There was an interesting tidbit about a centuries-old piece of history in a recent story about the oldest synagogue in the U.S.

As Touro Synagogue in Newport, R.I., unveiled its new visitors center last Sunday, the Associated Press noted that the original copy of the famous 1790 letter from President George Washington to the synagogue’s warden, Moses Seixas, is not housed there.

In that letter, Washington echoed the warden’s words that the U.S. government “gives to bigotry no sanction.”

The AP, attributing its information to center curator David Kleiman, said:”…(T)he center had to settle for a copy of it since the original is under the stewardship of the Jewish advocacy organization B’nai Brith in Washington, D.C., and is owned by a private family that has been reluctant to lend it.”

(Photo credit: http://www.nps.gov/tosy)