Brief History Of Joseph Seligman

(Poland, Russia) in pursuit of economic opportunity and to avoid rampant anti-Semitism. The third wave involved emigration of some Jews to seek better opportunity in America. Joseph Seligman initially settled in Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania, near Hazelton, PA. Located in the Pocono Mountains, it was a coal town and railroad town in ‘nowheresville.’ He worked as a cashier/clerk for a man, later to become a United States congressman. Using his savings, Seligman began peddling (jewelry, knives, smaller goods), door to door in rural Pennsylvania. After saving $500, Seligman sent for his brothers William and James, who joined him in peddling. Seligman’s firm made a number of successful investments. During the American Civil War, Seligman

Charleston, SC led the way by creating the breakaway "Reformed Society of Israelites for Promoting True Principles of Judaism According to Its Purity and Spirit." This was America 's first Reform congregation, with an abbreviated service, vernacular prayers, and regular sermons. Meanwhile, communal leaders, led by a modern traditionalist German-Jewish religious leader, Isaac Leeser, adopted some of the Reform practices, such as Sunday schools, hospitals, the religious press, charitable societies, with the proviso that its Jews observe the all the commandments. Leeser published an Anglo-Jewish translation of the Bible; founded the Jewish Publication Society and edited a Jewish periodical, The Occident and American Jewish Advocate, which attempted in its pages to unite the diverse voices of the American Jewish community and which also fought anti-Semitism. In the 1970’s Isaac Meyer Wise, an organization genius forged an organization, The Union of American Hebrew Congregations and a seminary, Hebrew Union College. This was the first seminary to ordain Rabbi’s in American, which like their Protestant predecessors had difficulty attracting educated clergy to American pulpits. Wise also began the publication, The