. This seemingly innocuous event would result in Judah Touro, then in his early 70s, becoming an observant Jew later in life, a very rare occurrence in those days.
Gershom Kursheedt was born in 1817 in Richmond, Virginia to a distinguished rabbinical family. His father was Rabbi Israel Baer Kursheedt, and his mother, Sarah Abigail, was the daughter of Rabbi Gershom Mendes Seixas, the renowned spiritual leader of Congregation Shearith Israel in New York for fifty years. Gershom’s father had studied in the yeshiva of Rabbi Nosson Adler and was possibly the first Ashkenazi Torah Scholar to come to America.
Young Gershom was known for his passion for Jewish learning and Jewish causes. He was a student of Rabbi Isaac Lesser, one of the most renowned Jewish leaders in colonial America.
Kursheedt had moved to New Orleans to work in his uncle’s retail business. He was horrified at the lack of Jewish observance by Jews there. Intent on changing things, he managed to persuade Touro to fund a new synagogue that would be built on the Torah values of Touro’s parents. Touro agreed to purchase a building, which was then renovated into a synagogue that could seat 470 people.
Step by step, Touro became more invested in the synagogue and, as a result, more invested in his own Judaism. With the encouragement of Kursheedt and Rabbi Leeser, Touro agreed to pay the salary of Rabbi Moses Nathan to serve as the shul’s rabbi. After the shul’s dedication in 1849, Touro began to attend prayer services regularly. He also built a school next to the shul in 1851.
Incredibly, within a few years, Judah Touro became a completely observant Jew. Testimony to his Sabbath observance is seen in a letter he wrote, thanking local firemen for their valiant help in rescuing one of his properties from a fire. He ends the letter by saying, “Saturday, on which the fire occurred, being my Sabbath, has prevented me from sending this until this morning.”
A Battle of Wills
A few years later, in 1853, Touro fell ill and asked his two friends, Rezin Shephard, who had saved his life during the War of 1812, and Gershom Kursheedt, who had reconnected him to his Judaism, to come to his bedside to discuss his will.
He wanted to distribute the majority of his assets to charity and sought their help in deciding the donations. One can only imagine the diplomatic tug of war as each tried to advocate on behalf of the causes they believed in!
In fact, after Touro’s death, Kursheedt wrote to Rabbi Leeser, “If you knew how I had to work to get that will made … you would pity me … [There were] arguments, changes, and counter-changes in the sums for institutions, till my heart sickened.”
In the final will, Touro bequeathed $500,000 to institutions around the country, which is worth tens of millions today. Touro’s bequests were, at that time, the largest ever left by an American citizen to charitable institutions.
One beneficiary was the Touro Synagogue of Newport, which reopened and was renamed in honor of both Judah Touro and his father, Chazzan Isaac Touro. Touro donated funds to every existing traditional synagogue in the United States. Many hospitals, orphanages, shelters for the poor, asylums, libraries, and schools received funds. (Touro University, built almost 200 years after Touro lived, was named in memory of Judah Touro and his father, Isaac Touro, as they exemplified the vision that Touro University was looking to create with their educational institutions.)
Touro earmarked $50,000 for poor Jews in what is now Israel, and assigned Kursheedt co-executor with Sir Moses Montefiore of this bequest. Kursheedt traveled to England to meet with Montefiore, and the two traveled to Jerusalem to determine how best to use the Touro bequest. Initially, they had planned to use the funds to build a hospital, but upon returning to Israel in 1857, they discovered that the Rothschild family had already constructed one. They decided to build housing for the poor of Jerusalem. The cluster of houses became the first Jewish neighborhood outside the old city walls, known as Mishkenot Sha’ananim.
Montefiore later wrote a letter to Kursheedt saying, “It must be a great happiness to you to know that with your great influence with the late Mr. Touro… you have been the means to directing the eyes and hearts of many of our Brethren toward the Holy Land and contributing to the welfare of our coreligionists now dwelling in that land of our Fathers.”
Montefiore was absolutely correct. Since it was Touro’s will, it was also Kursheedt’s will. It was Kursheedt who brought Judah Touro back to Judaism and, as a result, towards Jewish philanthropy.
Touro left the residuary estate, valued at almost half a million dollars, to his old friend, Rezin Shepherd.
Judah Touro died two weeks after writing his will in New Orleans on January 18, 1854 (18 Tevet).
His body was taken to Newport, where he was buried in the old Jewish cemetery alongside other family members.
Touro’s return to Jewish observance after he was over 70 is an inspiring testament to the possibility of change at any age. It is also testimony to the everlasting impact of an individual who was upset about assimilation and cared enough about his fellow Jews to do something about it. Both Judah Touro’s and Gershom Kursheedt’s eternal legacies continue to live on.
Rabbi Menachem Levine is the CEO of JDBY-YTT, the largest Jewish school in the Midwest. He served as Rabbi of Congregation Am Echad in San Jose, CA from 2007 – 2020. He is a popular speaker and has written for numerous publications. Rabbi Levine’s personal website is https://thinktorah.org. A version of this article was first published at https://aish.com/the-unknown-story-of-judah-touro/
The post The Incredible, Unknown Story of Judah Touro first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Toronto Film Festival Denies Blocking Oct. 7 Doc Over Censorship, Says Legal Team, Filmmaker Working to Screen It
Skyline of Toronto, Canada. Photo Credit: Aaron Davis, Wikimedia Commons, June 2020.
The CEO of the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) said late Wednesday that efforts are being made to ensure the screening of a documentary about the Hamas-led deadly massacre in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, after receiving backlash for removing the film from the festival’s lineup.
TIFF CEO Bailey Cameron also denied claims about censoring “The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue.”
“I want to be clear: Claims that the film was rejected due to censorship are unequivocally false,” Bailey said in a released statement. “I remain committed to working with the filmmaker to meet TIFF’s screening requirements to allow the film to be screened at this year’s festival. I have asked our legal team to work with the filmmaker on considering all options available.”
The festival will run from Sept. 4-14, and the film is currently not listed on the festival’s official website.
The documentary from Canadian director Barry Avrich follows grandfather and retired IDF Maj. Gen. Noam Tibon as he rescues his family, including two granddaughters, from Hamas terrorists who invaded their home in Nahal Oz during the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack across southern Israel. Tibon also rescued survivors of the Nova Music Festival and helped wounded Israeli soldiers. His heroic efforts were highlighted by “60 Minutes” in October 2023. During the attack, Hamas murdered 1,200 civilians and took 251 others as hostages back to the Gaza Strip. Fifty hostages are still held captive by Hamas in Gaza.
Avi Issacharoff and Lior Raz, the co-creators and writers of the Israeli television series “Fauda,” revealed last year that they are scripting a film about Tibon’s heroism. Tibon has also written opinion pieces for The Algemeiner in previous years and his son published a book about Tibon’s rescue mission on Oct. 7.
Deadline revealed on Tuesday that “The Road Between Us” was removed from the lineup of films being screened at TIFF, because filmmakers did not have “legal clearance” to use footage terrorists themselves filmed while murdering thousands during their deadly rampage. Festival organizers told Deadline in a statement that the film was “withdrawn by TIFF because general requirements for inclusion in the festival, and conditions that were requested when the film was initially invited, were not met, including legal clearance of all footage. The purpose of the requested conditions was to protect TIFF from legal implications and to allow TIFF to manage and mitigate anticipated and known risks around the screening of a film about highly sensitive subject matter, including potential threat of significant disruption.”
Tibon called the decision “absurd and bizarre,” and accused TIFF of “succumbing to pressure and threats” to conceal the truth about what happened during the Oct. 7 attack. “The atrocities committed by Hamas cannot be erased or denied,” he added. The team behind “The Road Between Us” also slammed the reasoning, telling Variety in part: “We are shocked and saddened that a venerable film festival has defied its mission and censored its own programming by refusing this film.”
The move was also condemned by several Jewish groups – including StandWithUs Canada, the Canadian Centre for Jewish and Israeli Affairs, Combat Antisemitism Movement, and Friends of Simon Wiesenthal — and the pro-Israel entertainment industry organization Creative Community for Peace. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar also criticized the move in a post on X, saying there “was no ‘legal clearance’ from Hamas for their GoPro massacre videos.”
“This festival would have asked Hitler or Goebbels for copyright on Auschwitz footage,” said Sa’ar. “This vicious and sickening decision must be cancelled immediately!”
In a statement late Wednesday, Bailey rejected the censorship claims, saying that the misunderstanding “calls for compassion and sensitivity, and I recognize the concerns it has raised among members of the Jewish community and beyond.” He then apologized for “any pain this situation may have caused.”
“It was never my intention to offend or alienate anyone,” he said. “At TIFF, we believe in the transformative power of film to foster understanding and dialogue, especially during challenging times.”
“My intention was to screen ‘The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue,’ which is why I extended the invitation for the film to participate in this year’s festival,” he added. “Given the sensitive and significant nature of the film’s subject, I believe that it tells an important story and contributes to the rich tapestry of perspectives in our lineup – stories that resonate both here at home and around the world … While we are not a political organization, TIFF will always strive to present our programming in a safe, inclusive environment.”
Bailey concluded by asking for “patience and understanding as we navigate this complex landscape.”
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UEFA Accused of Promoting Antisemitic Blood Libel With ‘Stop Killing Children’ Banner at Super Cup Match
A banner displayed by the UEFA at a match on Aug. 13, 2025 at the UEFA Super Cup in Udine, Italy. Photo: X/UEFA
The British charity Campaign Against Antisemitism accused the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) of double standards and promoting a centuries-old, antisemitic blood libel following the union’s decision to display a banner that said “Stop Killing Children – Stop Killing Civilians” before a match on Wednesday night.
UEFA unfurled the banner before the start of the UEFA Super Cup final in Udine, Italy, between Paris Saint-Germain and London’s Tottenham Hotspur, the latter of which has a large Jewish fanbase. The banner was featured on the field before kick-off as the players lined up inside the Stadio Friuli.
UEFA said on Wednesday that its Foundation for Children invited two refugee children from the Gaza Strip, who have been impacted by the Israel-Hamas war, to take part in the medals ceremony at the match, and nine children who are refugees in Italy participated in the opening ceremony by holding the banner. The nine children are from different conflict zones around the world including Afghanistan, Iraq, Nigeria, “Palestine,” and Ukraine, according to the UEFA.
Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) criticized the offensive banner in a post on X, claiming that the union’s “selective outrage” about the Israel-Hamas war “tells us everything about the double standard that still poisons European discourse on Jews.”
The UEFA “has said nothing about the Jewish hostages kept in barbaric captivity for almost two years, nor about the incessant attacks on Israeli civilians throughout this war from terrorists in Gaza and throughout the Middle East,” CAA noted. “But all of sudden, they have chosen a Spurs match — a club commonly associated with the Jewish community — to unfurl this banner.”
“For centuries, Europe has traded in the blood libel that Jews kill children, and clearly the trope remains as popular as ever. UEFA says that ‘the message is clear.’ After two years with no acknowledgement of the Jewish children murdered, maimed and traumatized by this war, the message is clear indeed,” CAA added.
Last night, before the UEFA Super Cup match between Paris Saint-Germain and Tottenham Hotspur in Udine, Italy, UEFA unfurled a banner which read: “Stop killing children. Stop killing civilians.”https://t.co/T70ZHaZoeB@UEFA has said nothing about the Jewish hostages kept in…
— Campaign Against Antisemitism (@antisemitism) August 14, 2025
Speaking to The Times, a UEFA insider claimed the banner was “not political but about humanity — in fact you could say it is just common sense.”
In the past, soccer clubs have been penalized by the UEFA for displaying political banners. In 2016, Scotland’s Celtic soccer team was fined after its fans waved Palestinian flags during a match against Israel’s Hapoel Beer Sheva. UEFA viewed the flags as “illicit” banners. Celtic was also fined in 2013 after an “illicit” banner was displayed by fans during a Champions League match against AC Milan. However, Celtic was ultimately not fined when fans displayed an oversized anti-Israel banner at a match earlier this year.
Most recently, UEFA fined the Serbian team Partizan Belgrade after fans displayed a “Kosovo is Serbia” banner at a match, the Associated Press reported.
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Israeli Spy Chief Visits Qatar to Revive Gaza Talks
David Barnea, the head of the Israeli Mossad, attends an honor guard ceremony for Israel’s incoming military chief Herzi Halevi at Israel’s Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv, Israel, Jan. 16, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen
The head of Israel’s Mossad spy agency visited Qatar on Thursday to revive Gaza ceasefire talks, according to multiple reports.
Two Israeli officials told Reuters about the meeting, which was the most high-level talks between Israel and mediators since negotiations broke down last month.
David Barnea met with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman al-Thani to discuss the Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal, according to Axios, which reported that the head of Israel’s national intelligence agency stressed in his meetings that the Israeli cabinet’s decision to take military control of Gaza City is not a bluff. Israel is prepared to proceed with the plan if there is no progress in negotiations to reach a ceasefire and hostage-release deal, a source familiar with the meeting told the outlet.
The Israeli publication Ynet also said in a report that a private jet linked to the Mossad landed in Doha on Thursday, fueling speculation that Barnea arrived in the Qatari capital for the first time since negotiations faltered three weeks ago.
Israel’s security cabinet approved a plan last week to take control of Gaza City, which followed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying hours earlier that Israel intended to take military control of the entire enclave temporarily until it can hand governance over to Arab authorities.
“We intend to control all of Gaza. We don’t want to keep it. We want a security perimeter. We ‘want to govern [Gaza]. We don’t want to be there as a governing body. We want to hand Gaza over to Arab forces that will govern [the territory] properly,” Netanyahu said in an interview with Fox News.
“We want to liberate ourselves and liberate the people of Gaza from the awful terror of Hamas,” the Israeli premier added. “In order to assure our security, remove Hamas there, enable the population to be free of Gaza and to pass it to civilian governance … The only way that you’re [going to] have a different future is to get rid of this neo-Nazi army. Hamas are monsters.”
Israel’s new military plan lists five objectives: disarming Hamas, returning all hostages kidnapped by the terrorist group, demilitarizing Gaza, taking security control of the territory, and establishing “an alternative civil administration that is neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority.”
“The IDF [Israel Defense Forces] will prepare to take control of Gaza City while providing humanitarian aid to the civilian population outside the combat zones,” Israel’s military said in a statement last week.
Many observers have argued that, while Israel appears intent on proceeding with its military plan, the announcement can also serve as a way to pressure the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, which has ruled Gaza for nearly two decades, to agree to a satisfactory truce.
Israel and the United States both recalled their negotiators from Gaza ceasefire talks in Qatar in late July, with US envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff saying that Hamas has not been acting in good faith and “clearly shows a lack of desire” to reach a deal despite weeks of mediated discussions with the terrorist group.
Since then, there has been a renewed push for a comprehensive deal to end the war, release of all remaining hostages held by Hamas, and avert an Israeli offensive. The US, Qatar, Egypt, and Turkey are all reportedly involved in efforts to revive and ultimately draft a comprehensive deal.
Barnea’s visit on Thursday coincides with ongoing talks in Cairo between Hamas leaders and Egyptian officials. A Hamas delegation had visited Istanbul over the weekend and met with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan for talks on Gaza.