Rabbi Abraham Joseph Rice 
5562/1802-5622/1862
z"l
While it is generally known that New Amsterdam (New York), the first Jewish settlement in this country, was founded in 1654, the early centuries of Jewish life here show no evidence of Jewish learning or strong religious loyalty. This did not exist on a large scale until the mass immigration of East European Jews to this country, beginning in the 1880's. Nevertheless, there were some exceptions to this overall picture. A number of Jews pioneered for Torah in this country during earlier periods. While their accomplishments may not all have stood the test of time, they still earn our admiration and respect. In the front rank of these personalities stands Rabbi Abraham Rice, the first musmach (ordained rabbi) to act as a rabbi in this country.
The Influx of the Mid-1800's
Jewish life in the United States underwent a radical change in the second quarter of the nineteenth century. Before 1825, only a small number of Jews were here, living in a few tiny communities. After 1825, large numbers of Jews began to emigrate from Germany to America. These Jews had seen the medieval restrictions on their lives first lifted by Napoleon, and then re-imposed on them by their victorious German rulers after 1815. In addition, they were undergoing great economic hardships. A stream of immigration to the United States began, and soon became a flood. The population figures indicate the size of this movement: In 1825, there were 6,000 Jews in America; by 1848, there were 50,000; and by 1860, their number reached 150,000. One of the spiritual leaders and pioneers of this migration was Rabbi Rice.
Abraham Joseph Rice was born in Gagsheim, near Wurzburg, Bavaria, in 1802. The small towns and villages of south Germany were still permeated with the old uncompromising pre-Reform devotion to Torah and mitzvos. Abraham Joseph Rice first studied under Rabbi Abraham Bing (1752-1841), who was Chief Rabbi of Wurzburg and maintained a yeshiva there. Rabbi Bing had studied under Rabbi Nosson Adler at Frankfurt, together with the Chasam Sofer. Many of the great leaders of German Orthodoxy in the nineteenth century were products of the yeshiva in Wurzburg. These included the renowned Rabbi Jacob Ettlinger of Altona, and the Chacham Isaac Bernays of Hamburg, both of whom later had a strong influence on Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch.
Rabbi Rice continued his studies at the yeshiva of Rabbi Wolf Hamburger (1770-1850) in Fuerth. Rabbi Hamburger was the acknowledged Torah authority in the Germany of his time. He was author of two collections of Responsa, Simlas Binyamin and Sha'ar Hazekeinim, containing teshuvos to queries from all over the country. Rabbi Wolf Hamburger bitterly fought the growth of Reform in Germany with uncompromising zeal. Indeed, he was forced to leave Fuerth eventually by the Reformers who succeeded in closing his yeshiva. He strongly influenced his students in their view against Reform. Rabbi Rice became a close talmid of Rabbi Hamburger, received semichah from him, and corresponded with him even when in the United States. Among the other students at this yeshiva was Rabbi Seligman Baer Bamberger, the future great Wurzburger Rav.
For a short time after leaving Fuerth, Rabbi Rice served as rosh yeshiva in the private bais hamidrash of a wealthy man in Zell. The rabbis of Germany, however, had become aware of the growing number of Jewish emigrants leaving for America, realizing that they would be facing many challenges to their religion in the new country. Worse, there was no spiritual leadership to help them withstand the temptations of their new environment. Consequently, in 1840 Rabbi Rice was prevailed upon by his teachers and colleagues to go to America as the country's first ordained rabbi.
The New World's Chaos
Rabbi Rice arrived in New York late in 1840, finding total chaos in his new country. There were no qualified rabbis in the country at all; yet thousands of Jews were already living in the United States, and every boat brought new arrivals. It was a perfect set-up for charlatans. Anyone wanting to make an easy dollar claimed to be a European rabbi and discharged rabbinical functions. As Rabbi Rice later wrote: "In this country, men who have studied neither Bible nor Talmud have assumed the title of 'Rabbi,' donning the rabbinical cap on their heads in the same way that Napoleon placed the crown on his head."
Rabbi Rice was first advised to go to Newport, Rhode Island, where, he was told, he would be able to revive that city's once flourishing colonial Jewish community. He soon felt, however, that there was no possibility of organizing a Jewish community in that town. A landsman invited him to join him in Baltimore and become the first Orthodox rabbi there. He quickly accepted this invitation.
Congregation Nidchei Israel, the first and only shul in Baltimore at that time, had been founded in 1830 by a group of Bavarian Jewish immigrants. In 1841, Rabbi Rice came to serve as its Rav.
Rabbi Rice soon became aware of the low state of observance of Torah and mitzvos in the United States of his day. The overwhelming majority of German immigrants had very little Torah knowledge. Soon after their arrival, they began to discard observance of one mitzvah after another. The first and most serious casualty was usually Shabbos observance. Others soon followed. There was also another serious development. As large-scale immigration to the United States continued, adherents of the growing German Reform movement began arriving, including prominent Reform rabbis such as Max Lilienthal, Isaac Meyer Wise, and David Einhorn. Under their influence, pressure for reform in tefillah and mitzvah-observance began to grow even among nominally Orthodox Jews.
Rabbi Rice attempted to deal with these developments as they arose. He received halachic questions from all over the country dealing with a variety of problems. One was the acceptability of West Indian esrogim for use on Succos. These esrogim were suspected of being hybrid with lemons, and hence not kosher. In his response Rabbi Rice showed a high degree of Talmudic scholarship. He concluded: "I think it my duty ... to state that these esrogim are kosher; not a word can be found against them in all poskim, rishonim, and acharonim."
Another problem he dealt with was the kashrus supervision of oil. It was suspected that lard was melted and mixed into oil sold as pure olive oil. Rabbi Rice published notices calling the attention of the Jewish public to this fact, advocating that mashgichim (supervisors) be appointed to oversee the production of the oil. When Reform spokesmen answered Rabbi Rice and attempted to show that consumption of such oil even with lard was permissible, they found that they had more than met their match. In a series of scholarly articles, Rabbi Rice completely refuted their position.
As the first rabbi in the United States, Rabbi Rice was also asked to set precedents in the writing of the names of various cities for gittin and kesubos (documents associated with divorce and marriage), where correct spelling is binding to the document's validity.
When Isaac Leeser began to publish The Occident as an Orthodox monthly in English, Rabbi Rice quickly came to his aid. He wrote articles in The Occident expounding the Torah point of view on Reform and related matters. When Isaac Meyer Wise, the founder of Reform Judaism in America, published his History of the Jews in 1853 in which he denied the historical truth of the Bible, Rabbi Rice responded with a sharp attack in Hebrew in The Occident. In this article he refers to Wise as "ha'ish hamishugah hazeh" adding "lo bassi lephalphel im ha'ish hazeh ki d'var Hashem bazah" ("an insane man ... I do not debate such a person, for he reviles the word of G-d"). Rabbi Rice felt that religious apathy and the success of Reform were in good measure due to the lack of any organization in American Jewish life. A national bais din with a centralized rabbinical authority could combat Reform much more effectively. Isaac Leeser enthusiastically joined him in this idea. In 1845 Rabbi Rice wrote of "the great importance of selecting a spiritual chief for a bais din for the purpose of regulating our spiritual affairs." In another article he explained the necessity to prevent the uninitiated from giving their crude decisions, which are but too well calculated to do permanent injury to our faith." He was obviously referring to the Reform rabbis who were then arriving and assuming positions in America. Unfortunately, nothing was done to bring this plan to realization, and chaos remained the keynote of American Jewish religious life.
Farewell to the Pulpit
In spite of all Rabbi Rice's efforts, the rising tide of Reform could not be stemmed. Even within Rabbi Rice's own congregation in Baltimore, demands for changes began to be heard. Rabbi Rice had originally forbidden aliyos to be given to Sabbath violators in his congregation. With more and more members desecrating Shabbos, however, Rabbi Rice was forced by congregational demands to allow this measure to be repealed. Nevertheless, in an act of defiance, he announced that, as a matter of halachah, when such individuals recited the brachah over the Torah, no "Amein" was to be answered by the congregation. Needless to say, this caused great hostility towards the Rabbi in the community.
His relations with his congregation were further exacerbated when a prominent member died: the deceased was a Mason, and the rites of that lodge were performed at his funeral. Rabbi Rice denounced these ceremonies as heathen practices, having no place at a Jewish funeral. This brought about further resentment against the Rabbi.
In addition, the congregation began to exert pressure to change the order of tefillah. The Rabbi was requested to allow certain piyutim to be deleted. Rabbi Rice knew that this was only the beginning. If he gave in on this relatively minor point, more substantial and serious demands would follow. Thus in 1849, rather than compromise his principles, he resigned from his position.
He continued to live in Baltimore and engaged in business to support himself. He first opened a dry goods store and eventually a grocery. In the meantime, he organized a private minyan, which was absolutely Orthodox in practice. He served this minyan as rabbi without charge.
An idea of his feelings while acting a srabbi in Baltimore can be gained from a letter he wrote to his revered rebbe, Rabbi Wolf Hamburger in Fuerth: "I dwell in complete darkness, without a teacher or companion . . . The religious life in this land is on the lowest level. Most people eat foul food and desecrate the Shabbos in public." It is difficult to fully assess the terrible loneliness of this isolated Rav and talmid chacham in the spiritual desert of mid-nineteenth century America. Rabbi Rice concluded by saying, "I wonder whether it is even permissible for a Jew to live in this land." Indeed, he seriously considered returning to Europe, but was obviously unable to do so.
Even while engaged in private business, Rabbi Rice did not forsake the Klal. He continued to speak and to write against Reform. When Dr. David Einhorn, the radical Reform preacher, set up a temple in Baltimore, Rabbi Rice spoke out. In the pages of The Occident he denounced innovations introduced by Einhorn, as contrary to Jewish law. In his article, he attacked the Reform preachers as having no right to the Jewish title of rabbi. "I deem it unbecoming to contend with such men," wrote Rabbi Rice. Again in 1855, he wrote a defense of Orthodoxy in The Occident: "The heavens may vanish in smoke, and the earth wear out with old age, and still not one iota will vanish from our religion." Rabbi Rice was deeply concerned over Jewish education. He opened a school in Baltimore where he tried to bring up an Orthodox young generation. He strongly opposed the use of German by the old generation, claiming that it only alienated children from religion, which was branded by its German-language packaging as an Old World, un-American institution. By increasing the use of English, he also hoped to limit the influence of the Reform Movement, which relied on materials from Germany for texts and documents. He explained his position by writing, "Though the great ocean divides us, the sparks scattered from the conflagration abroad are already kindling a flame in our dwelling."
A Brief Reprieve
In 1862 Rabbi Rice was invited to return to Congregation Nidchei Israel as rabbi. He accepted after he was assured of strict adherence to Orthodoxy. He was unable to accomplish much for Torah in his new position, however, for his years of struggle had taken their toll. Only a few months after accepting the appointment he passed away, at the age of sixty. His congregation did not remain Orthodox very long. In 1871 an organ was introduced and the Reform prayer book was adopted. Congregation Nidchei Israel became a full-fledged Reform temple. In a short while Rabbi Rice's children became irreligious and alienated from Torah Judaism. Thus ended the career of the first American Rav. This would appear to be the conclusion to the story of Rabbi Abraham Joseph Rice of Baltimore - both on the personal level and the communal level. In the first aspect, there is a fascinating postscript related to me by a former resident of Baltimore now living in New York City. While still in Baltimore, this man and his family became acquainted with a young man descended from Rabbi Abraham Rice. Totally irreligious and ignorant of Judaism, he returned through the influence of this person and his family and became a fully religious Jew, joining a Chassidic group. Today he lives in Brooklyn and is indistinguishable from his Chassidic neighbors. Thus, after a number of generations, one can witness "the return of Torah to its former hosts."
It would be equally wrong to conclude that Rabbi Rice's contributions to Torah in America had no lasting impact. Nurturing the growth of Torah life in a country is similar to planting a crop in a field. At first, the hard unworked soil must be broken up by a plow and a hoe. Only then can the seeds be planted and the crop raised. Perhaps the efforts of Rabbi Rice and his colleagues served to plow the hard unbroken soil of America, in preparation for the twentieth century crop of Torah flourishing here. In this way we can all be considered spiritual heirs of Rabbi Rice.