Mission

The Touro Synagogue Foundation is a 501(c) 3 not-for-profit, nonsectarian organization, dedicated to maintaining and preserving Touro Synagogue, the colonial Jewish cemetery, Patriots Park, and to promoting and teaching religious diversity, colonial Jewish history and the history of Touro Synagogue.

 

Touro Synagogue is a National Historic Site. The Touro Synagogue Foundation operates public programs in partnership with the National Park Service, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and is a project of Save America's Treasures.

The Annual Meeting of the Touro Synagogue Foundation will be held virtually via Zoom on August 16, 2020 at 10:30 AM. 

The 2020 Touro Synagogue Foundation report of the nominating committee is located on the bottom of this page. 

 

George Washington Letter Reading

Due to COVID-19 concerns, the 2020 George Washington Letter Reading event has been canceled. 

Click the link below to watch the 66th Annual George Washington Letter Reading. This 2013 event celebrated the 250th anniversary of Touro Synagogue and featured Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan as the keynote speaker.

https://vimeo.com/117702210

 

 

 

 

 

REPORT OF THE 2020 NOMINATING COMMITTEE

 New Members

Ms. Kimberly Conway Dumpson

            Kimberly Conway Dumpson is presently Vice President, College Advancement and External Relations          at Rhode Island College. She is a multi-dimensional certified fundraising executive (CFRE) with 15 years of progressive leadership in higher education, with demonstrated success in all areas of institutional advancement.    She has comprehensive campaign experience ($16M) and a proven track record in the solicitation of major and planned gifts of six and seven figures from high-net worth individuals, corporations and foundations, including more than $8.9M in philanthropic gifts of cash and assets generated as a direct result of involvement in cultivation, solicitation, strategic involvement and/or supervision. 

 

            A Maryland native, Ms. Dumpson graduated from Towson University with a bachelor’s degree in political science and sociology, and earned her J.D. degree from Ohio Northern University, Pettit College of Law. She was admitted to the Maryland Bar in 1995 and early in her career practiced medical malpractice and family law before entering higher education. In 2008, she became a certified fundraising executive (CFRE).

 

            Ms. Dumpson is an historian and is actively researching her family’s African and Native American (Narragansett) roots. Her Rhode Island ancestry pre-dates the birth of the nation, and she is currently writing a      book about the lives of some of her prominent family members including: John and Gideon Noka, Bristol Yamma, Abraham Casey (who worked for Aaron Lopez), Isaac Rice, Rev. Mahlon Van Horne and Rev. Paul Johns. Ms. Dumpson has two children, a daughter who is a third-year law student and a son who is a college junior studying game simulation arts and sciences. 

 

Honorable Jed S. Rakoff

            Judge Jed S. Rakoff, as many of you will remember, presented the Keynote Address at the 2019 George Washington Letter Ceremony. He has served since March 1996 as a U.S. District Judge for the Southern District      of New York. He frequently sits by designation on the 2nd and 9th Circuit Courts of Appeals. Judge Rakoff is an Adjunct Professor at both Columbia Law School and NYU Law School, and also teaches at Berkeley Law School and the University of Virginia Law School. He has written over 170 published articles, 730 speeches, 1800 judicial opinions, and co-authored 5 books.  He is also a regular contributor to the New York Review of Books.

 

            Judge Rakoff holds a B.A. degree from Swarthmore College (1964), an M.Phil. degree from Oxford University (Balliol, 1966), and a J.D. degree from Harvard Law School (1969).  Following law school, he clerked for the late Hon. Abraham L. Freedman, US Court of Appeals, Third Circuit. He served on Swarthmore College’s Board of Managers, and on the Governance Board of the MacArthur Foundation’s Project on Law and Neuroscience. Among other awards, he received in 2018 the Federal Bar Council’s Learned Hand Medal for Excellence in Federal Jurisprudence.

 

            Judge Rakoff is married to Dr. Ann Rakoff, a child development specialist. They have three daughters and two grandsons. Judge Rakoff has officiated at over 70 weddings. He is the author of numerous lyrics and humorous poems, several of which have been published. His and his wife’s hobby is ballroom dancing.