Weisman - The chosen wars: [how judaism became an American religion]

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For Elisabeth

Twelfth century: Maimonides writes Guide for the Perplexed.

1492: Spanish Inquisition, Jews expelled from Spain and later Portugal; Columbus discovers America, probably with Jews aboard.

1517: Martin Luther posts 95 Theses, starts Protestant revolution.

1543: Copernicus publishes heliocentric model of Earth revolving around sun.

1563: Joseph Caro organizes rabbinical teachings into Shulchan Aruch (The Set Table).

1654: First Jews arrive as a group on American shores (New Amsterdam) aboard the Ste. Catherine , establish Shearith Israel in New York.

1656: Spinoza excommunicated in Netherlands.

1664: British seize New York from Dutch.

1679: Synagogue in Prague installs an organ.

1695: First Jews in South Carolina.

1720: Ashkenazim become majority of Jews in New York.

1730s40s: First Great Awakening, pressure on Jews to convert.

1740: Jews granted naturalization rights in colonies.

1749: Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim established in Charleston.

1768: Gershom Mendes Seixas elected spiritual leader of Shearith Israel in New York.

1776: American Revolution, British capture New York; Seixas flees the city.

1783: Moses Mendelssohn publishes Jerusalem in Berlin.

1790: Washingtons letter to the Jews of Newport, Rhode Island.

1790: Shearith Israel establishes bill of rights for Congregation.

1791: Jews granted citizenship in France.

1795: First Ashkenazi synagogue in America (Rodeph Shalom) in Philadelphia.

1800: Charleston has largest Jewish community in the United States: five hundred people.

1800 and after: The Second Great Awakening.

1810: Seesen Temple in Germany becomes first Reform synagogue.

1818: Hamburg Temple installs an organ.

1819: Society for the Culture and Science of Judaism established in Germany.

1819: Rebecca Gratz establishes Female Hebrew Benevolent Society in Philadelphia.

1819: Hep-hep riots in Germany.

1824: Isaac Leeser emigrates to America at age 18.

1824: Dissenters at Beth Elohim create Reformed Society in Charleston, declaring this country is our Palestine.

1825: Bnai Jeshurun (Ashkenazi) breaks away from Shearith Israel, second synagogue in New York City.

1825: Mixed choir introduced in Mikveh Israel in Philadelphia, Mordecai Manuel Noah seeks Jewish refuge on Niagara River.

1826: Maryland Jew Bill adopted and grants Jews full rights.

1830: German migration to the United States surges.

1830: Principles of Geology by Charles Lyell posits that earth is hundreds of millions of years old; Leeser delivers first sermon in English at Mikveh Israel in Philadelphia.

1836: Benjamin Silliman says six-thousand-year-old Earth should not be taken literally.

1837: Joseph Seligman arrives in the United States.

1838: K. K. Beth Elohim synagogue destroyed by fire in Charleston; the first Jewish Sunday school established in Philadelphia.

1840: There are fifteen thousand Jews in the United States, up from three thousand a decade earlier.

1840: Abraham Rice first ordained rabbi to settle in the United States.

1840: Damascus affair; thirteen Jews accused of murdering a priest.

1840s: The first rabbis (at least eleven) come to America from Germany. There are eighteen formally organized congregations in the United States and a proliferation of synagogues in major cities.

1841: Beth Elohim in Charleston reopens with organ.

1843: The lawsuit over an organ goes to court in Charleston.

1842: New York City forbids religious instruction in schools.

1842: Har Sinai Verein in Baltimore, first Reform congregation in America, adopts Hamburg prayer book.

1843: Bnai Brith established; The Occident started by Leeser.

1846: Isaac Mayer Wise arrives in America, settles later in Albany; Rabbi Max Lilienthal tries to launch beit din.

1846: Court of Appeals in South Carolina upholds Beth Elohims right to install an organ.

1847: Wise and Leeser meet in Albany; Wise first proposes Minhag America as prayer book.

1848: German and French uprisings, Jews flee in larger numbers.

1849: The Asmonean is founded by Robert Lyon; Rabbi Morris Raphall arrives in America; Wise renews his contract in Albany; Wises daughter dies.

1850: Wise attends debate in South Carolina, later dismissed at Beth El in Albany.

1851: Wise establishes mixed seating in Albany.

1851: Edward Hitchcocks The Religion of Geology and Its Related Science is published.

1852: Jews from Lithuania and Poland establish first Eastern European Orthodox synagogue in New York.

1853: Heinrich Graetz publishes the first volume of History of the Jews ; Oheb Shalom conservative synagogue is founded in Baltimore.

1854: The Young Mens Hebrew Association (YMHA) started in Baltimore; there are seven religious schools in the United States.

1854: Wise joins Bnai Yeshurun as rabbi, starts the Israelite .

1854: Wise moves to Cincinnati; mixed seating at Temple Emanu-El in New York; Wise publishes A History of Israelitish Nation .

1855: There are now seventy-six congregations in the United States.

1855: Merzbacher prayer book at Temple Emanu-El; family pews at Emanu-El.

1855: Cleveland rabbinical conference adopts the Talmud as legally binding; both Wise and Leeser are criticized from opposite ends of spectrum.

1855: David Einhorn becomes rabbi at Har Sinai in Baltimore.

1857: Wise introduces Minhag America prayer book; Samuel Adler succeeds at Temple Emanu-El.

1858: Mortara affair; seizure of baptized Jew in Bologna provokes controversy.

1858: Sinai Temple in Chicago.

1859: Charles Darwins On the Origin of Species is published.

1860: There are 160 organized Jewish communities in thirty-one states; a quarter of those communities are in New York City.

1861: Jewish Reform Society established in Chicago.

1861: President Abraham Lincoln takes office; Civil War begins; 150,000 Jews in America, 25,000 in the South. Rabbi Raphalls speech on National Fast Day defends slavery, is rebutted by Heilprin and Einhorn.

1863: Ulysses S. Grants General Order No. 11 bars Jews from certain occupied areas.

1865: Lincolns assassination is mourned by Jews.

1866: Friday evening services at a fixed time started by Wise in Cincinnati; dedication of Plum Street Temple.

1867: Free Religious Association is founded with Wise and Lilienthal in attendance.

1868: Death of Isaac Leeser.

1869: Philadelphia conference, disagreement between Wise and Einhorn.

1870: Of 152 synagogues in America, more than thirty have organs.

1871: Cincinnati rabbinical conference; Wise proposes changes in Yom Kippur.

1873: The Union of American Hebrew Congregations is established.

1875: Hebrew Union College opens.

1876: Adas Israel splits from Washington Hebrew over organ installation; Felix Adler starts the Society for Ethical Culture in New York City.

1877: There are 277 congregations and 250,000 Jews in the United States.

1877: Rutherford B. Hayes elected president; Reconstruction ends. Joseph Seligman excluded from Grand Union Hotel in Saratoga Springs, New York.