times. join us on american history television as we learn more about this historic building. >> this synagogue is the oldest existing synagogue building in the united states of america. and it has a wonderful story. first of all, it is most important for you to understand that above all, the touro synagogue is a place of worship. we have this happening all year round, a full-time rabbi, a congregation. there are about 120 members, and it is orthodox in its service. that is what we are doing today. the story starts in 1492 in spain. king ferdinand and queen isabella issued the alhambra decree. what they wanted at that particular time was to have a purely catholic country. they gave jewish people two choices. the first one was to convert to catholicism, the second was to leave. those who converted were called conversos. some, however, chose to remain jews in secret. they had all of their ritual objects. if they were to be found out, they would have been tortured and put to death. to give you a sense of how the spaniards thought of jews at the time, their nickname was swine. what about the others? about 90,000-100,000 jews left spain. and they had four months to get their affairs in order, which basically meant that they had to give everything away to the spanish government. their lands, any riches they may have had. several years after that, the king of portugal did something similar. and those jewish people from spain and portugal we refer to as sephardic jews. they fled wherever they felt safe, wherever they could worship and work. in places like jamaica, barbados, st. thomas, and -- and brazil. 1658, oral history tells us that 15 people left barbados. but instead of going to new york or philadelphia, they wanted to come right here to newport, rhode island. well, what attracted them here? the attraction was the story of how rhode island became about. that came about. in 1636, a gentleman by the name of roger williams founded rhode island. he had come to the colonies from england seeking religious freedom. 20 years after the founding of rhode island, those people in barbados said this is where they wanted to come. now, not only did jews come here, but quakers and other people who have been persecuted or they would be because of their religious beliefs. in 1677, the jews that were here needed a place to bury their loved ones, so they bought a plot of land it up the street. if you see that small little cemetery, you will see that it has the names on the gravestones of touro. -- these arevera all portuguese and sephardic names. the cemetery was important because it documented these jewish people could own property, which was not the case in all of the colonies. by 1758, things were changing dramatically for newport. it had been transformed from a sleepy little town to one of the five top seaports in colonial america, right up there with new and, philadelphia, boston, charleston. our waterfront was filled with 150 sailing ships that traded imports -- in ports all over the world. so there was wealth coming in to newport. many jewish merchants also got some of the wealth because of what was happening. they were shipped, traders, like everybody else. they had some decisions to make regarding the jewish community. theuse prior to 1758, jewish people prayed in their leaders.h there were no rabbinical schools in colonial america. inthey said we have been this town for 100 years, let's find someone to lead our congregation. a young man of 25 years old who grew up in amsterdam, holland came here to newport, his name was isaac touro, the first religious leader here for the jewish community. the congregation also did not have a synagogue. it took them a few generations of wealth to have the money to start a venture such as building a house of worship. we think that touro had something to say about that, and convinced some of those wealthy jewish merchants to buy a plot of land in the center of old colonial newport at the top of a hill. the cornerstone for the building was laid in 1759. and the congregants found the most prestigious architect in colonial america, peter harrison, to design the building. it took four years to build the building. the building was consecrated on the night of december 2, to 1763 -- 1763, coinciding with the jewish holiday of hanukkah. the congregation filed into the building, about 20 or 30 jewish families. because it was such an important event, they invited the entire jewish community to come inside and worship with them. jew and non-jew alike. we know what the building looked like. i am just going to point out some of the features are what we see today. the building had this remarkable brass chandeliers that are still original to the building. they were donated by wealthy jewish merchants whose names are them.ed upon these chandeliers and candelabras were filled with candles made from the head matter of whales. the wealthiest merchants here had several candle factories in town. what we also have in this beautiful building are these 12 columns. now, the 12 columns -- they denote the 12 tribes of israel. they not only provide architectural support and structural support, but they also have a biblical reference as well. at the far end of our beautiful congregation is a clock. a clock that matches wooden charity boxes. these were gifts from a synagogue in london, which was sephardic and still exists as a jewish synagogue. one of the interesting things is that the clock has to be hand wound and still works. that's a couple hundred years afterward. our most important ritual object here is our torah scroll. now, the torah scroll is the first five books of the bible. genesis, exodus, leviticus, numbers, and deuteronomy. jewish people around the world read a portion of the torah three times a week. scroll is over 500 years old. it was a gift from the amsterdam sephardic community. we believe these early congregants worshiping in their new synagogue worshipped from this scroll. it is unique because it is deerskin, it has a veneer of oil to it, and it is in almost perfect condition. this remarkable building, the sanctuary, looks very much like it did on december 2, 1763. yes, it has had several renovations, but not a reconstructed space. so we still get that same feeling that those early congregants felt when they came into the building. things went well here for 13 years, that takes us right up to 1776. this was an english colony, and when the declaration of independence was read, the english called in their navy and the navy blockaded the harbor, thereby shutting down all of the trade. people started fleeing to -- from newport, because without trade they could not make a living. this building was closed as a synagogue and used as a hospital for british soldiers. one of the few jews who stayed behind was isaac touro, he made sure the building was intact and no harm done during that time. this building came out of the war unscathed. unfortunately, after the revolutionary war, people did not come back here to newport, rhode island. they had already established their businesses and homes somewhere else. for the jewish people, it was a very difficult time. in fact, by the 1820's, not one jewish person lived in newport, rhode island anymore. the building was shut, and the keys were given to a quaker family who took care of it for 60 years. in the late 1880's, who asked cannot be -- ashkenazi jews, eastern european jews started coming to america to escape what they were experiencing. they came to newport, rhode island, they saw the shuttered building and said we wanted to use it for worship. an agreement was made that they could as long as the service remained orthodox in nature. and this building has been in continuous use as an orthodox synagogue since 1894. george washington came to newport we believe three times. the last in 1790. he came accompanied by thomas jefferson. they were on a campaign trip to all of the 13 new states, the united states of america, urging ratification of the bill of rights. our constitution had several important omissions. to the jewish people here in the new united states, the most important omission was that there was nothing speaking about freedom of religion. they were wondering what was going to happen to the jews in the new united states? was it going to be like other governments that had treated jewish people harshly or expelled them? so in that vein, the president of the congregation wrote a letter to george washington in august of 1790, asking what was going to happen to the jews? washington read that letter and wrote right back. using most of his own words, to paraphrase, he said no more toleration is spoken of as if it were the indulgence of one class of people over the exercise of another's natural rights. government of the united states would give bigotry no sanction, to persecution, no assistance. those words, which had such relevance to them and to us now, were really the first words on paper in this new united states of america by a federal official, that spoke to freedom of religion and the freedom of the government's responsibility in guaranteeing that freedom. and that is what we celebrate here every day in our touro synagogue story. >> our cities tour staff recently traveled to newport, rhode island, to learn more about its rich history. learn more about new part -- newport and other stops on our website. you are watching american history tv, all weekend, every weekend on c-span3. each week, american artifacts takes viewers into archives, museums, and historic sites around the country. the national world war i museum and memorial in kansas city, missouri has more than 300,000 artifacts. next, we learn about several items in the collection from lora vogt, the museum's education curator. >> hello, we are here in the main gallery at the very beginning of the story. on june 28, 1914, archduke frantz ferdinand and his wife, so the