As a child, Isaac Mayer Wise loved to study. Words were like magic keys that could unlock new worlds. He had big ideas and big dreams. After becoming a rabbi, he thought some long-held traditions needed changing, but some of his ideas were unpopular with European Jews. He decided to go to America, where he had heard Jews were more open to new ideas—and they were. He started a Jewish newspaper to share his new ideas and built a synagogue across the street from Cincinnati’s City Hall. He founded a seminary where both women and men could study, inspiring a new kind of Judaism, dream by dream.

As a child, Isaac Mayer Wise loved to study. Words were like magic keys that could unlock new worlds. He had big ideas and big dreams. After becoming a rabbi, he thought some long-held traditions needed changing, but some of his ideas were unpopular with European Jews. He decided to go to America, where he had heard Jews were more open to new ideas—and they were. He started a Jewish newspaper to share his new ideas and built a synagogue across the street from Cincinnati’s City Hall. He founded a seminary where both women and men could study, inspiring a new kind of Judaism, dream by dream.