America in the nineteenth century was, Jewishly a waste land. There had been a small Jewish community since the seventeenth century, mostly Spanish and Portuguese Jews, who had fled to Brazil, with some eventually coming to North America. They were joined in the eighteenth century by large numbers of German and Austrian Jews. The great migration of Eastern European, especially Russian, Jews didn't begin until 1885, reaching its climax in the first decades of the twentieth century. However, well into the twentieth century, rabbinic scholarship was exceedingly rare. Most Orthodox rabbis were opposed to Jews braving the temptations of the New World. Assimilation, and intermarriage, was the norm, taking a heavy toll already in the seventeenth century. Those who came with basic Jewish knowledge, became rabbis in America. The same was, unfortunately, true of those who had little knowledge, but fraudulently passed themselves off as rabbis. This was true both in Reform and Orthodox circles.
A major factor in ameliorating this situation was a Reform rabbi, Isaac Meir Wise (not to be confused with the twentieth century Reform leader, Stephen Wise).
Wise came to the United States in 1846, becoming the rabbi of the Reform Congregation in Albany, New York. He soon moved to Cincinnati, Ohio. He began campaigning for unity between factions in the Jewish community, and eliminating charlatans. Although Reform, he opposed the far more radical Max Einhorn, who had moved to a Sunday Sabbath. Wise sought drastic changes to Judaism as well, but sought to maintain a framework of Jewish tradition. He organised national conferences, at which problems facing the Jewish community were discussed, and solutions sought. His thrust was that Reform should develop on its own, but not cut ties with Orthodox Jews. He came up with a grand plan for a united seminary, where American rabbis could be trained; those wishing to be Reform would be Reform, those wishing to be Orthodox would be Orthodox. The plan took shape in 1855, but didn't come to fruition until 1875, due largely to the American Civil War. He had the best scholars in America as faculty, from both factions. Jewish unity seemed an achievable goal. But then it happened. Exactly how is still a subject of debate. Shrimp, a non-kosher food, were served at the first ordination dinner. Wise insisted that this was a mistake on the part of the caterer. But the Orthodox participants saw it as an affront, and a plot to push the Orthodox out. Did Wise have a change of heart on the subject of unity, or was it a real mistake? We'll never know. The result was clear. Battle lines were drawn, and the Orthodox faction decided to make its own seminary. The leader of the Orthodox faction, Sabato Morais (an Italian Jew), had been a professor of Bible at Wise's Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati. He now proposed the founding of a rival institution in New York, called the Orthodox Theological Seminary. There was, however, a problem. There was in America only one first class expert in Talmud. His name was Marcus Jastrow, and he was Reform. (Jastrow wrote an amazing dictionary of Talmudic Aramaic, which is a standard reference work to this day, even in Orthodox circles. I myself refer to it several times a week.) Morais asked Jastrow to teach at his new seminary. Jastrow agreed, on condition it not be called the "Orthodox Theological Seminary", but the "Jewish Theological Seminary", and that non-Orthodox ideas should be taught as well. From this seminary came forth Conservative Judaism, which did not become a separate movement for another fifty years. For the mean time, it was a uniquely American brand of Orthodoxy, mixing Old World principles with New World ideas and values. For the first several decades, the Seminary did not bestow the title "rabbi" on its graduates. The ordination read "Teacher/Preacher". it was felt that the European style rabbi, an ivory tower figure who presided over a network of Jewish communal structures, was not what was needed. The rapidly assimilating community needed knowledgeable professionals who would bring them back to the Jewish path; not necessarily erudite scholars. Real questions of Jewish law could be directed to the Seminary, which eventually formed a "Committee of Law and Standards", which would rule on law,and decided which compromises to Jewish law were acceptable, and which simply were not. A later chancellor of the seminary would sum it up as follows: "Judaism is flexible, but not invertebrate". A uniquely German Jewish method of study was, however, eventually to be modified, making a new form of Judaism. Unlike the case with Reform, the brake was subtle; hardly noticeable at first.That story will be my next installment.