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The Orthodox Union Story
by Saul Bernstein

Chapter 6:  Call and Response

Refusing to bow to adveksity, Dr. Mendes issued, in 1896, a call to Orthodox congregations throughout the United States and Canada to join in organizing a representative common body. His call, mindful of the lessons of hard experience, proffered a limited frame of competence. His letter states:

[The planned organization] does not affect the autonomy of the congregations at all but leaves them free and independent in internal matters-being only intended for matters of public and general action. . . . There will be no expense to individual congregations.

The call was heeded. Two years later, the founding assemblage was convened. It took place in New York at the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue, Congregation Shearith Israel, "which had first planted the Torah banner on American shores, and whose roots, centuries deep in American soil, now nourished the collective purpose of the Torah fold."

The Jewish Gazette, a prominent Yiddish weekly of the time, on 26 Sivan 5658/June 17, 1898, hailed the event in its English-language section, under the heading "The Orthodox Congregational Union," with a subhead reading: 'The first Conference of 'Jewish Jews', who want 'The Thorah [sic], the whole Thorah, and nothing but the Thorah.'" It said:

The first Orthodox Congregational Conference has been held. It was a splendid success, the meeting of true Jews, gathered for the purpose of giving life to the age-old faith, and to rebuke and repudiate the Reformers who have been foisting some strange devices upon us, and calling that Judaism. From every Jewish community came prayers of God-speed. The voice of all Orthodoxy was heard, demanding that this step be taken. It now remains for Orthodoxy to sustain the work of its representatives.

A more serious, solemn, and holy conclave never met in America before. It was the initial step . . . [it may lead to] a grand union which will gather all Orthodoxy within its folds . . . . To the younger generation, this element is an especially gratifying one . . . . The cry of the thousands who were wandering aimlessly without spiritual guidance has been heard.

The Jewish Gazette's article fisted the names of the delegates and of their congregations and communities. Eighteen of the congregations fisted as being of New York City were all in what is now the Borough of Manhattan, both "downtown" and 'uptown." One congregation is fisted as being of Brooklyn (B'nai Jacob); as yet the move of Jewish population across the East River was sparse. Montreal, with five congregations represented, was second only to New York City in communal representation. Three Baltimore congregations sent delegates. Louisville, Kentucky, and New Haven and Hartford, Connecticut, each had two congregations represented. Each of the following communities had one congregation represented: Syracuse and Buffalo, New York; Cleveland and Dayton, Ohio; Newark and Trenton, New Jersey; Lancaster, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Charleston, South Carolina; Chicago, Illinois; San Antonio, Texas; Newport, Rhode Island; and Washington, D.C.

Elsewhere, the Jewish Gazette report refers to "over fifty" delegations but the participating congregations fisted by name total forty-seven. It can be understood from the same source, however, that many other congregations, though for one reason or another without delegates at the founding conference, had voiced support of the projected Union.

The assemblage adopted a constitution with a Declaration of Principles that declared:

This Conference of Delegates from Jewish congregations in the United States of America and the Dominion of Canada is convened to advance the interests of positive Biblical, rabbinical, traditional, and historical Judaism, and we affirm our adherence to the authoritative interpretation of our Rabbis as contained in the Talmud and Codes (Shulchan Aruch, etc.).

We are assembled not as a synod and therefore we have no legislative authority to decide religious questions, but as a representative body which by' organization and cooperation will endeavor to advance the interests of Judaism in America....

We affirm our belief in the existence of God, His Revelation to Israel, the coming of a personal Messiah, and the Thirteen Principles of Maimonides.

At a later occasion1, the guiding purposes of the Orthodox Union's founding were retrospectively summarized by one of the founding group as:

To speak with authority in the name of [the fold of] Orthodox Judaism, and to defend the rights of Orthodox Jews as citizens. . . . It was also established to protest whenever necessary against "Reform" Judaism.

Dr. Mendes was elected as president of the newborn Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America. He was to be reelected again and again, though against his own wishes, at the call of all, until the 1913 convention of the organization, when, worn and ill, Mendes, insisted upon being replaced.2

The tasks at once engaged in were of notable scope, as can be seen from reports by Dr. Mendes and his fellow officers at the Union's early periodic conventions. Jewish religious interests and general welfare on the foreign as well as the domestic scene were acted on, with pioneering spokesmanship in public affairs.

The Torah Jew in America was voiceless no longer.

Footnotes
1. In Reports . . . of the Sixth Convention (24 Sivan 5673/june 29, 1913), Foreword  2. Apparently, however, Dr. Mendes continued to serve until another Convention held in June 1914. A letter appearing in the Henry S. Morais Papers collection of Yeshiva University's Archives department, from Albert Lucas, then (Honorary) Secretary of UOJCA, to Dr. Morais, dated June 30, 1914, making references to a recently concluded Orthodox Union convention, says in passing, "Through the retirement of Dr. Mendes from the Presidency due to in health, Dr. Drachman became the only logical candidate." And in the same repository, a form letter notifying the recipient of a meeting of the UOJCA Executive body to take place on April 29 lists as item 5 of the Agenda: "The next convention, and the resignation of Dr. Mendes as President."