Founder’s Day Reflections

Born on March 17, 1874 in Budapest, Hungary—Stephen Samuel Wise was basically born to be a rabbi; his family moved to America so that his father, Rabbi Aaron Wise, could become the rabbi of my former congregation, Rodeph Sholom in New York City. What was perhaps less foreseen was that he would become one of the most prominent rabbis in the United States in the first half of the 20th century. Rabbi Shirley Idelson, PhD, the author of his recent biography, credits Rabbi Wise—our namesake—with imbuing American Judaism, the Reform movement especially, with three core values:

  • Tikkun olam (repairing the world, though Wise did not use this term).
  • Zionism and support for the state of Israel.
  • Klal Yisrael, a belief in the kinship and common destiny of the Jewish people (“all of Israel” in Hebrew).

In addition to founding a synagogue in New York City, and also founding the Jewish Institute of Religion—an explicitly Zionist rabbinical seminary when most liberal Jews were not Zionists, Wise was perhaps most famous for sounding the alarm about Hitler and the threat of Nazism. He organized mass demonstrations, including a huge rally at Madison Square Garden after Hitler took power in 1933, despite opposition from prominent Jewish leaders. It was at this rally, in fact, that our own Rabbi Isaiah Zeldin, z”l, was first inspired toward the rabbinate.

From the founding of the Free Synagogue (now called Stephen Wise Free Synagogue) in 1907 through the end of his life, Rabbi Wise remained an orator par excellence, an institution builder, and a fierce lover of klal Yisrael, the shared future and community of the Jewish people. Maybe especially right now, Rabbi Idelson writes, so many of these issues Wise tackled in his rabbinate remain relevant — women’s rights and pluralism within the Jewish community; the need for Jewish voices in support of racial, social and economic justice; the centrality of Israel in Jewish life and the debates around Zionism; and, the rise of virulent antisemitism, racism, and authoritarianism across the globe, which threaten us all.

We are blessed to follow in his footsteps, inspired by his teachings and those of his student—Rabbi Isaiah Zeldin, z”l.

—Rabbi Sari Laufer