3 - Cincinnati (1854-1900)

Summary

I. M. Wise, the great Cincinnati agitator, comes along offering as a panacea for all evils, as a universal remedy against all complaints, the establishment of a union of all Jewish congregations … Twenty-five years ago Dr Wise was already engaged in forming a union, though. not for the purpose of forming a college, but a Jewish Sanhedrim of which he was to be the head … Had he then been successful, reformed Judaism would have been smothered in its very cradle. What did Dr Wise care for the reform principles he had in some way or another preached before? In order to become the leader of American Judaism, he shook hands with the representatives of orthodoxy, sure to atone for his once confessed liberalism by the completed union … Judaism knows of no organized union. It kept its freshness while and because its strength did not consist of one man's power or in a few men's authority, but in the intelligence and free conviction of its individuals … Certainly, a union of American Jewish congregations formed twenty-five years ago would have left Judaism to ignorance, while our best men would have become estranged from their inheritance. And in what respect can a union benefit us today?

(From a lecture by Kaufmann Kohler, delivered on 23 May 1875, reported in the Jewish Times (New York), 28 May 1875)

QUEEN CITY OF THE WEST

'I was fortunate in finding a splendid element in the congrt!gationmen who, without any great exertion on my part, desired, favored, and actively supported every forward and progressive movement. I met with no obstacles in the congregation itself; everything was peaceful and harmonious.’ On several occasions the accuracy of Wise's Reminiscences has been questioned, but there are no grounds for doing so when he writes of the good relations cemented immediately upon his arrival at Congregation B'nai Jeshurun. In Cincinnati he remained for the rest of his days. From the start he seems to have impressed himself on the congregation.