Max Lilienthal: The Making of the American Rabbinate

7 The Quest to Unite American Jewry

The Quest to Unite American Jewry 193 7 The decades following the Civil War were characterized by economic growth and by the revolutionary changes wrought by industrialization and urbanization. In the Northern states there was prosperity, a sense of power, and a spirit of buoyant confidence. Industry expanded rapidly and cities grew at an unprecedented rate.1 The optimism of the period encouraged churches and synagogues to replace old, outgrown buildings with expensive new structures.2 In August 1869, Congregation Bene Israel dedicated its own beautiful new temple, and its rabbi gave a joyous speech marking the fulfillment of a decade-old dream. “God bless America for this glorious redemption. . . . Sunning ourselves in the golden rays of human and universal liberty we have ceased our wailings and cries of sorrow, and our prayers and psalmodies are full of thanksgiving and wishes for the welfare of the whole human race.”3 The postwar period was also characterized by a huge new influx of immigrants that far surpassed earlier rates. German immigration, spurred by the promise of an expanding economy, jumped to 130,000 per year between 1866 and 1873. German Jewish immigration also surged, forming a second wave that increased the Jewish population from 150,000 in 1860 to 280,000 by 1880.4 Mostly middle class and urbanized, these German Jews 01 Text.indd 193 10/28/11 1:01 PM 194 Chapter 7 were better educated and more identified with German culture than the earlier wave had been. In addition, by 1870, at least twenty rabbis who had trained at German universities held rabbinic positions in America. They would infuse a new dose of German Jewish liberal thought into the ideological struggles of the 1870s and 1880s.5 Liberal Jewish intellectuals found a hospitable environment in late nineteenth-century America, characterized as the golden age of liberal theology in the United States. Liberal Protestantism, which had experienced a long, slow development in America (particularly among Congregationalists in the Northeast, Northern Methodists, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, and Northern Baptists), reached the height of its influence in the decades after the Civil War.6 Widespread belief in the immanence of God in the world and human nature led to a humanistic optimism embraced alike by liberal Protestants, Jews, and even some Catholics.7 Reform Jewish leaders, finally finding support for their liberal ideology in broadly based American religious values, energetically resumed their campaign for the changes they had been advocating for decades. In the late 1860s Lilienthal and Wise returned to the national agenda that they had put aside after the double debacle of the Cleveland conference and Zion College in 1855: creating a national union for American Jewry and a seminary to train rabbis. It could not have been easy for Lilienthal to return to these controversy-laden issues, being by nature adverse to the kind of polemics and personal attacks that characterized the debates over these issues in the past. Nevertheless, the increasing need for unity to build institutions for American Judaism drew him back to the task. His recent successes at his congregation most likely bolstered his confidence, and his standing both nationally and in Cincinnati’s civic life put him in an excellent position to mediate between the factions. The polemical clash that erupted after the Cleveland conference of 1855 created a long enduring split in the Reform camp.8 One camp, led by David Einhorn and Samuel Adler, advocated a radical approach, eliminating many of the customs and rituals that made Judaism distinctive. What would remain was a pure philosophical core of ethical monotheism, inspired by the prophetic tradition. These doctors of theology, deeply influenced by the German intellectual orientation, wanted to purify Judaism for an elite constituency. The other camp, under the leadership of Wise and Lilienthal, advanced a more moderate approach. Changes were to be made gradually, as the congregations were ready for them, and they were to be presented and justified, at least during the early period, by reference to traditional sources. Although Wise and Lilienthal also wished to bring Ju01 Text.indd 194 10/28/11 1:01 PM 195 The Quest to Unite American Jewry daism into harmony with Enlightenment-based principles and often spoke of eliminating out-of-date rituals and customs, their American experience had taught them that changes could not be legislated without the consent of their congregants. As reformers, they were willing to proceed at a slower...