Judah Touro (1775-1854), who resided in New Orleans from 1802 until his death, is best remembered for his philanthropic activities.
“Touro’s name will always be numbered among the foremost in the annals of American philanthropy. His charities knew neither race nor creed, and his public spirit was no less noteworthy.
“Though he gave liberally to charitable objects during his entire life, the provisions of the will of Touro, who died unmarried, disposed of over half a million dollars in charity, an enormous sum in those days. These provisions were published throughout the United States and even in the journals and periodicals of many European countries. Among the larger bequests were $80,000 for founding the New Orleans Almshouse, liberal endowments for nearly all the Jewish congregations of the country, bequests to the Massachusetts Female Hospital, the Female Asylum, and the Boys’ Asylum of Boston, and one for the preservation of the old cemetery at Newport, and for the payment of the salary of the minister of the old synagogue in that city. A large sum was also left in trust to Sir Moses Montefiore for almshouses in Jerusalem. In addition to these, there were private bequests.”[i]
Fifteen of the 58 codicils of Touro’s will dealt with giving money to various institutions located in New Orleans.[ii] It is little wonder, then, that “At the funeral exercises at New Orleans, Jew and Gentile vied with each other in their expressions of grief and respect, and these were even more marked at the obsequies at Newport, Rhode Island, on June 6, of the same year, 1854, which were attended by delegations from the numerous organizations he had so generously remembered, coming from all over the land. By official resolution of the public authorities of Newport, which had benefited so largely by his philanthropy, his executors and all these delegations became the guests of the municipality. During the funeral procession, the bells of the various churches were tolled, and all places of business were closed.”[iii]
(Touro had stipulated in his will that “I desire that my mortal remains be buried in the Jewish Cemetery in Newport, Rhode Island, as soon as practicable after my decease.”)
A Monument to Judah Touro
“A few years after his death a public movement was inaugurated by the citizens of New Orleans to erect a monument to his memory; but opposition to this tribute came from a number of Jewish rabbis throughout the country, who claimed that Judaism forbade the erection of any graven image, and that a statue came within the scope of prohibition. This led to an interesting theological controversy, much of which has been preserved in Benjamin’s Drei Jahre in Amerika.”[iv],[v]
The author of Three Years in America (the English translation of the aforementioned German book), Yisroel ben Yosef Benyamin, was a most interesting character who became known as Benjamin II as a result of his extensive travels throughout the world. Benjamin II was born in 1818 in Folticheni, which was then part of the Turkish province of Moldavia. (Subsequently this became part of Romania.) After his marriage he was successfully engaged in the lumber business. However, after a few years he suffered financial reverses and gave up his business, deciding to become a traveling maggid instead.
“Being of an adventurous disposition, he adopted the name of Benjamin of Tudela, the famous Jewish traveler of the twelfth century, and toward the end of 1844 set out to search for the Lost Ten Tribes. He first went to Vienna, and in January 1845, started for Constantinople, visiting several cities on the Mediterranean. He landed at Alexandria [in] June 1847, and proceeded via Cairo to Palestine. He then traveled through Syria, Babylonia, Kurdistan, Persia, the Indies, Kabul, and Afghanistan, returning [in] June 1851, to Constantinople, and thence to Vienna. After a short stay in the last-named city, he went to Italy, embarking there for Algeria and Morocco. On arriving in France, after having traveled for eight years, he prepared in Hebrew his impressions of travel, and had the book translated into French.