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leah levitz fishbane  On the Road to Renaissance The Young Men’s Hebrew Associations of New York and Philadelphia, – I n recent years, American Jewish historians have come to recognize that the roots of the great institutions of American Jewish culture at the turn of the twentieth century lay in the highly innovative,and overwhelmingly indigenous, leadership of the so-called “Philadelphia” and “New York” Jewish intellectuals during the last quarter of the nineteenth century.1 The great institutions and projects that have become synonymous with twentieth-century American Jewish cultural activity—The Jewish Theological Seminary, the Jewish Publication Society, the American Jewish Historical Society, and the American Jewish Year Book—grew in great part out of the inspiration and efforts of this circle of Jewish intellectuals. Through memoir literature, correspondence , and the work of historians and biographers, we have begun to trace the achievements of such figures as Cyrus Adler, Mayer Sulzberger, Solomon Solis-Cohen, Philip Cowen, and others, both as individuals and as a common group of intellectuals. What remains to be written, however, is a group portrait of these men—not as the polished intellectual leaders and benefactors of great cultural and intellectual institutions—but rather as young men, reacting as young intellectuals to their environment. Even in their youthful aspirations and projects, one can recognize the seeds of a Jewish renaissance, which flowered in their maturity as these figures took on greater leadership in the Jewish community in the late 1880s. In order to produce such a group portrait of these young men, we must turn our attention toward one particular institution of this period, one that became the common meeting point for all of these figures in their youth—the Young Men’s Hebrew Association.2 The first Young Men’s Hebrew Associations of this period were founded in New York and Philadelphia, in 1874 and 1875, respectively; and they soon spread outward, westward, and southward to include nearly every major city 48 / Leah Levitz Fishbane in the United States.3 They all shared certain common characteristics. They emphasized Jewish character building in adolescents and young men, they provided for social encounters between young Jewish men and women from different religious or geographic backgrounds, and they all expressed a degree of concern for the welfare of the larger Jewish community.4 Many ymhas offered lecture courses, entertainments of music and poetry, recreational and athletic facilities, language courses, academic competitions, club meetings, and, at their core, a library and reading room. While a comprehensive and interpretive history of the Young Men’s Hebrew Associations remains to be written, the following essay will examine only the ymhas of New York and Philadelphia.5 The decision to limit my discussion to these two associations rests on the fact that they were often the trendsetters of the larger movement, and they are most pertinent to our larger discussion of the Philadelphia and New York young intellectuals.6 My discussion of the Philadelphia and New York ymhas will focus on the period during which the young Philadelphia and New York intellectuals were active in the Y, from approximately 1877 to 1883. It is my contention that it was during this period that the Young Men’s Hebrew Associations became an undeniable force within the Jewish community , largely due to the young and extraordinarily articulate leadership of the aforementioned Philadelphia and New York intellectuals. Armed with the powerful spokesmanship of these young intellectuals, the Young Men’s Hebrew Association underwent a substantial shift in focus and direction, turning intensively toward Jewish education and what we might call Jewish “renewal” work. It was during this time that these young men began to edit new publications on behalf of the ymhas,beginning with the very small-scale Association Review (1877–1878), and eventually the larger and more sophisticated Association Bulletin (1881–1883).At the very same time as they devoted their energies to the Y movement, they began a much larger venture, whose aims went far beyond the associations through the publication of a national weekly, the American Hebrew. While this paper spoke to the larger Jewish (and non-Jewish) community, its message, as well as its editors, remained firmly grounded in the ymhas. One can see clearly the fluidity of ideas between the internal association publications and the influential American Hebrew . For this reason, I will refer often to the American Hebrew as reflective, not only of the aims and concerns of these same young intellectuals, but also of the...

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