The Denver Jewish news. [volume] (Denver, Colo.) 1915-1925, 1922-11-29
First Reform Congrega-
ton In America
By Io1us popKIN


this congregation belongs the honor of
being the first to accept and exemplify
the teachings for which Rabbi Isaac
NJ. Wise struggled, suffered and was
nearly martyred. Albany was the
battle-ground wherein the great con
flict for the establishment for Reform
Judaism was fought. Albany alter
pately praised and stoned Isaac Mayer
Wise, and Alshe Emeth, now Ground
ing out its SEVENTEEN year. was the
first fruit of the Rabbits labor
In New York, Temple Emanuel had
recently been founded up fight of
steps in small hall on Christy
Street. This Congregation, now one
of Americas richest and most promi-
nelt, had about. fifty men and thirty
women, segregated of course. and n
small choir of boys when Rabbi Wise
came to Albany to Congregation Beth
Ell. Baltimore and Charleston had be-
gun to see the light of progress and
there, too, were the beginnings of re-
form congregations.
Moses Schloss, Joseph Sporberg AID
Abraham Westheimer, who headed the
Albany congregation, were enthusiastic
supporters of the new rabbi and in
1877 synagOgal reform in America be.
gan. First came the choir Syna
cog music, and, indeed, any kind of
music at all, was so little developed in
A lha fhut of Av.rf . fr,,vnrcihla
to find enough singers to make up A
choir. Two bassos group of childish
sopranos and altos and a viOlinist en-
gagged at fifty cents an hour, gave the
first rendition of Sulzer's hymns that
had been heard in the capital city of
New York. The rabbi turned his at
te1tion to the ritual, bent on elm
mating Outlived relics of traditions
and customs. The PiutVm, Kinnoth
and StlishOth were the first to go.
The MitzvOths. the calling to the
Torah, and the Misheberaks were the
next portions of the ritual to suffer
abbreviatiOn. To Albany. Jtwry, eat
Ing terefah away from home. failing
W ODStINc tHe yCt lusistcht
upon rigid orthodoxy in the syna-
cog. these reforms were tantamOunt
to conversion. Yet while Orthodox
Jews kept their children at home and
their places of business open on TIE
Sabbath, the reformed Jews. under
their new rabbi, became strict OBJ
servers of the Sabbath. The peddlers
rested. The shopkeepers closed their
business places and the religious
school grew.
A battle ragged continuously not OH
~ in Albany, but in the American
Jewish press and in every center OF
American HJewry. The rite of con-
frmation brought down a barrage- The
choir was a continuous source of ar
gument. When the young people who
were graduated from Rabbi Wise's
school were recommended by him to
institutions of higher education under
non Jewish auspices, the criticism
grew apace. Yet despite this inces-
SAINT augmentation, Wise was beloved
in Albany, respected by Jew and non-
Jew alike. His salary was raised.
His prestige grew.
Beneath the praise and apprecia-
ton, however, there was an under
current of prejudice and resentment
whose depth had scarcely been guess
his due, for he had come to believe
what Rabbi Lilienthal had told him
when he came to New York: IF you
would be Christ, you must expect to
be crucitied. If you would bring truth
and light to men, you must be pre-
pared to suffer for your convictions"
Yet when his own child died during
an epidemic in Albany and the rabbi
omitted to observe certain traditional
mourning culsoms, his scandalized
circulated n petition aim
ing to do away with all of his prin-
cipal reforms. But for everyone who
sought to destroy the rabbits work
there were two that upheld him.
When, after series of sensational
debates at Charleston which he held
with DIR. Raphall, the most learned
of the Orthodox leaders, the reform
congregation at Charleston offered him
the pastorate of their temple, Congrc-
cation Beth Ell used every conceivable
form of pressure and compelled Rabbi
Wise to remain. After he had def
initely rejected the Charleston offer,
the brewing storm broke. Moses
Schloss resigned as Parnass, because
of removal from the city and Louis
Spanier was elected in his place. Rap
hall and other leading orthodox rab-
bis caused to he published in the ''Oc-