Mordecai M. Noah, Ararat stone reproduction.

The Ararat Stone

Mordecai M. Noah had a vision of a promised land in America a colony to be named "Ararat." This "asylum" for world-wide Jewry was to be located on Grand Island in the Niagara River. Ararat never succeeded all that remains is a 300-pound cornerstone. The stone is inscribed in Hebrew with the keynote prayer of Judaism, the Shema. In English it reads, "Here, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One.".