Trefa Banquet

The dinner was held "in honor of the Delegates to the Council of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations". Although not stated in the menu, the banquet was also honoring the first four graduates of the Hebrew Union College, whose ordination was being held at the same time as the convention. There were about 215 attendees, who were greeted by "a dinner orchestra". The cost was defrayed by wealthy Jews ("Cincinnati's leading Jewish families"), at the head of whom was Julius Freiberg, the business partner and neighbor of Samuel Levy, the husband of a daughter of Jacob Ezekiel, who was Secretary of the Board of Hebrew Union College. The meal, while eschewing pork, The banquet received a long write-up in the Cincinnati Enquirer, under the title of "Jewish Jollification," which reproduced the menu completely, without comment, gave the program of the 12 numbers played by the orchestra (Brahms, Offenbach, von Suppé), and offered a long list of "the ladies present". In Rabbi Wise's American Israelite, the "collation" was "up to the standard"; besides a list of the ladies present, the article provides the texts of 7 toasts which were offered. The banquet was also mentioned briefly in discussions of the meeting of the Council of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, which lasted three days (July 10–12). Nowhere is there any reference to objections or controversy in connection with the non-kosher dishes served. ==Reactions==

An eyewitness (the last living attendee, David Philipson) wrote, almost sixty years later, that "terrific excitement ensued when two rabbis rose from their seats and rushed from the room. Shrimp had been placed before them as the opening course of the elaborate menu." Morais did not use the name "Trefa Banquet", and its first use is unknown. Isaac Wise replied on August 3 to "our Philadelphia friend" (Morais) who "chastises the American Israelite because it did not condemn or at least denounce that terrible misdeed of that said unscrupulous caterer". Disclaiming responsibility for the menu, Wise added: "It is about time to stop that noise over the culinary department of Judaism. The American Hebrew's religion confers not in kitchen and stomach. The American Israelite begs to be excused, it does not deal in victuals." "Word of the Trefa Banquet spread quickly throughout the Jewish press." ==Impact on American Judaism==

Whether Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise, the president of Hebrew Union College and leader of American Reform Judaism, was aware of the menu plans of the banquet committee is not known. "Determining Wise’s personal food policy is not easy. Frequently inconsistent, he readily changed or revised his views for opportunistic purposes." He declined to apologize and condemn the banquet, and instead dismissed "kitchen Judaism" and argued that the dietary laws were obsolete and cheapened the religion in the eyes of others. A tradition that dates back to attendee Philipson credits outrage over the banquet as a key turning point in the path of Conservative Judaism later forming as an alternative to the larger Reform Judaism movement. It "furnished the opening to the movement that culminated in the establishment of a rabbinical seminary of a Conservative birth," as the Jewish Theological Seminary, founded shortly after the Trefa Banquet, eventually became the foundation of the Conservative movement. "Kashrut was one of a cluster of interrelated issues that first caused a broad coalition of American Jewish traditionalists to withdraw from the Reform movement." After Wise's death the American Israelite said: ==See also==