America's political and religious freedoms enticed many immigrants with the promise of a better life. However, as these immigrants learned, freedoms are often accompanied by previously unheard of problems. American Jewish immigrants in particular were confronted with new hurdles while trying to observe their religious beliefs and attempting to enforce religious discipline. Most immigrants came from communities where clearly identified authorities took charge of proper observance and compliance with religious laws. This governance was ambiguous in the United States, with its constitutionally mandated separation of church and state. Yet the initial lack of coordinated oversight helped to evolve religious laws and apply them in American life.

This is particularly true with kashrut. The specific regulations concerning animal slaughter are so detailed that the shochet, the person responsible for correct ritual slaughtering, must receive extensive training and certification. Even so, disputes over kashrut still arise. As the following document shows, if the necessary apparatus to settle these disputes is lacking, contentious and confusing battles may follow.

In 1841, Congregation Bene Israel of Cincinnati considered itself an observant congregation that adhered to traditional dietary laws.The congregation's Vestry Minutes for January 9 of that year (a Saturday), reveal an interesting and even comical controversy over a dead sheep:

The President [of Bene Israel] stated that Mr. Samuel Kahn [a Cincinnati butcher] had called on him and produced a sheep purporting to have been killed and marked Kosher by our Shochet, Mr. David Goldsmith, which sheep he, Mr. Kahn, pronounced Tripha [not kosher]. The President then called on Mr. S. Bruel [Samuel Bruel, a more Orthodox member of the congregation who was considered a very learned man], who after examining the sheep pronounced it Kosher. Mr. Kahn then cut the head and side marks off the sheep and left them in the custody of the President. Mr. Abe Wolf, Junior was requested to examine the same and he also declared it to be Kosher. But Mr. Hart Judah [the congregation's Hazzan], who was ordered by the President to examine the same in the presence of Mr. D. Goldsmith, declared the sheep in question Tripha, upon which Mr. D. Goldsmith said this sheep was not the one which he had killed and marked, made complaints against the butchers, for whom he declared he would no longer kill, and being desirous to have another butcher appointed by the congregation, he requested the Parnas to call a special meeting of members to act upon this subject.

Having stumbled into this dispute, the Vestry passed the following resolutions:

Resolved, I. To dissolve the connection between K.K.B.I. and the butcher for the present;
II. To suspend the Shochet for exercising his duties until the congregation shall have decided upon the controversy;
III. To call a special meeting for that purpose, of all the members of the Congregation for Tuesday next at 6 o'clock P.M. and
IIII. That the Parnas notify the members present in the Synagogue for Divine Service the fact of the Shochet's & Butcher's suspension.

There is no record of any further action on this matter. While now this entry is humorous to read, it was a serious dispute within the congregation at the time that no one found funny. Today, we can use this document to examine mid-nineteenth century synagogue governance as well as to discuss the ongoing evolution of Jewish life in America.

First, this incident reveals much confusion within the synagogue's leadership, not only as to whether the sheep was kosher (or even deciding which sheep was in question), but, more importantly, in deciding how the matter should be resolved and by whom. While seven persons took active roles in trying to resolve this problem, none of them, including the Hazzan, spoke with clear, undisputed authority. Amidst this turmoil, the best decision the congregational leaders could reach was to suspend both the butcher and the shochet, a solution intended to rid the congregation of the specific problem rather than render a decisive resolution that would prevent future occurrences.

A second lesson pertains to larger questions of Jewish ritual observance. As historian Karla Goldman said in her study on religious leadership in Cincinnati, it is easy to see how, within the disorganized environment of Bene Israel, "all claims to traditional authority [could, over time], become undermined." At the very least, Goldman notes, this situation revealed an atmosphere that "hardly seemed guaranteed to secure more proper observance of Jewish law."

This instance serves as an example of difficulties and tensions that arose in congregations across the country, as Jewish laymen sought to Americanize Judaism--or, as Jacob Rader Marcus stated, as American Jews sought to create "a new Jewish life [in this] new American world." Yet, as historian Leon Jick observed, in the process of creating Jewish life in the United States, congregations often "blunder[ed] along seeking to retain something of the old ways while adapting to the demands of a new kind of society."

A final note--about twenty years after this event, Congregation Bene Israel started to discard many of its traditional rituals and observances. Though no one in the congregation may have realized it, the origins of the congregation's move toward Reform might well have begun with a dead sheep that defied categorization!

Sources: Vestry minutes, Records of Congregation Bene Israel (Cincinnati, Ohio), Manuscript Collection No. 24, Box 14, Folder 10; Karla Goldman, "The Path to Reform Judaism: An Examination of Religious Leadership in Cincinnati, 1841-1855," American Jewish History (March 2002), pp. 35-50; Leon Jick, The Americanization of the Synagogue, 1820-1870 (Hanover, NH, 1976). The author would like to thank Dr. Karla Goldman for showing him the Vestry minutes document and for her assistance in the preparation of this article.

For more information, visit the American Jewish Archives web site.

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