Ararat, City of Refuge
Ararat, established as a city of refuge for the Jewish nation, was founded in 1825 by New York politician and playwright Mordecai Manuel Noah, who purchased most of Grand Island, a island near Buffalo, New York. It is no longer a "Jewish city."
Noah led a ceremonious procession to the site and laid a markstone with the sayings in Hebrew and English:
The idea did not attract many followers and Mordecai Noah started to advocate the creation of a Jewish state in the Land of Israel, then a part of the Ottoman Empire.
In his short story "Noah's Ark", British author Israel Zangwill retells the story of Ararat.
