"Accept the Truth from Whomsoever [sic] Gives It": Jewish-Protestant Dialogue, Interfaith Alliances, and Pluralism, 1880-1910

On the evening of 7 November 1901, Henry Potter, the Episcopal bishop of New York, entered that city's oldest synagogue, Shearith Israel, to address its Sisterhood. After an introduction from congregation leader H. Pereira Mendes, Potter took the pulpit and remarked that the Jewish world seemed to be changing. "I have observed," he began, "that the Jews are in a great measure discarding their ancient ceremonials. Take care how you let go of usages that come down to you from the past. These ancient ceremonials are sacred things."

That a leading churchman from the Protestant mainstream would tell a group of Jews to carefully conserve their Jewish traditions did not go unnoticed by contemporaries. But almost as noteworthy as Potter's remarks was their setting: Shearith Israel was the best-known orthodox synagogue in America, and Mendes headed the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations, formed just three years earlier to defend traditional Judaism against the rapid inroads and modernizing innovations of Reform Judaism. And yet between Potter and Mendes, two staunch defenders of religious conservatism, there was perfect understanding. As Mendes declared in his introductory remarks, "the world had now advanced to that point where men who differ in mere matters of creed, could stand on the same platform and serve God and humanity." ¹

That Potter and Mendes could unite "on the same platform" in defense of their respective forms of traditionalism was the result of years of interfaith dialogue between Jewish and Protestant leaders. Through pulpit exchanges, interfaith conferences, and editorials in the weekly religious press, clergymen and laymen from both groups became increasingly familiar with the questions of ritual, belief, and observance faced by their counterparts. Reasoning that church and synagogue faced similar difficulties with organizing and motivating their congregations, leading rabbis and ministers examined one another's practices and offered each other advice. They created an interfaith discussion dedicated to exploring the fact that, as the editors of Chicago's Jewish Reform Advocate put it in 1891, "the spiritual atmosphere in which the Jew today lives is the same as that which envelops our neighbors." ²

The very success of interfaith dialogue in highlighting mutual interests, however, also led to a heightening of tensions within and between different Jewish and Protestant groups. The awareness of parallel approaches to practical questions allowed conservatives and liberals of both faiths to find common ground across sectarian lines and establish spiritual alliances against their own internal opponents. Protestants, seeing Reform Judaism as equivalent to Unitarianism, often joined the denunciations of Reform made by traditionalist Jews; in response, a number of American Reformers—previously known for advocating adaptation to prevailing modern standards—began to argue that outsiders had no proper role in discussions of authentic Judaism. Champions of Reform later developed this argument into an attack on "Christianizing" tendencies within American Judaism, ironically aimed at their traditionalist opponents. As a result of interfaith dialogue, observers of the contemporary religious scene in the years after 1900 were increasingly interested in questions of difference and identity, paving the way for discussions of modern American pluralism.

The Converging Concerns of Church and Synagogue

Leading American Protestants in the late nineteenth century frequently expressed a keen curiosity regarding the spiritual and social life of their Jewish neighbors, whose population in the United States was rapidly expanding in the 1880s and 1890s. ³ Often portraying Jews as living embodiments of the Bible and ancient history, correspondents for a number of religious weeklies wrote about visits to immigrant Jewish neighborhoods and synagogues. ⁴ They evocatively described feeling fascinated and amazed to witness rituals observed "practically as [they have] been conducted since the time of Ezra." ⁵ The wailing, sonority, and emotionality of Jewish liturgy and music deeply affected Protestant listeners, as did frequent observations of Jewish holidays and rituals. ⁶ The spectacle was...