1905

Rabbi Stephen S. Wise was under active consideration for the pulpit at Temple Emanu–El in New York City. When Wise learned that his sermons would be reviewed in advance by the temple’s board of trustees, he withdrew himself from consideration. In a 1906 letter to Emanu-El’s trustees, he stated that the demands placed on him raised the “question whether the pulpit shall be free or whether the pulpit shall not be free, and, by reason of its loss of freedom, reft of its power for good.” Within months of this letter, Rabbi Wise started work toward a “free synagogue” holding services at the Hudson Theater on West 44th Street and on the Lower East Side.