Prophet in a Time of Priests. Janice Rothschild Blumberg

English preacher alongside the German speaking Rabbi Samuel Hirsch. Wary of Einhorn’s lingering influence and not yet ready to leave the orbit of his mentor, Browne declined, opting instead for Wise’s recommendation that he become the first rabbi of a newly formed, second congregation in Milwaukee.18

      Milwaukee, 1869

      The move took him from a southern city decimated by the Civil War to a northern city enriched by it. Congregation Emanu-El had broken off from Milwaukee’s long established Congregation B’nai Jeshurun only the year before, instigated by the community’s burgeoning Jewish population which expanded from a maximum of seventy families in the 1850s to more than two thousand individuals by 1869. Pioneer Jews who only a few years earlier had been country peddlers, small grocers, and clothiers had suddenly become manufacturers, meat packers, purveyors of grain, and moguls of transportation on the Great Lakes. Upwardly mobile and flexing their muscle, leaders of the new congregation readily offered their rabbi a three- year contract at an annual salary of $2500.19

      Again Browne promptly displeased his congregants, but apparently not due to a sermon. On the grounds that he lacked the necessary qualities demanded of the position, the board asked him to resign within three months, paying him only $700 for his efforts. Having been given no specific reason for dismissal, he complained in Wise’s paper, now renamed the American Israelite. He demanded an explanation but did not receive one. His later claim that he resigned because the congregation had no building seems somewhat specious because the congregation acquired a building the following year. In light of his future reluctance to deal with financial matters other than personal ones, it is reasonable to suppose that he refused to become involved in the congregation’s building campaign and that perhaps this was the major quality in which the trustees found him lacking. It is also possible that he expressed his position in less than diplomatic terms. The former wunderkind was developing a knack for sarcasm and a short fuse for dealing with those whom he considered pompous incompetents.20

      Before leaving Milwaukee, Browne had the joy of celebrating the fifth anniversary of his arrival in America—i.e., the date on which he became eligible to apply for citizenship. He lost no time in doing so. Accompanied by two Milwaukee friends, A. S. Singer and attorney Max N. Lando, who co-signed his application, Browne appeared before the municipal court of Milwaukee on January 25, 1871, to become a naturalized citizen of the United States.21

      Madison, 1870

      By that time he had moved to Madison and enrolled in two courses at the University of Wisconsin School of Law. In June of the same year that he became a citizen, he received his bachelor of law degree, the only foreigner and apparently the only Jew in a graduating class of twenty. With that event he completed the collection of academic letters that inspired his nickname, “Alphabet.”22

      As Browne later testified, his reason for studying American law was to deepen his understanding of Talmudic law, for he was currently engaged in writing a commentary on the Talmud. Unfortunately no copy exists by which to appraise it, but in an excerpt from its introduction he clarified the connection between the two systems of law. “The Talmud as a ‘corpus juris’” he explained, “is to the Jew what the Congressional Globe [now Record] is to the American citizen.” In other words, this was the record of Jews’ beliefs and practices, whereas the Torah was their Constitution.23

      Because the Talmud is written primarily in Aramaic, which few Christian scholars understood, Christians did not realize that the lex talionis [“eye for an eye” etc.] and other primitive rulings were never carried out by Jewish courts. Likewise, they did not realize that Judaism had been developing for more than fifteen centuries before the Talmud was written. As a result, Christian scholarship fostered the perception that Judaism was a religion based on violence rather than love, and that its God was a god of wrath. These ideas fueled anti-Semitism. Now the recently developed Biblical criticism, also largely promulgated by Christian scholars unfamiliar with the intricacies of Talmud and led by the notoriously anti-Semitic Julius Wellhausen, furthered these misconceptions. The flawed scholarship gave fresh support to prejudice in Europe, which was currently being spread across America by evangelists in their mission to convert Jews to Christianity. The growing movement of Protestant evangelism and its Social Gospel understandably alarmed America’s small Jewish community, struggling to retain its Judaism.

      In step with nineteenth century Reform’s emphasis on ecumenism as an antidote for prejudice, and especially as a means of ending the misguided interpretation of Talmud that furthered it, Browne used his lecture platform to interpret Talmud for non-Jews. A more powerful tool was needed, however, and along with Wise, his teacher, he foresaw the benefit that could be derived from an authoritative translation of the Talmud accessible to all English readers.

      Wise, who later edited an English-language Talmud commentary written by Michael L Rodkinson, introduced Browne to the idea of writing one much earlier when Browne was his student. While present during a discussion between Wise and his Cincinnati colleagues Rabbi Max Lilienthal and Unitarian Reverend Thomas Vickers, Browne responded happily to Wise’s suggestion that he undertake writing such a volume. As Wise later noted in the American Israelite, “we advised Dr. Browne to go to that piece of work which would be appreciated very highly by English readers, especially preachers, writers and students of history...We receive numerous letters of persons who want the Talmud translated; they would be much pleased...with a good English compilation of its numerous gems, stories, parables, sayings and maxims.”24

      Browne accepted the challenge. When he completed it, in 1872, E. Claxton and Company of Philadelphia asked to publish it but required that it be submitted on stereotyped plates. These cost some $4000, which delayed publication for several years while Browne sold subscriptions to pay for it. Despite the fact that he received orders from nearly 250 people, including Horace Greeley, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and President James A. Garfield, for reasons that will be discussed in a subsequent chapter, Claxton canceled the work and it was never published. Although Browne’s work did not survive as a book, he used much of it in lectures and later published portions of it in popular form, entitled The Encyclopedia of Talmudic Beauties. Unfortunately, no copies of this volume have been found.25

      With Protestant revivalism and missionary zeal spurring interest in the Old Testament, a growing number of American Christians became sufficiently curious about the current descendants of its people to seek knowledge of Jews and Judaism. Rabbi Isidor Kalisch, forced to leave Germany in 1849 because of his liberal views, while serving congregations in several mid-western American cities including Milwaukee, had spoken to Christian audiences on “Ancient and Modern Judaism.” Like him, Browne became known as one of the relatively few Jewish scholars in America with sufficient fluency in English to appear before non-Jewish audiences, and sufficiently conversant with early Christianity to effectively present the Jewish point of view.26

      It is likely that Browne’s expertise became known through social as well as academic involvement during his year in Madison. Although known to avoid parties while a student in Europe and avowedly doing so in later life, the young rabbi apparently diverged from this practice in his years before settling down as a married man. In the Wisconsin capital he reportedly danced with the daughter of Chief Justice Salmon Chase and met other notables, probably including some of the state’s politicians. They learned of his oratorical ability and invited him to address the Wisconsin State Senate as well as to serve as its chaplain. This launched him on a series of public lectures that soon developed into a successful second career.27

      The neophyte was not discouraged from continuing in his profession when, soon after receiving his law degree, he was hit by one of the mud-slinging anonymous writers who habitually hounded American rabbis. Someone purporting to be “M.F., a true friend of Judaism,” had written to officers of the Montgomery congregation claiming that Browne had been jailed in Hungary for stealing money and other valuables, and escaped to America leaving his destitute wife and two children in Europe. The same person also wrote to the congregation in Milwaukee before Browne arrived there, not only repeating the libel but also alleging that the rabbi had eloped with a senator’s daughter after stealing $500 from Wise’s safe with which to finance his honeymoon. Browne believed that the slanderer was a contender for his job in each of those cities. Hoping to identify his accuser, he responded in the American Israelite, “It is below the dignity of anybody