Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise
by: Nathan Weissler

In 1850, a young Rabbi named Isaac Mayer Wise was the Rabbi of Beth El Congregation, a Reform synagogue in Albany, New York. Rabbi Wise was known to be somewhat of a radical. His efforts for reform in Judaism met hostile responses within the synagogue despite the fact that Beth El was a Reform Congregation. Shortly before Rosh Hashanah, Rabbi Wise had shocked many congregants by affirmatively declaring he did not believe in the Messiah and bodily resurrection. On Rosh Hashanah when the young Rabbi arrived to lead services, another Rabbi was occupying his place on the bimah! Undeterred, when the Torah service began, Rabbi Wise got up to open the ark only to be physically stopped by the synagogue President. Wise tried to push his way past, but he was punched in the face. The fighting got so intense, the Sheriff of Albany had to intervene. Shortly thereafter, Rabbi Wise was dismissed. In order to understand the effect of Rabbi Wise’s reforms, we must understand his background. Here is his story….

Isaac Mayer Wise was born on March 29, 1819, in Bohemia; which then was part of the Austrian Empire. His father, Rabbi Leo Wise, was a teacher and young Isaac received his religious instruction from both his father, and grandfather. Isaac later studied Judaic and secular studies in Prague. At age twenty-three in 1842, Wise was given the title “Rabbi” by a Beis Din. Two years later, in 1844, Wise married Therese Bloc and they had ten children together. Therese died in 1874. Wise then re-married Selma Bondi, with whom he had four additional children.

Rabbi Wise experienced difficulties carrying out his duties in Bohemia due to anti-Semitism in the government. In 1846, Wise immigrated to the United States and  changed the spelling of his name from the German “Weiss” to the more American sounding “Wise.”  Rabbi Wise assumed the pulpit at Congregation Beth El of Albany, New York from until  he was dismissed after an ugly Rosh Hashanah brawl. Shortly thereafter, Wise founded a new Reform congregation, Anshe Emet, which is Hebrew for “men of truth.”

In 1854, Rabbi Wise moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he assumed the pulpit at a Reform synagogue, K.K. B’nai Yeshurun. In 1857, Wise published what became the official prayer book for the Reform movement; Minhag America. He also edited his own newspaper, The Israelite. In 1873, Rabbi Wise founded the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, and two years later the Hebrew Union College, which was originally located in his Cincinnati synagogue. He also founded the National Conference of American Rabbis in 1889. In his capacity as head of the Reform movement, Wise was frequently at odds with Isaac Leeser his counterpart in the Traditionalist movement.

Like Isaac Leeser, Rabbi Wise took an active part in American society, and politics. Wise advocated slavery, and he urged the Jewish Community to support the 1857 U.S. Supreme Court Dred Scott decision. Initially, Wise was a critic of President Abraham Lincoln.

“Poor old Abe Lincoln,” Wise wrote in The Israelite in 1861, “who has the quiet life of a country lawyer, has been elected President of the United States…we have no doubt he is an honest man…but he will look queer in the White House with his primitive manner.”

After the President was assassinated in 1865, Wise changed his mind about Lincoln. Reportedly, five days after the assassination, Wise stated,

“Brethren, the lamented Abraham Lincoln believed himself to be bone from our bone and flesh from our flesh. He supposed himself to be a descendant of Hebrew parentage. He said so in my presence.”

Interestingly, President William H. Taft’s family was friendly with Rabbi Wise when Taft was a child in Cincinnati. Taft’s father was especially friendly with Wise. Other friends of the Rabbi throughout his career included William H. Seward, the Secretary of State under Lincoln, and the influential editor, Horace Greeley.

Until his death, Rabbi Wise remained active in Jewish and American life writing several books including: The Essence of Judaism, The History of the Israeliteish Nation from Abraham to the Present Time and Judaism, Its Doctrines and Duties. Wise died on March 26, 1900, in Cincinnati.

For more information, see this informative online biography of Rabbi Wise.