This Sunday, March 17, marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, the namesake of our congregation and a pillar of the 20th Century American Jewish Community who helped shape Jewish life as we know it today. Throughout this week’s daily kavannot, we will explore many of his lasting contributions to our history and tradition.
Born in Budapest, Hungary, on March 17, 1874, Stephen Samuel Wise came from a distinguished line of rabbis—dating back six generations. His grandfather, Rabbi Joseph Weisz, was a traditional Orthodox rabbi, supported by the Hapsburg monarchy. However, Stephen’s father, Rabbi Aaron Weisz, studied at the Eisenstadt seminary in Austria, home to modern Orthodoxy, which taught that traditional Jewish practices may exist while embracing modern scholarship, technology, and science.
When Stephen was seventeen months old, his father moved the family to Brooklyn, adopting the surname Wise. Aaron then served the Baith Israel community, before becoming rabbi of Congregation Rodeph Sholom in New York City. Both communities embraced reforms in Jewish practice, reforms that Stephen first discovered as a student in the Rodeph Sholom Religious School.
Ultimately, Stephen’s path to the rabbinate would prove different than either his grandfather or his father would envision. He eschewed the Jewish Theological Seminary that his father helped found, as well as Reform seminary located in Cincinnati, studying first under the Christian, Scottish American philosopher Thomas Davidson, who taught a humanistic philosophy, followed by Adolf Jellinek, a progressive rabbi from Vienna. Afterwards, Stephen completed his doctorate at Columbia with a translation and introduction to The Improvement of Moral Qualities, written by the 11th Century Spanish Jewish philosopher, Solomon Ibn Gabirol, who believed that ethics could be derived from humanity’s rationality, rather than religious law.
The multitude of humanistic influences in Rabbi Wise’s education ultimately reinforced his innate regard for all peoples, which he practiced both from the pulpit and through his activism. Wise championed many of the progressive causes of his era, including women’s suffrage, child labor restrictions, worker rights, and immigrant rights. He also served as a co-founder of the NAACP in 1906, while his synagogue became the first to establish a social service department in 1907, which helped people of all races and backgrounds. An avid advocate of the American Jewish community, Wise saw no distinction in championing Jewish rights and minority rights. For him, the cause was always one in the same.
— Rabbi Josh Knobel