1874-1949
Rabbi

Productive Career.

Stephen S. Wise came to the United States as a child when his father, also a rabbi, accepted a congregation in New York City. He graduated from the City College of New York and took a Ph.D. at Columbia University. He served a series of congregations, including one in Portland, Oregon. He returned to New York and in 1907 founded the Free Synagogue of New York, where he spent the rest of his career as a leading rabbi in Reform Judaism and a leading reformer in New York politics. He founded the Jewish Institute of Religion, now a part of the Hebrew Union College.

Zionism.

Wise was one of the first Reform rabbis to champion the cause of Zionism, the return of Jews to Palestine. He helped found the Federation of American Zionists in 1897 and served as its first secretary. He...