Weisman - The Chosen Wars How Judaism Because an American Religion

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ALSO BY STEVEN R. WEISMAN

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The Great Tax Wars

Daniel Patrick Moynihan: A Portrait in Letters of an American Visionary (editor)

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Copyright 2018 by Steven R. Weisman

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First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition August 2018

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Interior design by Ruth Lee-Mui

Illustration by Tom McKeveny

Jacket Design By Tom Mckeveny

Flame Image By Parja Studio/Shutterstock

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Weisman, Steven R., author.

Title: The chosen wars : how Judaism became an American religion / Steven R. Weisman.

Description: New York : Simon & Schuster, [2018] | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017059402 (print) | LCCN 2017058478 (ebook) | ISBN 9781416573265 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781416573272 (trade pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781416578994 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: JudaismUnited StatesHistory18th century. | JudaismUnited StatesHistory19th century.

Classification: LCC BM205 .W45 2018 (ebook) | LCC BM205 (print) | DDC 296.0973dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017059402

ISBN 978-1-4165-7326-5

ISBN 978-1-4165-7899-4 (ebook)

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.