Kaufman Kohler(1843-1926) came to the United States in 1869 two years after he had completed his doctoral dissertation. He began his American career by combining an active congregational rabbinate with scholarship and intellectual leadership of the American Reform movement, which was demonstrated clearly through his composition of the text for the Pittsburgh Platform in 1885. He was president of the Hebrew Union College from 19031923, and became Honorary President of the Central Conference of American Rabbis in 1901 after the death of Isaac Mayer Wise . His principal interests were theological and historical studies of religion which covered all periods from ancient Mesopotamia to modern times. Responsa and halakhah stood at the periphery of his concerns.
As we look at the responsa produced by Kaufmann Kohler , as chairman, we find him often uniting with David Neumark and with Jacob Lauterbach ; he permitted others of his committee, which fluctuated in size to write responsa. It generally consisted of professors from the Hebrew Union College with a few others. No report was offered to the Central Conference until 1911, and that was oral. The chairman in his report of 1914 mentioned submitting questions to other members of the committee, but indicated that due to the late arrival he had only consulted Professor Neumark .
By 1913 six responsa were collected for a report to the Central Conference. During those early years there were either no questions or they were simply answered by the professors of the Hebrew Union College without much formality as they would have answered the inquiries of any former student. Perhaps eventually the correspondence of one of those early Hebrew Union College graduates will turn up such a halakhic exchange. During the years 1913, 1914 and 1916, the Chairman Kaufmann Kohler complained about the paucity of questions and urged that members of the
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