A Far-Flung Fraternity in a Fertile Desert: The Emergence of Rabbinic Scholarship in America, 1887–1926

Writing in 1926, bibliophile Ephraim Deinard found little that distinguished the rabbinic writing that he had studied in Europe from the kind produced by immigrant rabbis in the U.S. The only difference, he explained, was that ‘‘in America, they have essentially ceased to publish talmudic novellae because they realize that there is no one in this country who is capable of comprehending rabbinic casuistry.’’¹ Deinard counted just over two dozen books printed in the U.S. that one might classify as ‘‘Hiddushei Torah,’’ rabbinic novellae. These sorts of casuistic works, distinctive for their theoretical style and analytical solutions to resolve contradicting statements in the Talmud and its commentators, constituted just a sliver of the nearly 1000 Hebrew books included in Deinard’s catalog of American Hebrew books. This, then, was something of an indictment of American rabbinic culture since Hiddushei Torah was the most elite form of traditional Jewish scholarship.

Deinard’s sentiment contributed to a long-lasting perception that American Jews did not begin authoring Hiddushei Torah until the post-Holocaust period. But his assessment was somewhat of an overstatement. To be sure, American rabbis around the turn of the twentieth century produced far fewer Hiddushei Torah than did rabbinic scholars in Europe. When American rabbis did publish, as we will see, many produced other types of rabbinic writing. Yet, Deinard was also unaware of scores of surviving works and periodicals printed in the decades surrounding the turn of the twentieth century.² Given that ignorance, Deinard could not detect a quiet but significant Orthodox rabbinic movement taking place in the U.S. Outside forces greatly aided these writers in reconstructing the rabbinic culture they knew so well in Europe. Like many writers in America, these men (rabbinic writing by women is a much more recent phenomenon) benefited from tremendous technological advances in the area of book manufacturing in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Better machine-made paper and improvements in bookbinding production made publishing more expedient and less expensive.³ Book publication might have been inexpensive but it was hardly cheap. Scholars who settled in the U.S. toiled hard to publish their rabbinic treatises. What is more, these immigrant rabbis joined other Jewish cohorts in the U.S. who took advantage of the improvements in book manufacturing. Historians have identified the founding of the Jewish Publication Society and the rise of Yiddish-language writers as evidence of a reinvigorated and versatile sense of Jewish culture in America.⁴ We should add rabbinic scholars to this list.

What compelled rabbis to publish Hiddushei Torah? For many immigrant authors, especially before the turn of the century, the gradual trend reflected their longing to remain connected to the Eastern European rabbinic world. The few yeshivot in America before World War II paled in intensity and quality compared to European schools, and consequently, those steeped in traditional learning were almost exclusively of European extraction. Eventually, however, an increasing number of rabbis came to terms with their America environs. Understandably, news of continued antisemitism in Europe improved their views of Jewish life in America. As a result, their motivation to pen Hiddushei Torah changed. No longer completely yearning for Europe and contact with their peers, rabbinic scholars in the U.S. published their work as a means to garner respect for America as an emerging center of traditional Jewish learning.⁵

Far more common than Hiddushei Torah were sermon collections. Homiletical works carried a significant market among American Jews, especially within the ranks of rabbinic preachers. Many congregations expected their clerical orators to deliver daily sermons; preachers desperately sought out books and manuals with content that would conform ‘‘to the wants and passions of the people.’’⁶ Hebrew sermons were also lighter and easier to compose than Hiddushei Torah, with all of the latter type’s rabbinic idioms.⁷ Scholars with the capacity to author novella, like Rabbi Shaul Yedidyah Shochet, deeply resented preachers who spent their time composing ‘‘lowbrow material’’ for popular consumption. Shochet, who spent most of his years in America occupying Midwestern...