The architect of
American Reform Judaism
By Louis Jacobs
Reprinted with
permission from The
Jewish Religion: A Companion, published by Oxford University Press.
Isaac Mayer Wise [was a] Reform rabbi and pioneer of Reform
Judaism in America. Although Wise received, in his native Bohemia, a good
grounding in the traditional Jewish sources, he was largely self-educated in
the more modern Jewish thought and the general culture of his day.
In America, Wise Soon Flew Solo
In 1846, Wise left for America, serving, at first, as rabbi
to an Orthodox synagogue in Albany [New York] in which he attempted to
introduce certain reforms contrary to the wishes of the congregation [including
a mixed choir, confirmation, and German and English hymns]. Such was the
opposition to Wise’s reforms that the president of the congregation came to
blows with him on Yom Kippur.
Wise left his post to found a synagogue on his own. [This
synagogue, Anshe Emeth, featured, under Wise’s leadership, the first family
pew. Mixed seating spread quickly in American Reform Judaism but did not catch
on until much later in the European Reform movement.]
Dreams of Judaism as the American Faith
In 1854, Wise became a Reform rabbi in Cincinnati, which city,
through his efforts and strong and stubborn personality, became the home of
American Reform. It was the dream of Reform as suited to life in the New World
that inspired Wise, unlike the Reformers in Germany, whose aim it was to
accommodate Judaism to Western life and civilization in general, rather than to
a particular country. At one period in his career, Wise became so convinced
that a moderately reformed Judaism would prove attractive to all reasonable
people that he forecast in fifty years Judaism would overtake Christianity to
become the religion of America as a whole—a nonsensical dream, of course, but
indicative of Wise’s reforming zeal and broad, though fanciful, vision.
Steps Forward and Back to American Custom
Wise wished to establish what he called a Minhag America
(“Custom of America”), a uniform ritual for all American Jews. He wrote
extensively on his favorite topic, meeting, however, opposition both from the
Orthodox and from the more radical Reformers. The latter believed Wise to be too
traditional in his approach and he was indeed averse, for example, to biblical
criticism being applied to the Pentateuch.
Wise was instrumental in forming the Union of American
Hebrew Congregations [in 1873], and in 1875 the Hebrew Union College, of which
he became president. The College was intended to be a general school of
learning in which Orthodox as well as Reform rabbis would be trained but when,
at the banquet to celebrate the ordination of the College’s first rabbis,
non-kosher food was served [including several shellfish dishes and mixtures of
milk and meat], the traditionalists would have nothing further to do with the
College. This led eventually to the establishment of the Jewish Theological
Seminary for the training of Conservative rabbis, and to the creation of the
third denomination in American Jewish life, Conservative Judaism.
[In 1899, a year before his death, Wise lead the Reform
rabbinate in establishing the Central Conference of American Rabbis, an
umbrella organization for Reform rabbis in the United States.]
Louis Jacobs, founding
rabbi of the New London Synagogue, is a renowned scholar and lecturer.
c. Louis Jacobs, 1995. Published by Oxford
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