"[1] Within months of this letter, Rabbi Wise started work toward a "free synagogue" holding services at the Hudson Theater on West 44th Street and on the Lower East Side.

"[2][3] In 1910, the congregation's 500 members celebrated Rosh Hashanah at Carnegie Hall, and a number of brownstones were purchased on West 68th Street in 1911 as the site of a permanent home for the synagogue.

Branches of the Free Synagogue were started in the Bronx, Washington Heights, Flushing, and Westchester County in New York, and Newark in New Jersey, from 1914 to 1920.

A portion of his papers (1920–1981) can be found in The Rabbi Edward Klein Memorial Library at Stephen Wise Free Synagogue.

She was very active in the Hebrew School and paid attention to how she would be shaping a new generation of youth while Assistant, and eventually Associate Rabbi.

During his leadership Brickner used the pulpit to speak out against US policies in Central America and with the South African Apartheid regime, and spoke out for the rights of Palestinians.