Proceedings of the First General Convention and Preamble, Constitution and By-Laws of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations.

(AMERICAN JUDAICA).

Bloch & Co

Cincinnati

1873

Singerman S-386.

Today’s Union for Reform Judaism (URJ) was formerly known as the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (UAHC) which was founded by Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise in 1873 in Cincinnati, Ohio. Representatives of 34 congregations from 13 Midwestern and Southern states gathered in Cincinnati to found the Union of American Hebrew Congregations with one major purpose: To establish a seminary where American rabbis could be trained for American congregations. By 1875 membership of the Union had grown to 72 congregations, including the “radical” congregations from the East Coast as well as moderate ones (that would later break off to join the Conservative movement). It was that year that the Hebrew Union College was founded. The present pamphlet is a part of the first “Proceedings,” the first publication to bear the name “Union of American Hebrew Congregations.” It documents the founding of the governing body of American Reform Judaism, its constitution and the by-laws adopted.