Advance Praise
“This warts-and-all biography recounts the strange-but-true story of one of America’s most colorful, accomplished, and eccentric religious leaders, Edward Benjamin Morris (“Alphabet”) Browne. At once a rabbi, a doctor, and a lawyer, Browne befriended Ulysses S. Grant, bested the atheist preacher Robert Ingersoll, corresponded with Theodor Herzl, and sprang innocent men from jail. Acquainted with many of the leading figures of his day, he championed causes both great and small, and occupied pulpits from Boston to Peoria. Few recall Browne today, but as this prodigiously researched volume demonstrates, they should. His life illuminates significant chapters in the history of American Judaism.”
– Jonathan D. Sarna
Joseph H. & Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History, Brandeis University, and author of American Judaism: A History
“Readers will quickly discover that by examining Browne they will supplement their knowledge of numerous vitally important topics relating to the history of American Jewry, including American Reform Judaism, American Zionism, the American Jewish press, American Jewry and politics, and much more. Janice Rothschild Blumberg deserves much credit for assiduously reconstructing her great grandfather’s complicated, intriguing, and truly illuminating biography. The story of Rabbi “Alphabet” Browne is as instructive as it is enthralling.”
– Gary Phillip Zola
Executive Director of the Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives and Professor of the American Jewish Experience at Hebrew Union College Jewish Institute of Religion, Cincinnati, Ohio
“The narrative is meticulously documented, but lovingly related by Janice Rothschild Blumberg who remembers her great grandfather from her childhood. Browne is honestly depicted as a prophetic figure who held strong and controversial opinions in a generation of rabbis who were committed to compromise. The book is an important contribution to an understanding of American Jewry during the post Civil War era, and particularly the relationship between reform and traditional Jewish beliefs in this era. I would characterize the narrative as a “delightful” read, a term which I would ordinarily restrict to a work of historical fiction.”
– Rabbi Harold S. White
Senior Advisor and Founder, The Program for Jewish Civilizatiom, The School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University, Washington D.C.
Prophet in a Time of Priests
Rabbi “Alphabet” Browne
1845-1929
a biography
Janice Rothschild Blumberg
Apprentice House
Baltimore, Maryland
Copyright © 2012, 2014 by Janice Blumberg
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission from the publisher (except by reviewers who may quote brief passages).
Printed in the United States of America
Cover and internal design by: Alyssa Link
Paperback ISBN: 978-1-934074-73-2
EBook ISBN: 978-1-934074-99-2
First Edition, updated
Published by Apprentice House
Apprentice House
Communication Department
Loyola University Maryland
4501 N. Charles Street
Baltimore, MD 21210
410.617.5265 • 410.617.2198 (fax)
www.ApprenticeHouse.com • [email protected]
TABLE OF CONTENT
I - WUNDERKIND AND THE PROMISE OF AMERICA 1
II - UNCHARTED WATERS AND SOPHIE 17
IV - PRESIDENT GRANT AND THE MAN WHO CHALLENGED INGERSOLL 57
V - GATE CITY AND THE SOUTH’S FIRST JEWISH NEWSPAPER 79
VI - NEW YORK: Pulpit, Press and Politics 121
VII - NEW YORK: Crime and Punishment 155
IX - FAMILY, FOREIGN AFFAIRS, AND FRUSTRATION 203
X - ZION ON THE CHATTAHOOCHEE 227
XI - TRAVELING WITH SOPHIE 265
XII - ROOSEVELT, TAFT AND TRAGEDY 279
XIII - WILSON AND THE WANING YEARS 309
THE HEARING OF THE REICH CASE BEFORE GOVERNOR HILL 353
INDEX 417
FOREWORD
Since the 1890s numerous rabbis have occupied pulpits in particular congregations for decades. Especially in Reform temples, but also in some Conservative and modern Orthodox synagogues, their responsibilities have included service as ambassadors to the gentiles.” This broad role includes interaction with the general community, ecumenical endeavors, participation in civic and social service projects and organizations, and acting as major spokespeople and faces of the Jewish community. Although conflicts frequently occurred, rabbis have tended to enjoy power and prestige within their congregations and within the broader Jewish and secular societies.
These patterns have not always been the rule. As Janice Rothschild Blumberg makes clear in this path breaking study of Rabbi E.B.M. (“Alphabet”) Browne, virtually all of those who followed Rabbi Abraham Rice, the first ordained rabbi to hold an American pulpit, in 1840, did not do so. During the next