293rd anniversary of the Consecration of the first Synagogue in North America
LOWER MANHATTAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION held its Third Annual Ceremony honoring the 293rd anniversary of the Consecration of the first Synagogue in North America on Friday, April 14, 2023, at 26 South William Street co-named ‘Mill Street Synagogue & Seixas Way.’
THE GERSHOM MENDES SEIXAS RELIGIOUS FREEDOM AWARD
The Mill Street Synagogue, located approximately on what is today the corner of South William Street and Mill Lane in Lower Manhattan, was critically important to the development of the Jewish Community in New York City and America. It was from this synagogue that Gershom Mendes Seixas, the “patriot rabbi”, led the Jewish community in New York in support of the American Revolution and participated in George Washington‘s Inauguration.
The ceremony included remarks by Mark Levine, Manhattan Borough President and the presentation of the GERSHOM MENDES SEIXAS RELIGIOUS FREEDOM AWARD to Bill Tingling, the Founder & CEO of the Tour for Tolerance who has fostered Rabbi Seixas’ ideals of religious freedom. The program also included remarks by Tammy Meltzer, Chair, Manhattan Community Board 1, Reverend Zachary Edinger Sexton Congregation Shearith Israel, Rabbi Nissi Eber, The Jewish Learning Experience, Jack Kliger, President & CEO Museum of Jewish Heritage - A Living Memorial to the Holocaust and James S. Kaplan, Co-Founder & Chair, Lower Manhattan Historical Association. The program concluded with the reading of the Letter from George Washington to the Hebrew Congregation of Newport, RI (August 18, 1790).
