Kaufmann Kohler (1843-1926) was born and educated in Germany. He completed his rabbinical studies in Frankfurt with Samson Raphael Hirsch. He earned his doctorate and wrote one of the first works of biblical criticism. This closed the door to practicing as a rabbi in Europe, and he emigrated to the United States, where he served as rabbinate in Detroit, Chicago, and finally in New York.

Despite having a traditional background, he represented the most radical wing of Reform Judaism. In 1885, he called his colleagues to a conference in Pittsburgh, where the foundations of what would become the Reform movement were laid. Chaired by Isaac Mayer Wise, the father of American Reform Judaism, the conference approved principles known as the «Pittsburgh Platform.» These principles established that Jews are not a people but a religious community, that they do not seek to return to the Land of Israel, and that they accept only the ethical commandments of the Torah as binding and observe only those ceremonies that elevate and sanctify life in a modern way.

The traditionalist sector of American Judaism responded immediately. Ten weeks after the Pittsburgh conference, a group of leaders met at the Shearith Israel synagogue in New York and decided to form a rabbinical seminary that would «conserve the traditional values ​​of Judaism.» A year later, in 1886, the first eight students enrolled at the Jewish Theological Seminary of New York (JTS). Its first president was Rabbi Sabato Morais (1823-1897), born and educated in Italy. Morais was joined by Alexander Kohut (1842-1894), a graduate of the Breslau rabbinical seminary founded by Zechariah Frankel.

Although JTS began as an Orthodox institution, in 1902, with the arrival of Solomon Schechter as president, Torah study began to be liberalized, causing divisions within the faculty. Some JTS professors objected to these changes. In 1897, one of them, Rabbi Henry Pereira Mendes, a history professor at JTS, founded the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, known as the «Orthodox Union» (OU).

Already in 1886, the Etz Chaim Yeshivah, a religious elementary school, had been organized. By 1896, it had become a yeshivah covering high school and beyond. In 1897, it was registered in the state of New York as Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS), which eventually became the rabbinical school of Yeshivah University. Despite its separation from JTS, RIETS students demanded to be taught the same subjects as JTS without diminishing their strictly Orthodox studies in order to become rabbis.

By the end of the 19th century, the movements were defined: the Reform with the Pittsburgh Platform, the Conservative with JTS, and the Orthodox with the Orthodox Union.

By: Marcos Gojman

Bibliography: Conservative Judaism by Neil Gillman and other sources.