Judah Touro
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Judah Touro (Newport, Rhode Island, June 16, 1775 — New Orleans, January 13, 1854) was an American businessman and philanthropist.
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[edit] Early life and career
His father, Isaac Touro of Holland, was chosen in 1762 as the hazzan at the Touro Synagogue, a Portuguese Sephardic congregation in Newport[1][2]. After the British captured Newport, Isaac and his family moved to New York in 1780, and then in 1782 to Kingston, Jamaica. In 1783 Isaac died and his wife, Reyna, moved the family to Boston, to live with her brother, Moses Michael Hays. Reyna Touro died in 1787, and Judah and his siblings were raised by his uncle, a merchant who helped found Boston's first bank.[3]
At least one book about Touro has indicated that he fell in love with his cousin, Catherine Hays, but was forbidden marriage by her father, who sent him on a trading voyage to the Mediterranean in hopes of ending the romance.[4] In October, 1801, Judah went to New Orleans, where he opened a store; he eventually became a prominent merchant and shipowner, particularly after the Louisiana Purchase propelled the growth of the region and its commerce.
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. Following the war, he recovered for a year, then resumed building his business interests in shipping, trade, and real estate.[5] Despite his many real-estate purchases, Touro made a point of never mortgaging current properties to acquire new ones, and lived a simple life in a small apartment, remarking, "I have saved a fortune by strict economy, while others had spent one by their liberal expenditures."[2]
[edit] Charitable works
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 for sailors suffering from yellow fever, 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. In a New Orleans fund-raising drive for Christians suffering persecution in Jerusalem, he gave 10 times more than any other donor.[6] One profile of Touro particularly praised his willingness to give both to Jewish and non-Jewish religious causes: "An admirable trait evinced, was the unsectarian distribution of charity, while the donor ever continued a strict adherent to the principles of his faith."[7]
Touro also participated in charity on a personal level, giving $1,500 to a woman who asked for help for her starving children and paying the $900 debt of an alcoholic man with a large family so that the man's children would be spared the separation from their parent. These stories are said to represent only a small portion of his personal giving, as he preferred to remain anonymous.[8] Morais remarks, "It would be an impossibility to enumerate all the acts of munificent beneficence performed by Judah Touro."[9]
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. In total, his will gave more than $500,000 to different causes, a sum which would equal approximately $9 million in modern terms.[6] His will also included another bequest, to his cousin Catherine Hays — "as an expression of the kind remembrance in which that esteemed friend is held by me." Hays, however, died in Virginia only days before Touro's own death.[10]
He is buried in the Jewish cemetery of Newport. The inscription on his tombstone reads: "To the Memory of / Judah Touro / He inscribed it in the Book of / Philanthropy / To be remembered forever."[10]
[edit] Notes
- ^ Henry Samuel Morais. Eminent Israelites of the Nineteenth Century: A Series of Biographical Sketches, p. 336.
- ^ a b Judah Touro biography at Jewish Virtual Library
- ^ Thomas Fleming. "'He Loved to Do Good in Secret'," Guideposts, October 1998, p. 28.
- ^ Fleming, p. 29. (The book is referenced, but the name is not given.)
- ^ Fleming, p. 29.
- ^ a b Fleming, p. 30.
- ^ Morais, p. 337.
- ^ Fleming, pp. 29-30.
- ^ Morais, p. 338.
- ^ a b Fleming, p. 31.
[edit] Further reading
Adelman, David C. Life and times of Judah Touro. [Newport] Touro Fraternal Association, 1936.
Gutstein, Morris A. Aaron Lopez and Judah Touro: A refugee and a son of a refugee. New York, Behrman’s Jewish Book House, 1939. (An earlier version of this book was published in 1931 under the title Aaron Lopez and Judah Touro.)
Gutstein, Morris. "The Touro family in Newport." Newport Historical Society, no. 94, 1935, p. 1-39.
Huhner, Leon. The life of Judah Touro (1775-1854). Philadelphia, Jewish Publication Society of America, 1946.
