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Storied Congregations in Legal Battle Over Torah Bells Worth $7.4 Million

Manhattan’s Shearith Israel and Newport, Rhode Island’s Jeshuat Israel are both claiming ownership over silver, colonial-era rimonim. A judge will soon declare the lawful owner.

by
Tess Cutler
October 02, 2015
(Shutterstock)rimonim
(Shutterstock)(Shutterstock)rimonim
(Shutterstock)rimonim
(Shutterstock)(Shutterstock)rimonim

Two congregations are involved in a long-running lawsuit. Both are claiming ownership over a pair of rimonim (decorative Torah bells) worth a whopping $7.4 million, reported the AP on September 18. After closing statements were made in a Providence, Rhode Island courtroom, U.S. District Judge John McConnell, who is presiding over the trial, said there was “no smoking gun” in the case. He has yet to make a decision.

Conflict started in 2012 when Congregation Jeshuat Israel, who prays at Touro Synagogue, the oldest synagogue in the Unites States, was having financial issues and decided to sell those multi-million dollar bells to Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts in an effort to establish an endowment. Sounds innocent enough, right?

Not according to congregation Shearith Israel, a Spanish and Portuguese synagogue in Manhattan, the oldest Jewish congregation in North America (1654), who claim that the bells, which were crafted some 200 years ago by a colonial silversmith, are theirs. The Forward reported that “one of the bells says “Newport” on the bottom, while the other bell does not.”

The source of debate is apparently linked to hundreds of years of Jewish history.

Touro Synagogue was dedicated in 1763 by the local Sephardic Jewish community, but by 1822, many of them left the city in search of better business opportunities. Touro, in effect, closed its doors and the temple’s contents (including those elaborate rimonim) were handed over to Shearith. Reported the AP:

In the late 1800s, Jews re-established themselves in Newport and began worshipping [at Touro] again. Congregation Shearith Israel sent the items back, including two pairs of rimonim, bells placed on the handles of a Torah scroll.

But at the turn of the century, Congregation Jeshuat Israel (who had adopted Touro as a prayer space), and Shearith, engaged in a bit of a legal battle, which resulted in Jeshuat Israel signing “a lease in 1903 to rent Touro from Congregation Shearith Israel for $1 per year.”

Shearith, in effect, owns Touro Synagogue, where Congregation Jeshuat Israel prays, a point the Rhode Island-based community acknowledges.

The Newport congregation says that before the New York congregation “came out of the woodwork” to claim it owned the bells, it had abandoned Touro. It says the last time the New York congregation provided any financial help was likely in 1983, when it gave $100. Before that, it says, the last time was the 1960s.



But Congregation Shearith Israel, which overlooks Central Park on New York City’s Upper West Side, says that it is not the trustee of Touro, but rather a “benevolent landlord” that has overseen the property for nearly 200 years, since long before a “new” group of Jews came to Newport and began worshipping at Touro. It says any financial problems there are the result of poor management.



It also says it owns the bells and accuses the Newport congregation of trying to steal the bells and then sell them secretly.

In 2012, an “aghast” Michael I. Katz, vice president of Congregation Shearith Israel’s board, told the Providence Journal: “We do not sell our religious objects.” Congregation Jeshuat Israel is asking the court to remove Shearith as trustee of the synagogue.

With such a prolific history, the trial cited documents dating back to the mid-1700s. “We have to patch together 250 years of evidence,” McConnell told the AP.

Newport This Week provided a glimpse into the drawn-out trial:

A battalion of white-shoe attorneys was on deck as each side outlined their positions on the bells and the temple property. Testimony concluded in June, but wrapping up the proceedings was delayed by post-trial briefings.

As he left the bench, McConnell adjourned the case with an open-ended statement: “It will be a while.”

Tess Cutler is an intern at Tablet.