Is The Purpose Of Kohler's Views Of European Jews In America?

In its infancy, American Judaism centered one main question: how should it be defined? In his writings, Rabbi Kaufman Kohler expressed in his vision for American Jewry. The time period that his writings relate to is 1881 to 1924, when about two million Eastern European Jews migrated to the United States. This occurs right after about 250,000 German Jews migrated to the U.S. during 1820 to 1880. Since the German Jews and the Eastern European Jews migrated to the U.S. during different times, different circumstances, and from different places, how they thought Judaism should be practiced varied. Rabbi Kohler’s beliefs coincided with the views of the German Jews, mainly due to his belief in the principles of Reform Judaism. The differences in the
Rabbi Kohler’s vision for American Jewry reflected the values and ideals of Reform Judaism, which included the idea that Jews should integrate into their larger American society. Rabbi Kohler stated that Judaism could no longer be reclusive and resistant to change in a country that no longer taunted and shamed Jews to the extent that they had been in the past. Furthermore, Rabbi Kohler believed Jews should aim for moral, spiritual, political, and social greatness, which many Jews achieved during the Americanization period, 1924-1945, and continue to achieve in the 21st century. These ideals were in stark contrast to those of the Traditional Judaism from Eastern Europe, which valued the traditional law, the Halakah, and distinct Jewish communities. Jews from Eastern Europe were also accustomed to being treated as an inferior minority in their homeland, so the idea of rising in socioeconomic status was a foreign
Since the German Jews came in a much smaller group and were geographically spread out in America, they needed to integrate into the larger American society. However, when the Eastern European Jews came to America, there were millions of them and they mainly lived in the slums of large urban cities like New York’s Lower East Side. They were surrounded by Jews who came from the same place, held the same beliefs, and spoke the same language as them. Therefore, the Eastern European Jews did not have as much of a need to assimilate into the greater American society or redefine themselves from their previous minority status. Rabbi Kohler argued that all Judaism has been shaped by its environment to some extent and it could either broaden its visions or stunt its development and chance to improve. He believed that with the equality of American citizens and the humane treatment of the American Jews, Judaism had the chance to improve with assimilation rather than remain the way it was under oppressive leadership, like it was in