German variety of religious innovation. Under his leadership, and owing
largely to his overarching notion of religious inclusiveness, Conservative
Judaism began to appeal to the traditional but accommodating religious
outlook of eastern European Jews. The outlook of Conservative Judaism was
also similar to that of the Russian Haskalah, further helping eastern
European Jews to find Conservative Judaism highly appealing and familiar.
Schechter, moreover, understood the challenge posed to Jewish survival by
the openness of American society. Thus, while he saw that Yiddish had no
future in America, he regarded the Hebrew language as essential to Jewish
survival in America. He urged American Jews to embrace English and
Hebrew as their languages. Not surprisingly, he advocated Zionism as a nat-
ural element of American Jewish identity.
The emergence of the United States as one of the largest centers of Jewish
life by 1914 – second only to Russia – reflected how world Jewry had been
dramatically altered between 1880 and 1914. In addition to a demographic
shift, by 1914 there were multiple forms of Jewish identity that were not only
non-rabbinic but independent of Judaism and religion entirely. It was entirely
possible by 1914 to be a fully committed and even passionate Jew without
believing in God or observing a single Jewish law or custom. Of course, secu-
lar Judaism itself made profound demands on its adherents, whether a
commitment to building a Jewish state or a desire to bring social revolution to
the Jewish street. This unprecedentedly diverse constellation of Jewish identi-
ties, dispersed more broadly around the world than ever before, would face
another set of challenges with the outbreak of the First World War. By 1920,
the foundations of social and especially legal emancipation would face a new
challenge in the age of ultra-nationalism, fascism, and Nazism.
202 Anti-Semitism and Jewish responses, 1870–1914