Built in 1763 by Sephardic Jewish merchants in Newport, Touro Synagogue is the oldest surviving synagogue building in the United States and the only colonial-era synagogue still standing in North America, designed by Peter Harrison in Georgian style. President Washington's 1790 letter to the congregation — promising the new government would "give to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance" — is one of the foundational documents of American religious freedom.