Other Jewish graves are found nearby as part of the Common Burying Ground and Island Cemetery on Farewell Street.

The cemetery gates are decorated with torches turned to face downward, an acknowledgement of the ending of life's flame.

The inscription on his tombstone reads: "To the Memory of / Judah Touro / He inscribed it in the Book of / Philanthropy / To be remembered forever.

Newport in the 1850s was an old seaport town whose air of genteel decay and cool sea breezes had recently begun to attract members of Boston's intellectual elite as a summer retreat.

American writer Henry Wadsworth Longfellow visited the area in July 1852 and showed an interest more in the cemetery than in the synagogue, which he described as being "a shady nook, at the corner of two dusty, frequented streets".