LEWISTON – Rabbi Mordechai Eskovitz, spiritual leader at the oldest synagogue building in the country, will speak at Bates College about “The Survival of Jewish Communities in the United States” at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 13, in the Muskie Archives, 70 Campus Ave.

The lecture is part of a fall series of events organized by the Multicultural Center, which are open to the public at no charge. For more information, people can call 786-8376.

Touro Synagogue in Newport, R.I., is in Newport’s National Historic Landmark District. Designed by noted colonial architect Peter Harrison, Touro is the oldest standing synagogue in the nation and an excellent example of classical Georgian architecture with Sephardic Jewish elements.

Last year, the Touro Synagogue Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to preserving the synagogue, received a $375,000 grant from the Department of Interior’s Save America’s Treasures. The grant was given to preserve the synagogue’s exterior architectural features and reinforce overloaded roof trusses.

This synagogue also has ties back to the 18th century to the principle of religious tolerance. This connection was established in 1790 when President George Washington wrote a letter “To the Hebrew Congregation in Newport Rhode Island” and promised that the United States would give “to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.”

In 1946, Congress designated the synagogue a National Historic Site. In 2001, Touro Synagogue was added to the collection of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.