Outlines of Jewish History

8. Orders

Co-incident with the founding of relief associations was the establishment of the Jewish orders, among which the first was the B’ne B’rith, chiefly for educational and moral purposes. They have done a great deal of good as mutual benefit associations, have, in many cases, supplied a bond when Jewish feeling has failed to do so, and have, thus, often re-established a connection that had been broken. Of late years, the original purposes are again being urged, and many are hopeful of excellent results.

9. Religious Life

All these movements again converge in the synagogue. We return to the point whence we started. Here the activity has been great. From the days of Charleston’s first reform movement (1825) until the present time, we have lived as in a seething caldron. At Charleston the early demand was for the introduction of prayers in the vernacular. The opposition encountered was violent, but the reform won the day. Fifteen years later, new demands were made by the same party, this time under the leadership of the rabbi. A schism occurred, and a reform congregation was established (1840). In 1845, the Emanuel congregation of New York was founded, avowedly with the intention of using a changed order of service. Since then, change after change has been made in the synagogue, in the ritual, and in the ceremonies of the home, chiefly in the direction of simplification, curtailing and eliminating the interpolations of the Middle Ages. Conferences have been held at various times, and there are in existence now several Rabbinical associations that meet for the purpose of discussing all matters relating to congregational life. No attempt, however, has been made to control or influence any religious body. Each congregation is absolutely independent of every other. Thus the forms of Judaism in America are as multifarious as congregations are numerous. It is a state similar to the one that existed politically in Greece, previous to Alexander’s time. If the consequence is to be a similar wealth of noble, intellectual treasures, we may well be satisfied. Very often the rabbis have been in sympathy with the movement, and have exercised much freedom in criticising and altering established forms and usages. In a restricted number of cases, one step more has been taken: principles formerly held to be fundamental have not escaped attack. Forced to choose from among well-known names that have had weight in determining and shaping the movement, a type offers itself in the person of the rabbi David Einhorn. After a career of usefulness in Germany, where he became imbued with the ideas of Holdheim and Geiger, he came to America, and officiated at Baltimore, Philadelphia, and finally at New York. With all the ardor of an innovator, he still preserved the temper of an historical mind, and cried a halt, when our continuity with the past was endangered. An enthusiast in the work of reducing the ceremonies to a number that can, at each observance, be invested with pristine meaning and spirit, he was the uncompromising enemy of those that attacked the redoubts of Judaism. Another of the leaders of the reform movement may be mentioned in the person of Samuel Hirsch, for many years rabbi at Philadelphia. He was in favor of breaking away from the traditional interpretation of Judaism, and of effecting changes in customs and ritual.

10. Russian Immigration

These movements and currents that owe their origin to the German period, have scarcely had time to work themselves out, and show us whither we are drifting. There are still problems to be solved, re-adjustments to be made. But we have already received re-inforcements and aids that will prove important factors in the result. All who read these pages probably remember the persecution the Jews of Russia underwent in 1881, and in the years that followed. The fugitives, in great masses, turned to America as to a harbor of peace and security, and since they showed the way, many others have followed, and filled our cities with a new, busy element, adding new characteristics to our composite nature. When it became known that great bodies of Russian Jews had the intention of coming to the United States, committees were formed in all the large communities to arrange for their reception, and to aid them in making homes for themselves. For a short time, every measure taken proved inadequate to meet the extraordinary demands made. The Union of American Hebrew Congregations followed the lead of some Eastern communities, and organized an agricultural committee, with a view to forming settlements in the rural districts, away from the towns, where the new-comers were in danger of being ruined physically and morally. Only a few of the colonies then established still exist, but those that have survived bid fair to continue to be successful.

11. Agriculture and Trades

The organized endeavors to house the Russian immigrants and to arrange for their future, have perhaps done more than anything else to identify the Jews of America, as such, with the currents of thought that are characteristic of the country and the age. It was necessary to open up new avenues for these unfortunate people, and the cry of the crowded cities—industrial education—was taken up by the Jews. The result is a number of excellent institutions, whose tendency is to wean the Jew from exclusive devotion to trade, and turn his attention to handicraft and skilled work. They are slowly exerting a beneficial influence, and no one can doubt that the Jewish artisan, as well as the Jewish farmer, has taken a foothold here.

12. Michael Heilprin; Emma Lazarus

That these movements have been successful at all can justly be ascribed to the efforts,—enthusiastic, whole-souled and well-directed,—of two individuals, Michael Heilprin and Emma Lazarus. It is a picture of well-nigh Palestinean [sic] tone,—the Jewish agriculturist, upheld by the Jewish sage on the one side, and by the Jewish poetess on the other. It is hard to believe that our decade has produced so picturesque a group. Michael Heilprin was the true type of the scholar, the humanist to whom nothing that is human was strange. He was an accomplished linguist, endowed with literary taste of exquisite nicety, possessing scholarship, broad as it was accurate, and gifted with the power of calm, dispassionate judgment. By birth a Pole, by education and affiliations an Hungarian, by race a Jew,—was not that a combination of circumstances, calculated to put him into sympathy with all suffering? And it is literally true that, during the last seven years of his life, his days and nights were, with self-forgetful devotion, given to the Russian problem.

His apt pupil was Emma Lazarus, the shrinking poetess, the cultured woman, the sympathetic, tenderhearted, and practical American. With him, she paid daily visits to the temporary places of shelter assigned to the fugitives. Her poetry, under this stimulus, grew stronger, narrower, and therefore intenser. Her racial instincts were so harrowingly worked upon that what she wrote in behalf of the persecuted is imbued with virile power. From that moment until her frail body succumbed to disease, every literary effort was devoted to the interests of her race. The influence of these two characters has made itself felt in every town in the Union;—everywhere talent and energy are employed in solving the problem of assimilating a new and strong element, chiefly along the lines laid down by two spiritual natures, with idealistic aims and practical methods.

13. Conclusion

It is not practicable to enter upon a discussion which will involve comparative values of current movements. But we may profitably pass in review all the educational influences that are actively working in the directions of unification, elevation and advancement. Foremost among these factors are the pulpit and the press. The elementary schools are increasing in number and improving in organization. The charitable and beneficial associations are working more and more on uniform lines, and are tending to closer union. Literary associations are beginning to develop. However imperfect all these agencies may appear to him who has a high ideal in view, the calm observer will note a distinct and steady advance in Jewish thought, literary and religious. The main currents of Orthodoxy, Conservatism and Reform have ceased to run in parallel lines. They are intersected by cross currents, whose influence in producing a tendency to convergence is dimly visible. In considering this question, the sober historian will take account of the practical common-sense of the American people, who have never failed to ignore speculative differences when the common good requires united action.