US Supreme Court declines to take up fight over America’s oldest synagogue. Manhattan’s Shearith Israel declared rightful owner of Rhode Island’s Touro Synagogue after ownership dispute stemming from the Revolutionary War.

Congregation Jeshuat Israel has worshiped at Touro Synagogue since the late 1800s. It wanted control of the synagogue building, which was built in 1763, and the ability to sell one of its two sets of Colonial-era silver Torah scroll bell-shaped finials, called rimonim, handcrafted by prominent silversmith Myer Myers. It wanted to sell the set to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston for $7.4 million.

But in June, the 1st US Circuit Court of Appeals, in a ruling written by former US Supreme Court justice David Souter, found that Manhattan’s Congregation Shearith Israel, which objected to Jeshuat Israel’s planned sale of the rimonim, owns both the Touro property and the adornments.

The dispute between Jeshuat Israel and Shearith Israel, the nation’s oldest congregation founded in 1654, has gone on for years.

Moar here:

https://www.timesofisrael.com/us-supreme-court-declines-to-take-up-fight-over-americas-oldest-synagogue/

The Touro rimonim measure 14 ½ inches high and sparkle from inside a glass display at the entrance to the MFA's Marilyn and John F. Keane Family Gallery that features furniture and decorative arts from 18th century Newport. Each finial has three intricately cut spheres with six small delicate brass bells dangling from curved brackets. A delicately decorated gilt silver crown graces the top.

"Myers based his design on European Torah finials, “creating among the earliest and rarest examples of Jewish ceremonial art in America,” according to one of two display case labels. The design recalls the biblical temple of Jerusalem, which was decorated with pomegranates, an ancient Jewish symbol of fruitfulness."

https://www.wbur.org/artery/2017/12/12/colonial-silver-adornments-torah

Colonial period Jewish symbolism. Pieces owned by the first Jewish synagogue in the US. Numbers 3 and 6 in the design of the pieces. Is the fight over these pieces about $$ or could it be something else to do with its symbolism?