The Skeleton and the Mummy: Kohut, Kohler, and American Jewry’s Search for Authenticity

Abstract

This essay explores the polemical exchange that took place during the spring of 1885 between two leading Manhattan rabbis: Kaufman Kohler, the voice of radical Reform Judaism in America; and Alexander Kohut, the leading spokesman of moderate Reform Judaism. The article will show how the debate, which initially revolved around conflicting notions of the aims of Reform Judaism, expanded into a larger and more contentious disagreement over the legitimate rationale for changing traditional Judaism. Kohler argued that the Zeitgeist was the only necessary and relevant rationale; Kohut insisted that any and all changes must be justified within the pre-existing corpus of rabbinic literature and legal precedent. As such, this debate became a referendum on whether the ideologically-charged German-Jewish style of religious reform or the more pragmatic and moderate Hungarian Neolog style of innovation was more authentic.