“Vass You Ever in Zinzinnati?”

  That’s the title of a book about Cincinnati, the Queen City of the West, the home of the Hebrew Union College, the alma mater of Reform Rabbis (other campuses are in New York, Los Angeles and Jerusalem), and where the entire movement in America was organized. It actually began in Charleston, South Carolina, but it was in Zinzinnati (the German background of many of its citizens is why so many pronounced it that way) that the seminary, the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (now the Union for Reform Judaism) and the Central Conference of American Rabbis were born. And it was Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise who birthed them!

  So why Cincinnati and not, let’s say, New York City?

  Well, had it in fact been anywhere else it would have been Albany, New York, Wise’s first congregation upon arriving in this country from Bohemia. The trouble was that Wise and his president didn’t get along…at all. Now there are far too many stories about a congregation’s spiritual leader and its lay leader having their differences (not in Beth El, of course), but this was no typical disagreement. Hard to believe, I know, but it is no “urban legend” that the two of them had a real fist fight…on the bimah…on Yom Kippur!! I don’t know why they fought, but as for me, I’d never hit a woman regardless of the reason, and especially not on Yom Kippur!!

   Rabbi Wise was outathere faster than you can say “Zinzinnati,” and when he arrived in the Midwest he rolled up his sleeves to develop and nurture the movement he sought to establish…the movement as well as its components. Interestingly, compared to other liberal rabbis of the time, Wise was not as radical. He believed in Mosaic revelation (God giving our People the Torah on Sinai). It is said that he would walk up and down the streets of the city on Saturday mornings and encourage the Jewish businessmen (sic!) to close their doors on the Sabbath.

  Now you should know that Isaac Mayer Wise brought to these shores the late Shabbat service (it wasn’t that late, probably 7:00). How so? Well, if you’ve ever been in Zinzinnati, you’ll know that the majestic Symphony Hall is just a few blocks from the synagogue. Rabbi Wise saw his people walk to concerts on Friday evenings, passing the synagogue. It infuriated him. He told his people to “stop by” the Temple on their way and prayerfully celebrate the Sabbath. That was the beginning of the late Friday service…really. I couldn’t make this stuff up, you know.