page_title: Isaac Mayer Wise
section_title: Early life
hierarchical_section_title: Isaac Mayer Wise / Early life
caption_attribution_description: Synagogue in Radnice, Pilsen region, Czech republic
context_page_description: Isaac Mayer Wise, was an American Reform rabbi, editor, and author. At his death he was called "the foremost rabbi in America".
context_section_description: The son of Rabbi Leo Weis, a schoolteacher, Isaac received his early Hebrew education from his father and grandfather, later continuing his Hebrew and secular studies in Prague.
  He may have received the hattarat hora'ah from the Prague bet din, composed of Rabbis Rapoport, Samuel Freund, and E. L. Teweles, or from Rabbi Falk Kohn, however there is debate as to whether he was an ordained rabbi at all. It was even a source of controversy with his intellectual rival, Rabbi David Einhorn.
  In 1843 he was appointed rabbi at Radnitz (now Radnice, near Plzeň), Bohemia, where he remained for about two years. In 1846 Weis emigrated to the United States, arriving on July 23. He changed the spelling of his surname to Wise.
caption: The Synagogue in Radnice, where I. M. Wise was a rabbi between 1843 and 1846, before emigrating to the US
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