RIJHA meeting features guest speaker Keith Stokes

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Keith Stokes will speak at the annual fall meeting of Rhode Island Jewish Historical Association Sunday Nov. 4 2-4 p.m. in the Baxt Social Hall at the Alliance’s Dwares Jewish Community Center in Providence.

The presentation, “Faith Family & Freedom: Early America Through the Eyes of Two Jewish Women,” will recount the lives of Catherine and Slowey Hays. The Newport-born sisters were first cousins to Judah Touro and the presentation will reconstruct their lives between 1775 and 1855 while they were living in Newport, Boston and Richmond, Virginia.

Their stories are taken from original letters, diaries and wills. Featured are how they formed the earliest Hebrew Schools along with Rebecca Gratz in Philadelphia; challenged the slave system in the South and maintained their Jewish faith during a very difficult time for Jews and women in America.  The presentation will also include information on family heirlooms from the era. 

Keith Stokes is a member of the Touro Synagogue Foundation Board and co-chair of the Education Committee. 

This event is open to the public, and free of charge. Please contact Kate-Lynne Laroche RIJHA director, with any questions at 401-331-1360 or info@rijha.org.

Submitted by the Rhode Island Jewish Historical Association