Aaron Lopez (1731-82). Receipt for Zachariah Polock, signed by both.

(AMERICAN-JUDAICA).

24th August

Newport, Rhode Island

1757

Receipt for the payment of three months of a “Congregational Subscription.” This receipt completes payment of £25 for the entire year.

The payment of synagogue membership dues in Colonial America, to Congregation Nefutse Israel of Newport. In 1658, approximately 15 Jews from Barbados settled in Newport. The small community worshiped in private homes for more than a century before they could afford to build a synagogue. Jewish merchants had flourished through trade between American ports, the West Indies, England and West Africa. In 1754, Newport’s 12 Jewish families organized a congregation, Nefutse Israel (Scattered of Israel). A decade later this morphed into Congregation Jeshuat Israel (Salvation of Israel), better known as the Touro Synagogue. Aaron Lopez, born Duarte Lopez in Lisbon, reverted to the open practice of Judaism upon migration to America. Lopez was a pillar of the Jewish community in Newport and one of Colonial America’s wealthiest men. Little is known of Zachariah Polock, although his name appears in the minute book of New York’s Congregation Shearith Israel in the year 1733. The inscription on his wife Rebecca’s gravestone in the Touro Cemetery in Newport reads: “Rebecca, the Wife of Zachariah Polock, died March 2d 1764, Aged 65 Years 6 Mo & 18 Days.” This provides us a birth year of 1698 and thus, an approximation of the years of Zachariah’s life.