On September 15, 1825, Buffalo, New York was the site of a grand ceremony that might have changed the course of Jewish history. On that day in St. Paul's Episcopal Church, journalist and Democratic Party activist Mordecai Manuel Noah announced to a large crowd the creation of "the Jewish State of Ararat" on Grand Island in the Niagara River, near the US border with Canada.

Noah, an American Jew who wanted to provide "an asylum" for his persecuted brothers and sisters in Central and Eastern Europe, believed that the new colony - named after the mountain upon which Noah's ark rested after the great flood - would provide that safe haven that world Jewry needed to survive. In the end, Noah's vision did not translate into reality. All that is left of Ararat is its cornerstone. It is inscribed with the Hebrew words of the Shema prayer and now rests in Grand Island's town hall as a curio to attract tourists.