4/14 American Religious History

1. Albanese Ch 2:
Israel In a Promised Land
Judaism in America

2. Some Historical Background
• Abraham - Moses - King David - Babylonian Captivity
• Roman Diaspora and destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem
(66 CE)
– Synagogues and Rabbis
– Judaism becomes first universal religion
• Golden Age of Toleration in Spain (until 1492) - al-Andalus
• By end of 15th C. Jews persecuted in all European countries.
• Many move to Eastern Europe
• Martin Luther and Prot. Reformation bad for Jews.
• Catholic Counter-Reformation includes Inquisition to persecute Jews.
• Ghetto system started in Naples, Italy - becomes the standard.
• The Chosen People: Separation vs. Assimilation

3. Sacred Texts
Tanakh
Torah - Law (5 Books,
Moses)
Nebi’im - Prophets
Ketuvim - Wisdom
(Jewish Bible, Old Testament)
Mishnah (repetition)
Commentaries
Secondary Laws

4. Sources
of
Tradition
The Talmud
– Offers Additional Commentary
on Jewish Mishnah and Torah,
Plus Commentary on all Areas
of Jewish Life
– Divided into 2 Parts:
1. Halachah (the proper way):
Legal Material, Debates,
Decisions
2. Haggadah (tale, narrative):
History, Folklore, Sermons

5. Other Sources
and Traditions
• Kabbalah and Messianism
• Philosophy
– Philo of Alexandria (20-50 CE)
– Moses Maimonides (1135-1204)
– Barach de Spinoza (1632-1637)
• Hasidism (The Pious Ones)
– Israel ben Eliezer (Baal Shem Tov or “Master of the Good
Name [of God]” (1699-1760) in Poland

6. Judaism Overview
• First of the three Abrahamic Religions
• Orthopraxis over Orthodoxy
• Small enclaves like Native Americans
• Correspondence with Space (Jerusalem) gives way to
Time (Passover=exodus from Egypt, not winter
solstice) - causality
• Difficult to define Judaism:
– Beliefs and practices vary among Jews
– Some Jews are atheist, but identify as Jewish
– Ethnic identity does not equal religious identity
– A “Jew” is a person (race)
– “Judaism” is a religious system
– “Judaic” refers to Jewish culture and tradition, not necessarily
religion

7. Judaism in America
1. Colonial Era
2. New Americans
3. Jewish Divisions
4. Zionism and Holocaust
5. Equality and Civil Rights

8. 1. Colonial Era
• 23 Jews flee Brazil and arrive in
New Amsterdam in 1654.
• Synagogue built in New York,
1730
• Congregation in Newport, RI in
1649
• Savannah (1733), Charleston
(1749), Philadelphia (1747).
• Prohibited from worshipping
publicly; could not hold public
office.
• Sephardim - Ladino
Tauro Synagogue, Newport, RI

9. 2. New Americans in the
1800’s
• 1800: 1,600 Jews
• 1860: 150,000 Jews in
America (.5% total
population)
• 1880: 250,000
• 1900: 750,000
• 1914: 1,740,000
• Joseph Jonas to Cincinnati
in 1817
• Isaac Meyer Wise arrives in
1850; “master architect” of
Reform Judaism in America.
• Ashkenazim - Yiddish
Old Jewish Cemetary,
Cincinnati

10. Issues for Jews in 1800’s
• Intermarriage: children usually identified as Protestants
• Sephardim (from Spain) vs. Ashkenazim (from Central
and Eastern Europe)
• Early immigrants (educated) vs. later immigrants (not
educated)
• Rabbi’s as teachers vs. preachers (Isaac Leeser,
Philadelphia, 1829)
• Need for adaptation - especially in West (Cincinnati)
• Garment and retail industries
• Too many differences to organize nationally

11. 3. Jewish
Divisions
• Diaspora emphasized synagogue
and rabbis as center of Jewish life
(after final destruction of Temple)
• European Jews had separate
enclaves with multiple institutions
for self-governance.
• Modernity and America left only
synagogues at the center.
A. Reform Judaism
B. Conservative Judaism
C. Orthodox Judaism
D. Reconstructionism

12. A. Reform Judaism
• An attempt to
accommodate Judaism to
the modern world.
• The influence of Moses
bar Mendel (1729-1786)
“Mendelssohn”
• Urged his fellow Jews to
enter mainstream modern
(German) life
• Har Sinai (Baltimore) 1842
• Emanu-El (New York) 1845

13. Reform Judaism
and Isaac Meyer Wise
• German rabbi in Albany until 1854,
then Cincinnati.
• 1873 founds Union of American
Hebrew Congregations
• 1875 Hebrew Union College
• Rejected personal messiah
• Equal rights for women
• Torah of God (Ten
Commandments, unchanging) vs.
Torah of Moses (must adapt)
• English language in service
• By 1880 was dominant form of
American Judaism
• Kaufmann Kohler (1843-1926) -
1885 Pittsburgh Platform

14. B. Conservative Judaism
• 1883 Shrimp incident at Hebrew
Union College
• 1886 Jewish Theological Seminary
in NYC
• Reaction to the extreme nature of the
reform movement
• Both Hebrew and English in service,
men and women sit together, only
men’s heads are covered
• Diet and observance of the Sabbath
is attempted.
• “revitalization movement” (57)

15. Solomon Schechter (1847-
1915)
• Great scholar from Oxford invited to
lead Jewish Theological Seminary
1902
• United Synagogue of America
(Conservative Judaism), 1915
• Founds day schools, emphasizes
Halakha (Jewish Law), makes JTS
a lasting and prestigious institution
• Conservative Judaism absorbs
Kaplan’s Reconstructionism and is
sympathetic to Zionism

16. C. Orthodox Judaism
• Traditionalists
• Heavier emphasis on
practice rather than
belief.
• Sabbath services in
synagogues, in
Hebrew, men and
women separated and
heads covered

17. Issues for Orthodox Judaism
• Russia, Romania, Poland, Galicia pressured Jews to leave or
convert, leading to mass exodus. Illiterate, various dialects of
yiddish, tzaddik village traditions. Very foreign for the mostly
German middle-class Jews already in America.
• 1935 survey: 75% of Jews ages 15-25 had never attended a
religious service. These new Jews seemed to be loosing their
religion.
– Radical antireligious movements
– Zionists
– Extreme Piety (Hassidim)
• How to bring these odd new Jews into the fold??

18. D. Reconstructionism
• Response to falling away of
many east European Jews in
1920’s
• Mordecai M. Kaplan (1881-
1983) of Jewish Theological
Seminary
• Judaism as Civilization
(1934)
• Institutional Synagogues
• Emphasis on Jewishness,
less on religion and
superstition
• Havurah movement

19. Numbers (Albanese, 2007)
45% Reform
42% Conservative
9% Orthodox
4% Reconstructionism

20. 4. Zionism and Holocaust
• Thoedor Herzl (1860-
1904)
• Dreyfus Case
• In 1894 French Captain
Alfred Dreyfus Accused of
Betraying French Military
Secrets During Franco-
Prussian War
• Herzl Covered Dreyfus
Case
• The Jewish State
(1896)

21. Zionism and Israel
• Zionist Movement Centered on
Herzl’s Ideas Emerges, Settles on
Palestine as Best Site
• Early 1900s C.E. Jews Begin
Buying and Settling Land in
Palestine
• In 1909 City of Tel Aviv Founded
• By 1920, 50,000 Jews Living in
Palestine
• By 1928, 100,000 Jews Living in
Palestine
• Reform Jews resisted Zionism
until 1935

22. Holocaust (“burnt offering”)
• Nuremburg Laws of 1935
• 1941: “Final Solution”
• Profound Lasting Impact
on Judaism
• World Jewish Population Reduced
by One-Third
• Zionism Given a New Moral
Imperative among
Some Jewish and Non-Jewish
Thinkers
• Jewish Theology Undergoes
Crisis

23. 5. Equality and Civil Rights
• In 1937, only 25% of Jews
were involved with a
Synagogue
• By 1956 almost 65%
• 18% attendance rate in
1947, 31% in 1955 (at least
once in previous month)
• Repeal of exclusionary laws,
memberships in private
clubs, access to private
universities, etc.

24. Summary
• Jews like Protestants in some ways (p. 56)
• American religious culture allowed Jewish divisions and freedom
from religion and defection.
• By 1960’s affluence lead to stirring of spiritual void - especially
among younger American Jews (havurah movement and
Kabbalah).
• State of Israel ended the Diaspora - but most did not want to
leave America. The hope of return had been a bonding tie for
Jews of the Diaspora, but what now? Holocaust?
• Turn to Hasidic communal life; Kabballah; existential theologies of
Martin Buber; mystical piety of Abraham Heschel, or “Covenant
theologies” that place Jews on an errand for all of humankind
(Michael Lerner, Tikkun Magazine); Buddhism, and other
alternatives.
• 6 Million Jews in U.S. today (2% total population)