Isaac Mayer Wise

Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise helped define over thirty years of Judaism in the United States. When he emigrated from Eastern Europe in 1846, Wise joined approximately 50,000 Jews then living in the country. Wise set out to institutionalize a revised version of Reform Judaism that was intertwined with his new country’s notions of freedom and independence. For example, he and his followers founded the first congregation to eliminate sex-segregated seating. Though often seen as a progressive reformer, Wise actually occupied a middle ground, bringing American ideals and Jewish practices closer together without challenging the religious tenets of Judaism.

In 1854, Wise founded what would become the second longest-running Jewish newspaper in the world, the Israelite (now the American Israelite), seen here beneath the pile of books. Twenty years later, Wise catalyzed the establishment of the first seminary to educate rabbis in the United States, Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, Ohio.