Solomon Schechter. Inaugural Address…as President of the Faculty of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America; Delivered November 20, 1902.

Solomon Schechter (1847-1915) was the primary architect of the American movement of Conservative Judaism. Arriving in New York after an illustrious career at Cambridge University, his presidency revitalized the Jewish Theological Seminary and it became famed for the quality of the scholars he recruited to serve on the Seminary’s faculty. Over a thousand attended Schechter’s large installation ceremony and his inaugural address made an overwhelming impression as the centerpiece of the day. Invoking Abraham Lincoln on the one hand and Maimonides and other great Jewish sages on the other, he called for the Seminary to foster an expression of American Judaism that was both truly American and truly Jewish.