Al Reguel Ajat

The Kaddish is a prayer that praises God and expresses the longing for His Kingdom to be established on Earth. It is recited at the conclusion of some prayers in the synagogue, after reading the Torah, after a religious discourse, and when someone is in mourning. It is written in Aramaic, except for the last prayer, as the practice of reciting the Kaddish developed in Babylon, where most Jews spoke Aramaic.

The Kaddish was originally recited by the rabbi upon finishing a midrash or agadah and bidding farewell to his students. They would respond: “May His Great Name be praised for all eternity.” The oldest version dates back to the Second Temple period and is what we know today as Hatzi Kaddish (half Kaddish). The opening words, Ytgadal be Ytkadash, are inspired by a verse in Ezekiel (28:23), where the prophet imagines the time when God will be recognized as the greatest in the eyes of all nations.

By the 6th century CE, the kaddish was already incorporated into the prayers as a separation between its different parts. The custom of mourners reciting the kaddish originates when Torah study began in the house of mourning, with the aim of gaining greater merit for the deceased, and it was said at the end of the study. After the massacres during the Crusades, the kaddish became definitively tied to the mourning ritual. Initially, it was recited only upon the death of a scholar, but later it was recited at every burial so as not to embarrass others.

During synagogue prayer, four types of kaddish are generally used: 1. The Hatzi Kaddish, or half-kaddish, which is interspersed between prayers, such as between the Shema and the Amidah. 2. The Yatom Kaddish, or mourner’s kaddish, which is said only by those who are grieving or commemorating the yorzait (anniversary of the death) of a family member and requires a minyan (ten people) to be recited. 3. The Shalem Kaddish, or full kaddish, which is said at the end of prayer; and 4. The Rabanan Kaddish, or the rabbinical kaddish, which is said at the end of a sermon, especially by those who are grieving.

Although women were not permitted to say the mourner’s kaddish in Orthodox Judaism, this has been changing. Some Orthodox organizations, such as Beit Hillel in Israel or the Union of Hebrew Congregations in Great Britain, already allow and support it. Henrietta Szold, founder of Hadassah/WIZO and one of the eight daughters of a Baltimore rabbi, was offered by a close friend that he could say Kaddish for her when her mother died. Henrietta replied: “I think the intention was to free women from the obligation to fulfill some of the mitzvoth because of their responsibility to care for the family. But now they can fulfill those commandments, and that doesn’t make it any less valuable than if a man did it.”

Without a doubt, saying Kaddish has a therapeutic effect for the mourners. Since it requires a minyan to say it, it forces them to go out and be with people, instead of staying locked up in the house. Praising God while suffering the pain of losing a loved one may seem contradictory, but this act opens the way to comfort and a new relationship with the Creator of life. Praise God is given in the most difficult moments. Praise God is given when life is difficult to understand. That is why death is not mentioned in the Kaddish.

By Marcos Gojman:

Bibliography: Articles by: Cyrus Adler, Kaufmann Kohler, Judah David Eisenstein, Francis L. Cohen, David Golinkin, and Joseph Telushkin.

Our sages tell us in the tractate Bava Metzia, chapter 84a: “One day Rabbi Yochanan was swimming in the Jordan River. Reish Lakish [a criminal] saw him and thought he was a woman. He jumped into the Jordan, threw his spear into the water, and swam toward him. When Rabbi Yochanan saw him, he said: Your strength should be for the Torah! Reish Lakish replied: Your beauty should be for women! Rabbi Yochanan said to him: If you repent [of the life you lead], I will give you [as a wife] my sister, who is more beautiful than I.” Reish Lakish accepted the deal. However, he tried to get his weapon back but could not.

Rabbi Yochanan taught him Torah and Mishnah and made him a great man. One day, [the two] were debating in the house of study [regarding] the sword, the knife, the spear, and the sickle. At what stage [of their [manufacture] become impure? They both answered: The moment they are finished. And when are they considered finished? Rabbi Yochanan said: When they have been tempered in a furnace. Reish Lakish said: When they have been polished with water. Rabbi Yochanan said: A thief knows the tools of his trade. Raish Lakish answered him: And how has what you have done for me benefited me? There [as a thief] they called me Master, and here [also] they call me Master. Rabbi Yochanan said: I helped you by bringing you under the wings of the Shekhinah (the presence of God).

Rabbi Yochanan was deeply hurt, [which caused] Reish Lakish to become ill. Rabbi Yochanan’s sister came and wept before her brother. She said to him: [Forgive him and] look at my son who is going to be orphaned. He said to her: Leave your orphans, I will provide for them. She said to him: For the sake of my widowhood. He said to him, “And let your widows trust in me.” Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish died. Rabbi Yohanan was deeply distressed. The rabbis said, “What can we do to comfort him? Let us send Rabbi Elazar ben Pedat, who is a scholar, to sit before him…

In response to everything Rabbi Yohanan said, Rabbi Elazar ben Pedat would answer him, “Here is a text that supports [what you say]. Rabbi Yohanan said, “Do you think I need this?” When I argued [in favor of] a commandment, Reish Lakish would raise twenty-four objections, and I would give him twenty-four answers. This led to a better understanding of the law. And you say to me, “Here is a text that agrees with what you say. Do I not know that what I said was correct?” Rabbi Yohanan tore his clothes and wept, “Reish Lakish, where are you, son of Lakish, where are you!” And he wept until he lost his mind. So, the rabbis prayed for him, and he finally died.”

Many lessons can be gleaned from this Aggadah. In the time of the Talmud, our sages discussed the meaning of the Torah’s commandments and often arrived at different interpretations. For there wasn’t always a single answer to the same question. Even more so when the meaning of the question and its corresponding answer changed with time and place. Although late, Rabbi Yohanan realized that the important thing wasn’t having the correct answer but rather walking the path of his search alongside his study partner, with whom he happily argued. The beauty was in discussing with the other, more than in coinciding with him.

By Marcos Gojman.

Bibliography: Ruth Calderon “A Bridge for One Night, Talmud Tales”

Eliezer Yitzhak Perelman (1858-1922) was born in Lithuania to an Orthodox family. His father died when he was five, and his mother sent him to live with an uncle. After his bar mitzvah, his uncle sent him to a yeshivah in a nearby town. There, he met a rabbi who introduced him to the ideas of the Enlightenment. He soon began reading the classics of world literature, but it was discovered by the yeshivah authorities and expelled.

Eliezer wandered helplessly until he was «adopted» by the family of Shlomo Yonas, an enlightened Jew. Amazed by the abilities of a 14-year-old boy, Yonas asked his daughter Deborah to teach him French, German, and Russian. In 1878, he went to Paris to study medicine. It was there that it occurred to him that Hebrew should be transformed from a language used only by rabbis and scholars to a language used by people in the marketplace. He began writing his ideas about a Jewish homeland with Hebrew as the common language, under the pseudonym Eliezer Ben Yehuda.

It was in Algeria that I first heard the Sephardic pronunciation of Hebrew. He has adopted it as his way of speaking Hebrew. I have returned to France and decided to live in the Land of Israel. He proposed marriage to Deborah, but on the condition that only Hebrew would be spoken in his home.

When the couple arrived in Jerusalem, they adopted the dress and customs of religious Jews. They wanted to influence them to revive the Hebrew language. They only used Hebrew for prayer and study. He began publishing a newspaper, «Zvi,» in which he used new words he had devised. Pioneers coming from Europe began using Hebrew as their journaling language.

When the Sabbatical year arrived, the rabbis decreed that farming the land had to be stopped. Eliezer found this absurd and wrote about it in his newspaper. In response, the rabbis contacted Eliezer and his newspaper. Eliezer and his wife stopped pretending to be religious Jews. In 1891, Deborah died, leaving him with several young children. His sister-in-law Hemda, 14 years his junior, came to visit them, and they eventually married. This was frowned upon by the religious community in Jerusalem. In 1895, he began working on a dictionary of modern Hebrew.

Together with Herzl, Ben Yehuda supported the Uganda proposal to establish a Jewish homeland. Because of this, the pioneers who had arrived in the Land of Israel became hostile to him and considered him a traitor. Upon Herzl’s death, Ben Yehuda abandoned the Uganda idea and concentrated on his dictionary. With Hemda’s help, he managed to publish 17 volumes.

Eliezer Ben Yehuda had an enormous impact on modern Jewish life, although he failed to convince ultra-Orthodox groups to speak Hebrew. He died in 1922, the year British authorities declared Hebrew, English, and Arabic the three official languages ​​of the Land of Israel. His son Ben Zion spoke only Hebrew from birth, and people spoke Hebrew in the marketplace.

By Marcos Gojman.

Bibliography: Articles by Libby Kantorwitz, Jack Fellman, David Saiger, and Ami Isserof.

The commandment to affix a mezuzah to the doorpost of a house is written in verses VI:6 and VI:9 of Deuteronomy, which say: “And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart,” “and you shall write them on the doorposts (mezuzot) of your house and on the gates (of your cities).” It is therefore a “mitzvah d’oraita,” a commandment of the Torah.

The mezuzah consists of two parts: The “klaf,” a rectangular piece of parchment with verses from the Torah written on the front: Deuteronomy VI:4–9 and XI:13–21, and on the back the word Shadai, the name of God, and the initials of the phrase “Shomer Dlatot Israel,” He who guards the gates of Israel. The other part of the mezuzah is the container that holds the scroll, which can be made of any material and design. The important thing about the mezuzah is the klaf, not the container.

All the rules regarding the mezuzah are in chapter 11 of volume 1 of the Shulchan Aruch. Rule 24 states that the purpose of the mezuzah is to remind us that God’s name is written on it, and rule 25 tells us that the mezuzah must be checked twice every seven years. This is part of the text written on the mezuzah: “4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one. 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. 6 Embrace these words I command you today. 7 Teach them to your children continually. Speak them to them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Bind them on your hands as a sign; wear them on your forehead as a mark; 9 write them on the doorposts of your houses and on the gates of your towns” (Deuteronomy VI).

In Talmudic times, the mezuzah was attributed with protective power. This is evident from many anecdotes, such as those of Artaban and Abba Arika, and that of Onkelos. In the Middle Ages, influenced by Kabbalah, biblical passages began to be added where God watches over his people, and even the names of angels. Maimonides condemned this practice of turning the mezuzah into an amulet for personal use, so the addition of additional texts to the mezuzah was stopped.

An amulet is an object designed to repel evil. A talisman is an object designed to attract blessings and prosperity. Both characteristics have been attributed to the mezuzah.

This is true even today. The Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Schneerson, emphasized the importance of the mezuzah as a spiritual device capable of protecting against the effects of the evil eye and other potential tragedies. He said: «Moreover, this protection extends to all members living in the house, even when they leave it.» He stated that every kosher mezuzah placed in a home generally protects the entire Jewish people.

What makes a mezuzah kosher or not? First, the parchment must come from a kosher animal. Second, it must be written by a sofer in the same way the Torah is written. Third, it must be free of errors. Fourth, no letters must have been erased. Some groups within Judaism, especially in the Orthodox branch, attribute people’s suffering to the fact that the mezuzahs in their homes were not kosher. It is difficult to understand why someone could become ill or suffer some mishap because the sofer who wrote their mezuzah did something wrong.

The mezuzah is not intended to be a protective device or the source of divine punishment. The mezuzah is a symbol and a reminder of our Covenant with God, of our love, commitment, and will to create a Jewish home. And this is more than enough.

By Marcos Gojman.

Bibliography: Articles by Cyrus Adler, I.M. Casanowicz, Michael Leo Samuel, and Ari Z. Zivotofsky.

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.

Mechitzah in Hebrew means separation or division. It refers to the physical separation of the men’s area from the women’s area in Orthodox synagogues during prayer. This separation is achieved through a special section for women, such as a balcony, or a physical partition that separates them. The prohibition of men and women sitting together, according to some Orthodox rabbis, derives from the Bible, so for them, it becomes obligatory.

The concept of Mechitzah is not mentioned anywhere in the Talmud. There is only one discussion that refers to a barrier that was erected in the Temple to separate women from men, exclusively during a part of the Sukkot celebration. Rav, one of the Amorite sages, also refers to a prophecy of Zechariah that said that after the war between Gog and Magog, mourning should be conducted by separating the men of each family from their wives. Another explanation offered by some scholars is the fact that there were three courtyards in the Temple of Jerusalem: the first was for women, but where both men and women could sit; the second was exclusively for men; and the third was for the priests.

Historically, there is no evidence that a mechitzah existed in ancient synagogues. Archaeological excavations have found nothing to indicate this, but this is not absolute proof that they did not exist. Philo writes in his book that in some communities in the first century, men were separated from women. There is evidence of mechitzot in synagogues as early as the Middle Ages.

It was in 1845, in the Reform synagogue in Berlin, where the mechitzah was officially eliminated for the first time, and in theory, women could sit anywhere and not just in the balcony as was the case before. Even so, for many years, women continued to sit separately from men. It was in the United States that synagogues gradually adopted the rule of men and women sitting together.

Today, gender segregation is one of the things that distinguishes Orthodoxy from other movements. Virtually all non-Orthodox synagogues lack mechitzahs. For the Orthodox, a temple without a mechitzah, which separates men and women, is not a kosher temple. The Orthodox maintain that sitting together with women distracts men from their purpose of praying to God. Ultimately, the mechitzah is more of a custom than a commandment. But its divisive function has extended beyond separating men from women: it now separates Judaism into two camps.

By Marcos Gojman

Bibliography: Jonathan D. Sarna: The debate of mixed seating in American synagogues. Chad Spigel: Reconsidering the question of separate seating in ancient synagogues.

Judah ben Solomon Chai Alkalai (1798–1878) was born in Sarajevo, then part of the Turkish Empire. He studied in Jerusalem under various rabbis and became interested in the study of Kabbalah. In 1825, he joined the Sephardic community of Semlin, today part of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, as a teacher. A few years later, he took over as rabbi of that community. During this time, nationalist movements took shape in the region, which greatly influenced the Jews of the Balkans.

Alkalai maintained that the Jews must return to the land of Israel. Based on various religious and Kabbalistic sources, he argued that the coming of the Messiah and the redemption of Israel required the Jews to return to their land for this to happen. He had even calculated that it could happen between 1840 and 1939, provided the necessary actions were taken, since if not, redemption would be achieved in the following century, but with enormous suffering.

Simon Loeb Herzl, Theodor Herzl’s paternal grandfather, regularly attended Alkalai’s synagogue and came into possession of one of the first copies of the book Alkalai wrote in 1857, in which he spoke of «the return of the Jews to the Holy Land and the renewal of the glory of Jerusalem.»

Theodor Herzl learned of Alkalai’s ideas through his paternal grandparents, traditionalist Jews. Many scholars maintain that this was the true origin of Theodor’s Zionist ideas, rather than the famous «Dreyfus Affair,» the trial of Captain Dreyfuss, falsely accused of treason in France, which Herzl covered as a journalist. Theodor Herzl wrote two important works: in 1895, «The Jewish State» and in 1902, «Altneuland,» «Old New Land.» In the former, he wrote: «I consider the Jewish question not to be a social or religious problem, although it sometimes takes that form. It is a national question…. We have tried sincerely to unite with the national communities among which we live, seeking only to preserve the faith of our fathers. But they have not allowed us to do so. In vain have we been loyal patriots… In our native lands where we have lived for centuries, we are still considered foreigners… Wherever we begin to be politically secure, we begin to assimilate. And this is not something commendable…. Israel is our unforgettable historical homeland. We will finally live as free men in our land and die peacefully in our homes.»

Herzl envisioned a Jewish State that would combine modern Jewish culture with the best of European heritage. The Temple in Jerusalem would be rebuilt according to modern principles. He did not view its inhabitants as religious, but there was respect for religion in the public sphere. Herzl relied on his grandfather, Simon Loeb, to be the channel through whom Alkalai’s ideas influenced his thinking.

By Marcos Gojman.

Bibliography: Encyclopaedia Judaica and other sources.

Asher Zvi Hirsch Ginsberg (1856-1927) was born in Ukraine to a Hasidic family. At the age of eight, he taught himself to read Russian. He attended cheder, the religious school for boys, until the age of 12. He then studied with private tutors, excelling as a student. He attempted to continue his studies in Vienna and Germany, but was unsuccessful. Ginsberg was highly critical of the dogmatic nature of Orthodox Judaism, but remained faithful to his cultural heritage and ethical ideals.

He returned to Odessa where he met Leon Pinsker, leader of the Hovevei Zion, a movement that sought to settle Jews in the Land of Israel. He visited the settlements in 1891 and saw them impoverished, forgotten by world Jewry, and dependent on his aid for survival. Ginsberg, whose pseudonym was Ahad Ha’am, «One of the People,» believed that the program of Theodor Herzl, the leader of political Zionism, was impractical. He argued that, rather than establishing a Jewish state, the Zionist movement should gradually bring Jews to the Land of Israel and, with that nucleus, form a Jewish cultural center that would revive the Hebrew language and create a new spiritual culture, free from the negative influences of the Diaspora. This nucleus would spread its nationalism to Jewish communities around the world, giving them the strength to come and help build the new Land of Israel.

He believed that this new Jewish culture would be the way to reconnect young people with Judaism and its national values, rather than its religious ones. His greatest contribution was his struggle to revive the Hebrew language and its culture, both in the Land of Israel and in the Diaspora. His writings would cement the relationship between the future State of Israel and Jewish culture expressed in Hebrew. Ahad Ha’am said that not only did Jews emerge from the ghetto. Judaism emerged from the ghetto as well.

For Jews as individuals, the escape from the ghetto depended on the situation in each country and depended on the acceptance of the local population. But for Judaism, its escape was something else: contact with modernity nullified its internal defenses, and it could no longer remain isolated, living a life cut off from the rest of the world. He said that the Jewish spirit always seeks to develop, so it absorbs elements of the general external culture, assimilates them, and makes them part of itself. This had happened previously in multiple periods of Jewish history. He said: «The secret of the persistence of the Jewish people is that from very early on, the prophets taught us to respect spiritual power and not to worship material power.

For that reason, Judaism did not disappear, as happened with other ancient nations. As long as we remain faithful to this principle, our existence is assured.» Ahad Ha’am’s Zionism emerged from that spiritual world and sought to resolve the problem of Judaism, while Herzl’s emerged from the material world and sought to resolve the problems of the Jews, which is not the same thing.

By Marcos Gojman:

Bibliography: Ahad Ha’am «The Jewish State and Jewish Problem» (1897), articles by Louis Jacobs, Steven J. Zipperstein, and other sources.

Solomon Schechter (1847-1915) was born in Romania to a Lubavitch Hasidic family. He was initially educated at the Lemberg yeshiva and continued his studies in Vienna and Berlin. He was a professor of rabbinic subjects in Cambridge, England, when he discovered the Cairo Genizah documents. This gave him worldwide renown, and he was soon approached by representatives of the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York to join their faculty. Although it was not easy to convince him, he eventually arrived at the seminary, where he became president.

The impact Schechter had on the seminary during his thirteen years as president was enormous. He managed to assemble a group of outstanding professors, experts in diverse subjects, who soon made the seminary recognized worldwide as the most prestigious and advanced center in the field of Jewish studies. Also, in a series of letters and articles, he laid the foundations for what would become the movement he was already leading. In 1913, he founded the United Synagogue of America, with the aim of building alliances among all religious groups.

Schechter epitomized the entire philosophical position of the seminary. He spoke Yiddish, Hebrew, English, and German, and had studied in traditional yeshivot as well as in schools in Vienna, Berlin, and London, where he learned the Science of Judaism. He wrote about the mystics of Safed as well as Abraham Lincoln. In his inaugural address, he quoted Whitman, Goethe, and George Eliot along with passages from the Bible, the Talmud, and other religious texts.

He declared his commitment to modernity by criticizing those who refused to acknowledge the great movements and revolutions that occurred in all fields of human thought in the 18th and 19th centuries, reducing them to nothing, as if they had never happened. But he also defended the traditional foundations of Judaism, with all that distinguished it from other religions. He maintained that the Torah was the foundation of Jewish thought, as it had been for thousands of years, always responding to the conditions of each era.

Schechter, like Frankel in Breslau, was able to reconcile seemingly opposing elements of modernity with traditional classical Judaism. His approach was based on the historical and critical study of Judaism, thereby distancing himself from both Orthodox currents, which refused to accept the fact that Judaism had evolved over time, and from the Reform movement, which had eliminated many historically classical Jewish practices.

Schechter did not write a declaration of principles for the new movement, unlike the Reformists, who, with their Pittsburgh Platform, provoked a break with traditional sectors of the American Jewish community. Their ideological openness made them the most flourishing Jewish religious movement in the first half of the 20th century. Without a doubt, Solomon Schechter was the great architect of Conservative Judaism.

By: Marcos Gojman.

Bibliography: Conservative Judaism by Neil Gillman and other sources.

On the evening of July 11, 1883, some 200 people gathered for dinner in a Cincinnati restaurant to celebrate the 8th council meeting of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations and the graduation of the first class of rabbis from Hebrew Union College. The dinner was sponsored by a group of prominent Jews and featured seafood, meat, and dairy desserts, violating the dietary precepts that distinguish between permitted (kosher) and non-permissible (treif or taref) foods. In the history of American Judaism, it is known as the «Treif Banquet» and was one of a series of events that ultimately led to the split between the Reform and the more traditionalist factions.

This separation was cemented when the Reform movement adopted the principles of the Pittsburgh Platform, which in 1885 discarded the observance of mitzvoth and deemed the concept of the “Jewish people” anachronistic.

Following the banquet, a group of moderate rabbis and scholars, including Sabato Morais, Henry Pereira Mendes, Alexander Kohut, and Cyrus Adler, sought to establish a more traditional rabbinical seminary that would reflect the historical conception of Judaism as an evolving religion, much as Zechariah Frankel had done at the Jewish Theological Seminary in Breslau in 1854.

In January 1887, the Jewish Theological Seminary Association was founded in New York City, with the goal of preserving “the knowledge and practice of historic Judaism.” The seminary would teach Bible, history, and philosophy, in addition to providing traditional Ashkenazi rabbinical training. In its first fifteen years, it graduated 14 rabbis and 3 chazanim, including Joseph H. Hertz, who would become the chief rabbi of the British Empire, and Mordechai Kaplan, a theologian who taught at the seminary for many years and founded the Jewish Reconstructionist movement.

From its inception, the seminary suffered from serious financial problems and was on the verge of closing in 1902. As early as 1890, some of its leaders began to discuss the idea of ​​bringing in Solomon Schechter, professor of Talmud at Cambridge University and discoverer of the Cairo Genizah, to preside over the seminary. Schechter initially declined, citing the institution’s poor financial situation, but thanks to the work of Cyrus Adler and a group of volunteers, the financial problems were resolved, and Solomon Schechter accepted the position.

 In March 1902, he took office as president of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America (JTS). Schechter never imagined that the seminary would become the source from which a new movement within Judaism, the Conservative movement, would emerge. He sought to offer an alternative to Reform Judaism, with a traditional, enlightened, and Americanized Judaism. In addition to being a professor of Jewish theology at the seminary, he dedicated himself to laying out in various documents the ideological foundations of what he believed the practice of Judaism in America should be.

But some rabbis disagreed with his position and left the seminary to form Agudat Harabanim, an Orthodox organization. Another group of rabbis formed the Orthodox Union, which, while maintaining some ties to the JTS, took a different direction.

No one is entirely sure who was responsible for serving treif food at that banquet. But indirectly, that incident marked the course of Judaism in the United States and around the world. Neither Isaac Mayer Wize, father of the Reform movement, nor Solomon Schechter, ideologue of the Conservative movement, nor the founders of Agudat Harabanim and the Orthodox Union, sought to divide Judaism. All sought, from their perspective, the best path for the Jewish people. Perhaps a kosher banquet to clarify differences might have been the solution.

By Marcos Gojman.

Bibliography: Conservative Judaism by Neil Gillman and other sources.