His congregation was the first American synagogue to: In 1850, Wise had famously remarked in reply to a question brought during a public forum with an Orthodox rabbi at Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim in Charleston, South Carolina that he did not believe in the coming of the Messiah or the resurrection of the dead.

[15] In 1847, at the suggestion of Max Lilienthal, who was at that time stationed in New York, a bet din was formed, which was to act in the capacity of an advisory committee to the congregations of the country, without, however, exercising hierarchic powers.

At a meeting held in the spring of 1847, Wise submitted to the bet din the manuscript of a siddur to be titled the Minhag America and to be used by all the congregations of the country.

No action was taken, however, until the Cleveland Conference of 1855, when a committee consisting of Wise, Rothenberg, and Isidor Kalisch was appointed to edit the siddur.

This book appeared under the title Minhag America, and was practically Wise's work; it was adopted by most of the congregations of the Western and Southern states.

So pronounced was Wise's desire for unity that when in 1894 the Union Prayer Book was published by the Central Conference of American Rabbis, he voluntarily retired the Minhag America from his own congregation.

His persistence won its reward when in 1873, twenty-five years after he had first broached the idea, the Union of American Hebrew Congregations was organized in Cincinnati.

[1] In 1853 Wise was offered a position as rabbi of the Beth K.K B’nai Jeshurun congregation of the Lodge Street Synagogue of Cincinnati, Ohio.

He offered to release the congregation when his controversial History of the Israelitish Nation appeared months later, but the synagogue maintained its support for him.

In his Reminiscences he gives a vivid picture of the incompetency of many of the men who posed as spiritual guides of congregations, during his early days in the United States.

He had scarcely arrived in Cincinnati when, with his characteristic energy, he set to work to establish a college in which young men could receive a Jewish education.

He enlisted the interest and support of a number of influential Jews of Cincinnati and adjacent towns, and in 1855 founded the Zion Collegiate Association.

His indomitable perseverance was crowned with success when, on 3 October 1875, the Hebrew Union College opened its doors for the reception of students, four of whom were ordained eight years later.

In 1881 he submitted to the meeting of the Rabbinical Literary Association a report urging the formation of a synod; but the matter never passed beyond the stage of discussion.

However, he lived to see the establishment of the Central Conference of American Rabbis in 1889, which was the third enduring offspring of his tireless energy and unfailing perseverance.

In his own city, besides officiating as rabbi of the Bene Yeshurun congregation and as president of the Hebrew Union College, he edited the American Israelite and the Deborah, served as an examiner of teachers applying for positions in public schools, and was also a member of the board of directors of the University of Cincinnati.

He was among the earliest Jewish scholars to reclaim Jesus as a Jew, and, more controversially, to suggest that Paul was in fact the Talmudic figure Acher.