CHAPTER XXII.
CONSERVATIVE JUDAISM AND ITS STAND AGAINST REFORM.
“The poor Jews of Elm street and the rich Jews of Crosby street”—Rabbis Samuel M. Isaacs, Morris J. Raphall and Jacques J. Lyons—Sabato Morais—Kalish and Hübsch, the moderate reformers—Benjamin Szold—Dr. Marcus Jastrow’s career in three countries—Alexander Kohut—Russian Orthodoxy asserts itself in New York, and the Bet ha-Midrash ha-Godol is founded in 1852—Rabbi Abraham Joseph Ash and his various activities—Charity work which remains subordinate to religious work in the synagogue.
In New York, too, it was not a radical appealing to a wealthy congregation, but a conservative in a neighborhood where the poorer Jews dwelt, who first introduced the English sermon in the synagogue. Reference is made by a correspondent from New York (see “Orient,” 1840, p. 371) to “the poor Jews of Elm street and the rich Jews of Crosby street” in that period; and it was, characteristically enough, in the synagogue of the Bene Yeshurun, then situated at Elm street, that the innovation was made. Samuel Mayer Isaacs (b. in Leeuwarden, Holland, 1804; d. in New York, 1878), the son of a Dutch banker who removed to England, was called to the rabbinate of that congregation in 1839. When members who seceded from that synagogue formed the Congregation Sha’are Tefilah, in 1847, Rabbi Isaacs went with them and remained with his new charge until his death. He was an able exponent of conservative Judaism and was the founder of the “Jewish Messenger” (1857), which was continued after his demise by his son, Professor Abraham Samuel Isaacs (b. in New York, 1852), until 1902, when it was merged with another Jewish periodical. Like Leeser, Rabbi Isaacs was a good organizer, and influenced the foundation of various Jewish institutions.
His successor as rabbi of the Elm street congregation was Rabbi Morris Jacob Raphall (b. in Stockholm, Sweden, 1798; d. in New York, 1868), who was, like Isaacs, also the son of a banker. Raphall was a linguist and a good rabbinical scholar, and while in England he delivered lectures on Hebrew poetry, and also began there the publication of the “Hebrew Review and Magazine of Rabbinical Literature,” which was discontinued in 1836. For some time he acted as secretary to Solomon Herschell (1762–1842); he also made translations from Maimonides, Albo and Wessely; he participated in the translation of part of the Mishna, and began a translation of the Pentateuch, of which one volume appeared. After being for eight years minister of the Birmingham Synagogue, he sailed for New York in 1849, and remained with the Bene Yeshurun until shortly before his death. Raphall was the only prominent Northern rabbi who defended the institution of slavery in the pulpit, as well as in one of his works, entitled “Bible View of Slavery.”
Rev. Jacques Judah Lyons (b. in Surinam, 1814; d. in New York, 1877), who was a rabbi in his native city for several years, came to the United States in 1837, went to Richmond, Va., where he was minister of the Congregation Bene Shalom for two years, came to New York in 1839, and became rabbi of the Spanish and Portuguese Congregation, which had removed from Mill street to Crosby street in 1834. He held the position thirty-eight years, “successfully combating every movement to change the form of worship in his congregation.”
Rabbi Sabato Morais.
Photo by Gutekunst, Phila.