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Isaac Mayer Wise

1819–1900 · 81 years

The organizer who built American Reform Judaism and never unified it

Portrait of Isaac Mayer Wise — Internet Archive Book Images — 1893 — No restrictions via Wikimedia Commons

The surname was his mother's. Isaac Weis was born in Steingrub, a Bohemian village now inside the Czech Republic, to parents who were never civilly married, and he carried Regina Weiss's name rather than his father's. His father and grandfather taught him Hebrew, Prague taught him the rest, and whether anyone ever formally ordained him is still disputed: the Prague rabbinical court is usually named, sometimes a single rabbi instead, and his later rival David Einhorn used the doubt as a weapon. He took a pulpit at Radnice in 1843, stayed about two years, and on July 23, 1846 landed in the United States. He was 27, spoke little English, and respelled his name Wise.

Three bodies, and he founded all of them: the Union of American Hebrew Congregations in 1873, Hebrew Union College in 1875, the Central Conference of American Rabbis in 1889. They are still the working spine of the largest Jewish denomination in the United States. He is on this page for institutions, not ideas. He was also after something he never got — one unified American Judaism, under one prayer book, trained at one seminary. The country produced three movements instead, and the split began on his watch.

It ended with the sheriff locking the synagogue and taking the keys. In 1850, after Wise told a Charleston audience that he believed in neither a personal Messiah nor the resurrection of the dead, the trustees of his Albany congregation dismissed him. He refused to go, and on Rosh Hashanah, as he stepped up to open the ark, the congregation's president struck him in the face and knocked off his hat. The brawl spread across the pulpit. Five years later the Cleveland conference he called to unite American rabbis instead set the Eastern rabbis permanently against him. In 1897 he denounced political Zionism from the chair of the conference he had founded, calling a Jewish state foreign to Jews who regarded America as their Palestine. Reform reversed him in 1937.

On July 11, 1883, at the dinner celebrating Hebrew Union College's first ordination, the caterer served clams, crabs, shrimp and frogs' legs. Accounts of the walkout differ — one eyewitness remembered rabbis rushing from the room, another recorded only a handful who quietly ate nothing — and whether the menu was deliberate provocation or a caterer's blunder is still argued. Wise blamed the caterer, refused to apologize, and dismissed what he called kitchen Judaism. Traditionalists withdrew, founded the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1886, and built Conservative Judaism from it. His Cincinnati temple carries his name and a Liberty ship carried it through the Second World War. The union he built is the country's largest. It is one of three.

Lifespan

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Isaac Mayer Wise's life against the full span of the corpus.

Notable works

The Israelite other
The weekly he edited for 46 years, renamed The American Israelite in 1874 1854
Minhag America book
The prayer book meant to serve every American congregation. He retired it himself in 1894. 1857
Union of American Hebrew Congregations other
Organized in Cincinnati, 25 years after he first proposed it 1873
Hebrew Union College other
He was its president from the opening day until his death 1875
Central Conference of American Rabbis other
He presided over it for the last 11 years of his life 1889
Reminiscences book
Published after his death, translated from the German by David Philipson 1901

Life in brief

with age at each point

July 23, 1846 aged 27 Lands in the United States and respells his name Wise He had held a pulpit at Radnice in Bohemia since 1843.
1850 aged ~31 Struck at the ark on Rosh Hashanah and locked out of his Albany pulpit The sheriff cleared the synagogue and took the keys. His supporters formed a new congregation, Anshe Emeth.
April 1854 aged 35 Moves to Cincinnati on a lifetime appointment He stayed at Bene Yeshurun for the remaining 46 years of his life and founded The Israelite the same year.
1855 aged ~36 The Cleveland conference divides the rabbinate instead of uniting it Called to build a national union, it set Wise against the leading rabbis of the East.
1873 aged ~54 The Union of American Hebrew Congregations is organized in Cincinnati His 1848 call for a national union finally answered.
October 3, 1875 aged 56 Hebrew Union College opens its doors An earlier attempt, the Zion Collegiate Association of 1855, had failed.
July 11, 1883 aged 64 The Trefa Banquet Shellfish and frogs' legs at the dinner for the college's first four graduates. Wise blamed the caterer and refused to apologize.
1889 aged ~70 Founds the Central Conference of American Rabbis He served as its president until he died.
March 26, 1900 aged 80 Dies in Cincinnati