WHAT A DIFFERENCE A CENTURY MAKES
A 100-year retrospective on the tragedies, triumphs, and challenges of the Jewish people
A Century Ago ...
"The sunset of the nineteenth century is brilliant," wrote Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise, casting his eyes backward a hundred years ago. Pointing out the great advances in science and technology, he observed that "there were never as many millionaires and multimillionaires in the world, or so few absolutely poor people." The Reform leader concluded: "We are less stupid than our predecessors of former centuries." Confidently, Wise peered into the new century, certain it would be even better than the last -- for American religion was beginning to follow Judaism's lead in a return to "Mosaism," exemplified especially by adherence to the Ten Commandments.
At the turn of the century, there were an estimated 11 million Jews in the world, most of them in Eastern Europe (only about a million lived in North America, even after twenty years of large-scale immigration). Just three years earlier, Theodor Herzl had launched the World Zionist Organization, and the Bund, a league of Jewish Socialists, had formed in order to overthrow the oppression of Jewish workers in Eastern Europe. Almost all of Russia's Jews were confined to an increasingly impoverished Pale of Settlement, while a few thousand Jewish colonists struggled with malaria and an unfriendly Turkish administration in Palestine.
By 1903, thirty years since its founding, the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (UAHC) could claim 115 affiliated temples with about 11,000 contributing members and a modest budget of about $50,000 -- almost all of it spent on its rabbinical seminary, the Hebrew Union College (HUC). Nearly all American Reform Jews were of German Jewish origin and, in general, solidly middle class. Their faith was summed up in the Pittsburgh Platform of 1885: "We recognize in Judaism a progressive religion, ever striving to be in accord with the postulates of reason." It was precisely this faith in progress, based on the capacity of human reason, that enabled Wise to believe that the new century would be even better than the last.
1900 ~1909
The high hopes that the twentieth century would be more civilized and humane than its predecessor were dashed in 1903 when Jews in the Bessarabian town of Kishinev suffered a cruel government-sanctioned pogrom, which accelerated Jewish immigration from Czarist Russia to the United States, mostly to New York. A year later, world Jewry mourned the death of Theodor Herzl, the writer-turned-statesman who dreamed of establishing a sovereign Jewish state and created the political apparatus to make his vision a reality. Despite his death and divisions within the Zionist movement, Jewish settlement in Palestine moved forward; the first kibbutz, Degania, was founded in 1909 and the city of Tel Aviv was established the same year.
In 1906, American Jews took pride in the completion of their first great collective cultural achievement, the twelve-volume Jewish Encyclopedia, and the founding of the American Jewish Committee, organized to protect Jewish rights everywhere. American Reform Judaism began the century supremely confident in a universalist classical Reform Judaism best represented by the radical champion of social justice Rabbi Emil G. Hirsch of Chicago and the critical theologian Kaufmann Kohler, who assumed the presidency of HUC in 1903.
1910 ~1919
The second decade of the twentieth century was dominated by the "Great War." Jews served on both sides in large numbers; those in Palestine formed the Zion Mule Corps to fight on behalf of the British. In Russia, medieval superstition emerged once again in 1913, when the Czarist government, wanting to divert political unrest, falsely charged the Jew, Mendel Beilis, with ritual murder. The Russian revolution brought little respite to East European Jewry. The civil war of 1918-1920 sparked pogroms, especially in the Ukraine; and the Bolshevik regime, though heavily laden with Jews, branded both religious and national Jewish identity as reactionary. On the positive side, the Zionists achieved a major victory in 1917, when the British Balfour Declaration promised a "national home for the Jewish people" in Palestine.
For American Jewry, the great cultural accomplishment of the decade was the Jewish Publication Society's English translation of the Bible. Jewish immigration to the United States reached a high point in 1914, then declined precipitously during the war. But by the end of the decade, more than 3 million of the world's 13 million Jews lived in the U.S., almost half of them in New York. The Reform Movement, with its center of gravity in the Midwest, was growing slowly, passing the 200-congregation mark, and still devoting most of its efforts to supporting HUC.
1920 ~1929
The passage of two immigrant quota laws in the United States in 1921 and 1924 severely curbed the mass migration of Jews from Eastern Europe to the "golden" land of freedom. Those who had made it to the United States and Canada clung to their Old World culture, supporting a variety of Yiddish newspapers with a combined circulation of 600,000. Close to 4 million Jews lived in the U.S., about 3.4 percent of the total population. Second-generation American Jews sought to attend universities, but quotas kept out all but a few, especially in the more prestigious schools.
In Palestine, the British mandate was confirmed, and some 67,000 Jews, mostly from Poland, entered the Holy Land. Largely through the efforts of HUC graduate Rabbi Judah Magnes, the Hebrew University was inaugurated in 1925 on Mount Scopus in Jerusalem as an institution of higher learning for the entire Jewish people. In New York, the fervent Zionist and champion of social justice Rabbi Stephen S. Wise founded the "liberal" Jewish Institute of Religion in 1922. It would rival Cincinnati's well-established HUC until the merger of the two institutions in 1950.
1930 ~1939
Two interrelated events marked this decade for world Jewry: the Great Depression and the rise of Nazi Germany. Massive financial losses and mushrooming unemployment impoverished American Jews, depleting resources for Jewish religious and cultural activities. The economic debacle also paved the way for Hitler's rise to power. American Jews organized mass rallies and boycotts in an attempt to stop the Nazi persecution of their co-religionists in Germany. HUC President Julian Morgenstern successfully lobbied the American State Department to allow eleven endangered Jewish scholars to come to Cincinnati. In Columbus, Ohio, in 1937, the Central
Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR) approved a new "Columbus Platform" for the Reform Movement, which, for the first time, looked favorably on both political and cultural Zionism and called for greater attention to Jewish observance. By the end of the decade, the world Jewish population was close to 17 million, a level it would not regain before the century's end.
1940 ~1949
For the Jewish people, the 1940s was the most agitated decade of the century, first unleashing unparalleled tragedy, then astounding triumph. The loss of 6 million Jews in the Shoah reduced the world Jewish population to fewer than 11 million. Little remained of the great centers of Jewish life in Europe, casting the principal burden of Jewish leadership upon the Jews in North America and Palestine. On November 29, 1947, the dramatic 33-13 vote in the United Nations General Assembly paved the way for the declaration of the sovereign State of Israel less than half a year later. World Jewry focused on establishing a secure Jewish presence in the Middle East and the "ingathering" of Diaspora Jews, beginning with the "illegal" immigration of Holocaust survivors and followed by the enormous influx of Jews from Arab lands.
In America, concern for the welfare of the new State of Israel drove Jewish charitable giving to unprecedented heights. The UAHC selected Rabbi Maurice N. Eisendrath as its new leader and, after vigorous debate, assented to his wish that the Union move its headquarters from Cincinnati to New York. In 1948, American Jewry established Brandeis University, the first general institution of higher learning under Jewish auspices in the United States. In Cincinnati, HUC named the renowned biblical archaeologist Rabbi Nelson Glueck as its new president, and Professor Jacob Rader Marcus, conscious of the new responsibilities that the tragedy in Europe placed on American Jewry, established the American Jewish Archives to preserve the legacy of what had become the largest Jewish community in the world.
1950 ~1959
In the postwar years, relations between the Free World and Communist Eastern Europe deteriorated. Soviet Jews lived in terror of deportation or liquidation until the death of Stalin in 1953. In the United States, red-baiting encroached severely on civil liberties, especially wreaking havoc on Jewish writers and performers who were accused of being Communists. But overall, for American Judaism this was a good decade. A religious revival during the Eisenhower years brought many thousands of unaffiliated Jews back into the Jewish community. Moving from cities to suburbs, young Jewish couples joined newly constructed temples, raising UAHC membership by 33 percent in one decade, from 400 congregations in 1949 to more than 600 in 1960. Sisterhoods, Brotherhoods, and youth groups flourished, religious school enrollment swelled, and the first UAHC camps were purchased in Wisconsin and California. Reform congregations were now populated by predominantly East European Jews and, according to a report delivered to the 1950 UAHC Biennial convention, moving "toward increased ritualism." B'nai mitzvah ceremonies competed for attention with confirmations, and only six temples still held Sabbath services solely on Sunday morning. In the fall of 1951, the UAHC moved into the "House of Living Judaism" on New York's Fifth Avenue, which would remain its home for close to fifty years. Recognizing the increasing importance of West Coast Jewry, HUC-JIR opened a small branch in Los Angeles in 1954; a Jerusalem campus would be established nine years later.
1960 ~1969
The capture and trial of the Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann opened this turbulent decade, sparking serious reflection on the theological, cultural, and educational implications of the Holocaust. The continuing fragility of Jewish existence became frighteningly clear in May 1967, when the neighboring Arab nations prepared to destroy the Jewish state. A month later, Israel emerged victorious in the Six-Day War, an unanticipated, extraordinary triumph that some regarded as miraculous-Jerusalem was now united and the Western Wall of the Temple Mount in Jewish hands. After the war, Israel became the focal point of Jewish consciousness for decades.
In the United States, the Vietnam War divided the nation, with the Reform leadership almost unanimously in opposition. The Reform Movement became more focused on social justice and peace issues than ever before, establishing the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism in Washington, giving direction and encouragement to temple social action committees, and actively participating in civil rights marches and sit-ins, incurring the wrath of segregationists. In the wake of Vatican II, the Reform Movement expanded its efforts in the area of interfaith activities.
1970 ~1979
In the '70s, Jews in the West focused on the struggle of Soviet Jews to express their Jewish identity and to freely emigrate to Israel and America. Israel suffered a devastating surprise attack on Yom Kippur of 1973, but eventually managed to wrest a difficult victory. Three years later, Israel astounded the world with its daring rescue of more than a hundred passengers on a plane hijacked by Palestinian terrorists to Entebbe Airport in Uganda. In 1977, it underwent a profound political upheaval when a right-wing coalition, under the leadership of Menachem Begin, defeated the Labor Party, which had ruled the nation since its founding. A few months later, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat flew to Jerusalem, initiating a chain of events that would lead to peace with Egypt, formerly Israel's most powerful enemy. Reform Judaism became ever more Israel-focused: HUC-JIR began requiring first-year students to spend a year at its Jerusalem campus; the UAHC's new president, Rabbi Alexander M. Schindler, also served as chairman of the Conference of Major American Jewish Organizations, becoming the chief representative of American Jewry to the Israeli government; the World Union for Progressive Judaism joined the World Zionist Organization; the Association of Reform Zionists of America (ARZA) and its Canadian counterpart Kadima were established to give the Reform Movement a voice in Zionist decision-making; and the first Reform kibbutz, Yahel, was established in Israel. The CCAR issued two new prayerbooks, Gates of Prayer (1975) and Gates of Repentance (1978), and adopted "A Centenary Perspective," stressing that "in all our diversity we perceive a certain unity and we shall not allow our differences in some particulars to obscure what binds us together." Most auspiciously, in 1972 HUC-JIR President Rabbi Alfred Gottschalk ordained Sally Priesand, the first woman rabbi in the United States.
1980 ~1989
The 1980s were troubled years for the State of Israel. In 1982, the Israeli Defense Forces invaded Lebanon, devastating Beirut and tarnishing Israel's reputation. Five years later, the "intifada" erupted on the West Bank and in Gaza, forcing Israeli soldiers to battle rock-throwing civilians, mostly Palestinian youths. Only the airlift of Jews from Ethiopia to Israel and the ongoing struggle for Soviet Jewry helped to maintain a sense of Zionist idealism. By the end of the decade, the Soviet Union had dissolved, followed by the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe, freeing Jews to build Jewish lives in their homeland or emigrate to the West.
In 1980, HUC-JIR ordained its first rabbi in Jerusalem, Mordecai Rotem. In the United States, Jews in general, and Reform Jews in particular, became preoccupied with Jewish "survival," as studies showed a steep rise in the intermarriage rate, combined with a low Jewish birth rate. In response, at the urging of Rabbi Schindler, the UAHC created a Commission on Reform Jewish Outreach; and, in 1983, the CCAR passed a resolution on patrilineal descent, asserting that, in the case of a mixed marriage, Jewish identity could, under certain conditions, be passed on to the children through their father. The publication of The Torah: A Modern Commentary by the UAHC Press in 1981 spurred the Reform Movement toward a more intensive program of adult study.
1990 ~1999
For the Jews of Israel, the last decade of the twentieth century began with SCUD missiles raining down on Tel Aviv, a byproduct of the Gulf war. The "intifada" continued, but so did the peace process, resulting in the Oslo Accords, signed by Israelis and Palestinians, and a peace treaty with Jordan. Prospects for peace seemed bright until a religious fanatic assassinated Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995, and Likud hard-liner Benjamin Netanyahu defeated Shimon Peres in the succeeding election for prime minister. In the Former Soviet Union, renewed antisemitism and difficult economic conditions influenced large numbers of Jews to emigrate; those who remained helped foster a renaissance of local Jewish life, establishing dozens of new synagogues, including a score of Progressive congregations. For American Jewry, the new slogan became "continuity" between the generations. Responding to trends in American Christianity, Reform Jews focused on the religious life of the individual, stressing the idea of holiness. Many mixed-married couples were drawn to more receptive Reform congregations, women rose increasingly to positions of religious leadership, and numerous gay and lesbian Jews found a home in the Reform Movement. In matters of ritual, the long-standing trajectory toward traditional worship practices gained momentum. During the last year of the century, in Pittsburgh, PA, the Reform rabbinate, guided by CCAR President Rabbi Richard Levy and Executive Vice President Rabbi Paul Menitoff, adopted "A Statement of Principles for Reform Judaism" that, for the first time, spoke explicitly of covenantal relationship and the observance of mitzvot, defined as "sacred obligations."
Into the Twenty-First Century
At the beginning of a new century, the Jewish people numbers about 13 million, about a fifth of a percent of the world's mushrooming population. The 4.7 million Israelis trail the estimated 6 million Jews living in North America, but in the new century we can expect to see a Jewish people demographically dominated by Israel, as American Jewry's population curve remains flat and will most likely decline. What remains uncertain is the nature of the relationship between Israeli and Diaspora Jews, which depends both on Israel's spiritual and cultural life once peace with the Arabs is achieved, and on how effectively Diaspora Jewry holds back the tide of assimilation. For the million and a half Reform Jews in the world, however, the future seems brighter, at least demographically: Reform Judaism is currently the fastest growing Jewish movement in the United States, and new growth opportunities are opening up in Israel and in Europe. Under the leadership of UAHC President Rabbi Eric H. Yoffie and HUC-JIR President Rabbi Sheldon Zimmerman, the impetus toward making Torah central to the lives of Reform Jews is gaining in strength, as more and more adults, families, and congregations are taking part in serious Jewish study.
The unbridled optimism of Isaac Mayer Wise a hundred years ago may be a relic of the past, but there are sufficient hopeful signs to augur well for the future.
Dr. Michael A. Meyer
is Adolph S. Ochs Professor of Jewish History at HUC-JIR in Cincinnati; international president of the Leo Baeck Institute; and author of numerous books, including Response to Modernity: A History of the Reform Movement in Judaism and Jewish Identity in the Modern World. He has recently completed editing the four-volume German History in Modern Times.
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