My Amazon Review of Steven R. Weisman's "The Chosen Wars: How Judaism Became an American Religion"

Becoming at Home in the New Promised Land

Former New York Times journalist Steven Weisman tells the story of how Judaism became Americanized largely through the lens of the disputes between the reformers and the traditionalists coming of age in the America of the 1800s. Much of the arguments then echo true through today as to the role of women, music, choirs, English versus Hebrew in services, peoplehood versus religion, the difference between awaiting a Messiah or Messianic Age, and the relative importance of prayer and study versus social action.

Much of his history takes place in Charleston, South Carolina, which in the 1820s had the largest Jewish community in America. In fact the struggle over an organ became so heated that it had to be settled in court. What interested me the most was that much of the arguments in South Carolina preceded the arrival of the mass immigration of German Jews in the 1840s and 50s who later became the back bone of Reform Judaism. And because there were so many Jews in the South, the Jewish community split over the issue of slavery with Judah P. Benjamin becoming the Confederacy’s secretary of state. Nevertheless when Lincoln died much of American Jewry viewed him as the second Moses.

Wiesman’s book is the history of the rise of the Reform movement and the traditionalist reaction against it against the backdrop of an America that was much different from Europe. To the reformers the synagogue was the new Temple and America was the New Jerusalem. Thus there was no need to pray for a rebuilding of the ancient temple and much of the ancient rules seemed out of place in the hustle and bustle to de Tocqueville’s America, especially on the frontier.

In America there was no formal rabbinic authority. In fact there were no Rabbis until the 1830s and no American ordained rabbis until the 1880s. As a result authority was vested in the individual congregations which meant that much of the argument took place among the laity. To be sure there were leading rabbis like Isaac Wise and Jacob Leeser, but they too were responsible to their congregations.

My problems with Weisman’s book are that it over emphasizes the intellectual divisions over the role of spirituality and over emphasizes social justice politics over a connection with G-d. In many respects religion represents the triumph of faith over reason. To be sure social justice is important, but Weisman’s definition is probably far from my own because it is my belief that much of the success that Jews have enjoyed in America has come not from political action, but rather from the blessings of the market economy. Thus, unfortunately there is some truth to the old joke that Reform Judaism is the Democratic Party with holidays. To be sure Jews should be “the light among nations,” but we should walk the walk with a great deal of humility. That said Weisman has given us a well-researched book on how the Jewish religion adapted and became of age in the new Promised Land.

For the full Amazon URL see: https://www.amazon.com/review/R16Z2C7OL6XBK3/ref=pe_1098610_137716200_cm_rv_eml_rv0_rv