The Chosen Wars Read online

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  Contents

  Timeline

  Glossary

  Introduction: Jews in America: A Part but Apart

  1. Coming to America

  2. Let Harmony Ascend

  3. Rebellion in Charleston

  4. The German Immigrants

  5. German Rabbis in America

  6. The Turbulent Isaac Mayer Wise

  7. A Fistfight in Albany

  8. The “Two Isaacs”

  9. Jews in the Civil War

  10. Prosper and Divide

  11. Reformists and Radicals

  12. The Trefa Banquet

  13. New Divisions

  Epilogue: An American Religion

  Photographs

  Acknowledgments

  Recommended Reading

  About the Author

  Bibliography

  Notes

  Index

  Illustration Credits

  For Elisabeth

  Timeline

  Twelfth century: Maimonides writes “Guide for the Perplexed.”

  1492: Spanish Inquisition, Jews expelled from Spain and later Portugal; Columbus “discovers” America, probably with Jews aboard.

  1517: Martin Luther posts 95 Theses, starts Protestant revolution.

  1543: Copernicus publishes heliocentric model of Earth revolving around sun.

  1563: Joseph Caro organizes rabbinical teachings into Shulchan Aruch (The Set Table).

  1654: First Jews arrive as a group on American shores (New Amsterdam) aboard the Ste. Catherine, establish Shearith Israel in New York.

  1656: Spinoza excommunicated in Netherlands.

  1664: British seize New York from Dutch.

  1679: Synagogue in Prague installs an organ.

  1695: First Jews in South Carolina.

  1720: Ashkenazim become majority of Jews in New York.

  1730s–40s: First Great Awakening, pressure on Jews to convert.

  1740: Jews granted naturalization rights in colonies.

  1749: Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim established in Charleston.

  1768: Gershom Mendes Seixas elected spiritual leader of Shearith Israel in New York.

  1776: American Revolution, British capture New York; Seixas flees the city.

  1783: Moses Mendelssohn publishes Jerusalem in Berlin.

  1790: Washington’s letter to the Jews of Newport, Rhode Island.

  1790: Shearith Israel establishes “bill of rights” for Congregation.

  1791: Jews granted citizenship in France.

  1795: First Ashkenazi synagogue in America (Rodeph Shalom) in Philadelphia.

  1800: Charleston has largest Jewish community in the United States: five hundred people.

  1800 and after: The Second Great Awakening.

  1810: Seesen Temple in Germany becomes first “Reform” synagogue.

  1818: Hamburg Temple installs an organ.

  1819: Society for the Culture and Science of Judaism established in Germany.

  1819: Rebecca Gratz establishes Female Hebrew Benevolent Society in Philadelphia.

  1819: Hep-hep riots in Germany.

  1824: Isaac Leeser emigrates to America at age 18.

  1824: Dissenters at Beth Elohim create “Reformed Society” in Charleston, declaring “this country is our Palestine.”

  1825: B’nai Jeshurun (Ashkenazi) breaks away from Shearith Israel, second synagogue in New York City.

  1825: Mixed choir introduced in Mikveh Israel in Philadelphia, Mordecai Manuel Noah seeks Jewish “refuge” on Niagara River.

  1826: Maryland “Jew Bill” adopted and grants Jews full rights.

  1830: German migration to the United States surges.

  1830: Principles of Geology by Charles Lyell posits that earth is hundreds of millions of years old; Leeser delivers first sermon in English at Mikveh Israel in Philadelphia.

  1836: Benjamin Silliman says six-thousand-year-old Earth should not be taken literally.

  1837: Joseph Seligman arrives in the United States.

  1838: K. K. Beth Elohim synagogue destroyed by fire in Charleston; the first Jewish Sunday school established in Philadelphia.

  1840: There are fifteen thousand Jews in the United States, up from three thousand a decade earlier.

  1840: Abraham Rice first ordained rabbi to settle in the United States.

  1840: Damascus affair; thirteen Jews accused of murdering a priest.

  1840s: The first rabbis (at least eleven) come to America from Germany. There are eighteen formally organized congregations in the United States and a proliferation of synagogues in major cities.

  1841: Beth Elohim in Charleston reopens with organ.

  1843: The lawsuit over an organ goes to court in Charleston.

  1842: New York City forbids religious instruction in schools.

  1842: Har Sinai Verein in Baltimore, first Reform congregation in America, adopts Hamburg prayer book.

  1843: B’nai B’rith established; The Occident started by Leeser.

  1846: Isaac Mayer Wise arrives in America, settles later in Albany; Rabbi Max Lilienthal tries to launch beit din.

  1846: Court of Appeals in South Carolina upholds Beth Elohim’s right to install an organ.

  1847: Wise and Leeser meet in Albany; Wise first proposes Minhag America as prayer book.

  1848: German and French uprisings, Jews flee in larger numbers.

  1849: The Asmonean is founded by Robert Lyon; Rabbi Morris Raphall arrives in America; Wise renews his contract in Albany; Wise’s daughter dies.

  1850: Wise attends debate in South Carolina, later dismissed at Beth El in Albany.

  1851: Wise establishes mixed seating in Albany.

  1851: Edward Hitchcock’s The Religion of Geology and Its Related Science is published.

  1852: Jews from Lithuania and Poland establish first Eastern European Orthodox synagogue in New York.

  1853: Heinrich Graetz publishes the first volume of History of the Jews; Oheb Shalom conservative synagogue is founded in Baltimore.

  1854: The Young Men’s Hebrew Association (YMHA) started in Baltimore; there are seven religious schools in the United States.

  1854: Wise joins B’nai Yeshurun as rabbi, starts the Israelite.

  1854: Wise moves to Cincinnati; mixed seating at Temple Emanu-El in New York; Wise publishes A History of Israelitish Nation.

  1855: There are now seventy-six congregations in the United States.

  1855: Merzbacher prayer book at Temple Emanu-El; family pews at Emanu-El.

  1855: Cleveland rabbinical conference adopts the Talmud as legally binding; both Wise and Leeser are criticized from opposite ends of spectrum.

  1855: David Einhorn becomes rabbi at Har Sinai in Baltimore.

  1857: Wise introduces Minhag America prayer book; Samuel Adler succeeds at Temple Emanu-El.

  1858: Mortara affair; seizure of “baptized” Jew in Bologna provokes controversy.

  1858: Sinai “Temple” in Chicago.

  1859: Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species is published.

  1860: There are 160 organized Jewish communities in thirty-one states; a quarter of those communities are in New York City.

  1861: Jewish Reform Society established in Chicago.

  1861: President Abraham Linc
oln takes office; Civil War begins; 150,000 Jews in America, 25,000 in the South. Rabbi Raphall’s speech on National Fast Day defends slavery, is rebutted by Heilprin and Einhorn.

  1863: Ulysses S. Grant’s General Order No. 11 bars Jews from certain occupied areas.

  1865: Lincoln’s assassination is mourned by Jews.

  1866: Friday evening services at a fixed time started by Wise in Cincinnati; dedication of Plum Street Temple.

  1867: Free Religious Association is founded with Wise and Lilienthal in attendance.

  1868: Death of Isaac Leeser.

  1869: Philadelphia conference, disagreement between Wise and Einhorn.

  1870: Of 152 synagogues in America, more than thirty have organs.

  1871: Cincinnati rabbinical conference; Wise proposes changes in Yom Kippur.

  1873: The Union of American Hebrew Congregations is established.

  1875: Hebrew Union College opens.

  1876: Adas Israel splits from Washington Hebrew over organ installation; Felix Adler starts the Society for Ethical Culture in New York City.

  1877: There are 277 congregations and 250,000 Jews in the United States.

  1877: Rutherford B. Hayes elected president; Reconstruction ends. Joseph Seligman excluded from Grand Union Hotel in Saratoga Springs, New York.

  1879: Traditionalists meet in Philadelphia, revive Hanukkah; The American Hebrew starts publishing.

  1881: Czar Alexander II of Russia is murdered, unleashing pogroms; two million Jews immigrate to the United States in the ensuing decades.

  1883: Trefa Banquet.

  1885: Competing sermons between Rabbis Kaufmann Kohler and Alexander Kohut.

  1885: The Pittsburgh Platform adopted, watershed for “Classical Reform.”

  1886: Jewish Theological Seminary founded by dissenting traditionalist New York rabbis.

  1888: The Jewish Publication Society is reestablished.

  1889: The Central Conference of American Rabbis is founded.

  1892: The Union Prayer Book is published.

  1897: The First Zionist Congress meets in Basel, Switzerland; the Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR) opposes establishing a Jewish state.

  1902: The Union of Orthodox Rabbis is founded; Solomon Schechter becomes chancellor of Jewish Theological Seminary.

  1903: Rabbi Kohler takes over Hebrew Union College.

  Glossary

  Adjunta: synagogue trustees.

  Adonai: a Hebrew name for God, spoken in place of YHWH, often translated as “the Lord.”

  Ashkenazi (plural Ashkenazim): Jews with roots in German-speaking areas of Europe.

  BCE: Before the Common Era, used widely in place of BC (Before Christ). CE (Common Era) refers to the period after the birth of Jesus.

  Bar and Bat Mitzvah (Son/Daughter of the Commandments): the ceremony of admitting a Jewish boy or girl into adulthood, signaled by reading the Torah.

  Beit Din: rabbinical court.

  Bima: the raised stage from which the Torah is read during services.

  B’nai B’rith (Sons of the Covenant): the leading Jewish fraternal and service organization in the United States in the nineteenth century, established in 1843.

  Common Era (CE): alternate term referring to the period after Jesus Christ, or AD (Anno Domini). BCE (Before the Common Era) is the equivalent of BC (Before Christ).

  Converso: a Jew forced to convert, or converted voluntarily to Christianity, in the era of the Spanish Inquisition. Jews who practiced their religion covertly were called by the despised name marranos, or pigs.

  Diaspora: Jews living outside the land of Israel. (See also Galut.)

  Elohim: Hebrew name for God, plural of El.

  Galut: Hebrew word for forced exile of Jews.

  Haftarah: reading from the Prophets, following the reading from the Torah, during Sabbath services.

  Halakhah: The body of ancient traditional Jewish law. See also Oral Law.

  Hanukkah: Jewish holiday celebrating the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem in 165 BCE, marked by lighting eight candles on successive days.

  Hasidism: the fervently pietistic and mystical movement among Jews of Eastern Europe that spread in the eighteenth century.

  Haskalah: the Jewish enlightenment movement in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Germany.

  Hazan: the leader who chants prayers at religious services; also called cantor.

  Herem: excommunication or censure for violation of Jewish laws.

  Israel: biblical name for the Jewish people as descendants of the patriarch Jacob, whose name was changed to reflect his having wrestled with God.

  Kaddish: the prayer mourning the dead.

  Kahal Kadosh (Holy Community): often abbreviated as KK before the name of a synagogue congregation.

  Kippah: Hebrew word for head covering, often a skullcap. See yarmulke.

  Kol Nidre (All Vows): the prayer recited or sung at Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) annulling vows made before God.

  Kosher: the term for what is acceptable to eat under strict Jewish dietary laws.

  Landsmannshëftn: hometown immigrant association.

  Maskilim: adherents of Haskalah, the Jewish enlightenment movement in Germany.

  Mehitzah: partition separating men and women in the synagogue.

  Messiah: the term referring to a future Jewish king from the Davidic line whose arrival would usher in a period of redemption for the Jews.

  Mezuzah: small handwritten scroll containing passages from Deuteronomy affixed in an amulet to the doorpost of one’s house.

  Mikveh: ritual bath.

  Minhag: Hebrew for custom or rite.

  Minyan: quorum of males required for prayer service.

  Mitzvah (plural: mitzvot): Hebrew for “commandment,” as in the 613 positive and negative commandments of ancient Jewish reckoning, also commonly used to refer to a good deed.

  Mohel: person who performs a ritual circumcision.

  Oral Law: laws, rules, interpretations, and commentaries not written in the Torah but expounded by ancient rabbis and regarded by traditionalists as having divine authority because they are based in commandments from God to Moses and transmitted orally from generation to generation until finally written down before the Common Era and in the centuries afterward.

  Parnas: president of a congregation.

  Pharisees: a sect or school of thought in the period before and after the Common Era defending the divine status of the Oral Law and the Talmud. Pharisees gained eventual dominance over the Sadducees, who questioned the authority of these laws. See also rabbinic Judaism.

  Piyyutim (singular: piyyut): Jewish liturgical poems.

  Rabbi: teacher, spiritual leader of a congregation.

  Rabbinic Judaism: the term for traditional Judaism following the rules of the Talmud as codified and written down by rabbis in the years before the Common Era and the centuries afterward. See also Oral Law, Pharisees.

  Rebbe: Hasidic term for grand rabbi.

  Rosh Hashanah: Jewish New Year.

  Sadducees: the ancient sect that opposed the authority of the corpus of Oral Laws embraced by the rival sect known as Pharisees.

  Sephardi (plural: Sephardim; adjective: Sephardic): Jews tracing their roots to Spain and Portugal but also the places to which they fled from these areas, including France, the Netherlands, North Africa, and the Middle East.

  Shammash: the person who carries out largely secular duties at a synagogue, i.e., sexton.

  Shema: the central expression of Jewish belief in one God, from a verse in Deuteronomy.

  Shivah: mourning period following the death of a family member.

  Shofar: ram’s horn sounded in the season of the New Year.

  Shohet: ritual slaughterer of kosher meat.

  Shul: Yiddish word for synagogue congregation.

  Siddur: prayer book.

  Tallith: prayer shawl.

  Talmud: the basic text of traditional Jewish law, custom, and practice compiled by rabbis j
ust before the Common Era and in the five centuries afterward. It consists of the Mishnah, a compendium of laws that believers say were given orally by God to Moses, and the Gemara, or commentaries on and interpretations of these laws. See also Oral Law.

  Tefillin: translated as “phylacteries,” consisting of two boxes containing Scripture and leather straps bound to the forehead and left arm during prayer.

  Torah: the five books of Moses, or the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, also called the Pentateuch.

  Trefa: forbidden food under Jewish dietary law.

  Wissenschaft des Judentums (Scientific Study of Judaism): Movement among Jewish intellectuals and scholars in the nineteenth century, applying modern methods of research, analysis, and criticism to Judaism and its texts.

  Yarmulke: Yiddish word for skullcap. In Hebrew: kippah.

  YHWH: the name of the God of the Israelites, represented by four Hebrew consonants (i.e., the tetragrammaton), pronounced by some as Yahweh or Jehovah. Because of its sanctity, the name ceased to be pronounced by Jews in early post-biblical times. See also Adonai

  Yom Kippur: the Day of Atonement that concludes the ten days of repentance following Rosh Hashanah.

  Introduction

  JEWS IN AMERICA: A PART BUT APART

  Hundreds of guests gathered at the magnificent Plum Street Synagogue in downtown Cincinnati for a joyful celebration on a warm and rainy afternoon on July 11, 1883. The occasion was the graduation of four American-trained rabbis at the new Hebrew Union College, the first ordination of Jewish clergy on American soil. Participants from across the country came to salute an event they felt certain was marking another significant step in the arrival of American Jews as equals to Christians in the Gilded Age. From the afternoon ceremony at the temple, a grand edifice of Moorish design crowned by minarets and illuminated inside by chandeliers and candelabras, the guests repaired to a funicular railway ascending Mount Adams, two miles away. They then crowded into Highland House, a banquet hall near the Cincinnati Observatory, overlooking the Ohio River, for a gala dinner and more festivities.

  It was there that an extraordinary debacle took place.

  The furor was provoked by the menu. For reasons that remain unclear, the caterer decided to serve crabs, shrimp, clams, and frogs legs to the guests, an egregious violation of kosher laws. Traditionalist rabbis for whom shellfish and amphibians were considered trefa, or forbidden by the Torah’s laws, were insulted by the mere sight of such a sacrilege at a Jewish occasion. Some of the rabbis stormed out, according to an eyewitness, and the event turned into a faux pas heard round the Jewish world. The controversy marked another step toward the unraveling of Jewish unity in the United States. And it would be known historically in Jewish circles as the Trefa Banquet.