Isaac Mayer Wise, Shaping American JudaismIsaac Mayer Wise, Shaping American Judaism

Isaac Mayer Wise (1819-1900), founder of the major institutions of Reform Judaism in America, was a man of his time - a pioneer in a pioneers' world. When he came to America from his childhood Bohemia in 1846, he found fewer than 50,000 Jews and only two ordained rabbis. Through his sense of mission and tireless energy,…