Architect of American Israel: Stephen S. Wise, the Free Synagogue, and the Jewish Institute of Religion

This paper examines the impact of Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, who in 1906 founded the Free Synagogue in New York City after a six-year interval in Portland, Oregon. Brashly wielding the torch of Progressive-era reform, Wise saw it as his duty to “organize an independent Jewish religious movement” and create a “free synagogue, with a free pulpit, preaching a free, vital, and progressive Judaism.” Although historians have showed little interest in the Free Synagogue, it was in fact the first of Wise’s crowning achievements in the American religious sphere. The second was establishment of the Jewish Institute of Religion (JIR), which eventually merged with Hebrew Union College in 1948.

The rise of the Free Synagogue and the JIR illustrate the transformation of American Jewry in the Progressive era and American Jewry’s future trajectory. The development of these institutions from the 1910s through the 1940s reflects the growing ethnic political power of first-generation American Jews (many of whom were children of eastern European Jewish immigrants) and the politicization of the American Jewish scene. In time, a broad segment of the American Jewish community gravitated to Wise’s concept of the American synagogue as a hub of liberal Judaism, social justice, and Zionism. Meanwhile, the JIR produced hundreds of graduates who fanned out across the country, promoted Wise’s vision of “American Israel,” replicated the Free Synagogue’s model of Jewish congregational expression, and, over time, transformed the American rabbinate and stamped the American synagogue writ large with the indelible imprint of Wise’s dynamic ethos.