Actually the Quaker Meeting house (still in use) and the Tuoro Synagogue (still in use) are two blocks apart. The Sephardic Jews , fleeing the inquisition in Spain and Portugal, settled in Newport, RI. and founded the abovementioned synagogue./ The Quakers, who were here first, liked them so much that they Petitioned the King to grant them the same rights as Englishmen. The King did, and, this small congregation, headed by Judah Tuoro, were the first "Non English" people to be granted these rights. As you drive into Newport for the first time (From the Bridge) you'll be going down "Farewell St." Look to your right and ttake note of how many gravestones are written in Hebrew.
I know a lot of Quakers, and I've liked every one of them I'd met. This long list includes, John Everett "Fud" Benson, the finest calligrapher-stonecutter the world has ever seen. He designed and built both Kennedy Memorials, The Martin Luther King Memorial (the one with the water flowing over it) and the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial (just completed. It's a pretty safe bet that Fud also designed the "Fonts" in your computer. Anyway, I too am a calligrapher, woodcutter and fledgeling stonecutter. Fud saw something in a funny sign I'd made for my Wife, Donna, "Department of Redundancy Dept." This "something, which I fail to see, said that I had a knack for letters, and encouraged me to do more woodcutting of letters. He taught me everything I know about making hand cut, solid hardwood signs, Every now and then, when I get to feeling, "Gee Gibson, you're a real artist, I take my latest piece of work to Fud and ask him to critisize it, which he does. This humbles me enough to where I no longer fit into the "Great Category" upon which I resume my sign making. The last time I did this I asked Fud, "How could I ever repay your generosity and tutelage". His reply was"Them that deserves it gets it free. Them that don't deserve it aint got enough money to buy it". Typical Quaker sentiments. I'm going to send the Mudcat a photograph of my recent venture intop stonecutting. It's in Japanese and Roman lettering. Fud's also one helluva fiddle player (which is how I met him)
To continue the list, His son Nicholas, who now runs the "John Stevens Shop", the oldest craft-art shop in the Western Hemisphere that has been in operation since it's beginnings. His Brother Richard "Chip" Benson who is responsible for the restoration of pretty much all the Abe Lincoln Deguerrotypes so