Isaacs

ing unorganized New York Jewry a coherent,
articulate community. He was the first rabbi in
New York to introduce regular English sermons
into the service, sermons in which for the most
part he urged the necessity of preserving historic
Jewish tradition, and he soon became, second
only to Isaac Leeser in Philadelphia, the most
influential orthodox rabbi in the country. As an
outcome of the Mortara case, he helped create
the Board of Delegates of American Israelites
to defend the rights of Jews. He was one of the
founders in New York of the Jews' (later Mt.
Sinai) Hospital, the Hebrew Free School As-
sociation, and the United Hebrew Charities, and
was influential in the establishment of Maimon-
ides College in Philadelphia. He consecrated
thirty-eight synagogues, including the first ever
built in Illinois. His influence as a community
organizer and as an exponent of historic Juda-
ism was most widely spread, however, through
the Jewish Messenger, a weekly organ of ortho-
dox Judaism founded by him in 1857, and merged
into the American Hebrew in 1903. In its pages
he battled uncompromisingly in defense of tra-
ditional Judaism against the increasing inroads
of Reform Judaism. As an ardent abolitionist,
his denunciations of slavery cut off his South-
ern subscribers. Thereupon he wrote : "We want
subscribers, for without them we cannot publish
a paper, and Judaism needs an organ; but we
want much more truth and loyalty, and for them,
we are ready, if we must, to sacrifice all other
considerations" (Morais, post, p. 156). Integ-
rity, fearlessness, and conscientiousness were
outstanding characteristics of Isaacs and won the
admiration of the very Reform Jews whose prin-
ciples it was his life's work to combat Though
zealously loyal to his own religious principles,
he showed a tolerance which sprang from a
ready, genial humor, and an abounding benevo-
lence. His religious devotion, high ability, warm
sympathy, and sterling, unblemished character,
won for him a general esteem characterized in
the following editorial comment: "Mr. Isaacs
during his long and busy life, did perhaps more
than any other one man in New York to make
the name of a Jew respected, and to reflect credit
upon the Jewish Synagogue and the Jewish min-
istry" (New York World, May 21, 1878).

Uewish Messenger (N. Y.), May 24, 1878, Jan. 6,
1882, supplement; Reformer and Jewish Times (N. Y.),
Hay 24, 1878 ; H. S, Morais, Eminent Israelites of the
Nineteenth Century (1880) ; A. S. Isaacs, "Rev. Samuel
¥. Isaacs," in Mag. of Am. Hist., Mar. 1891 ; Pubs.
Am, Jewish Hist. Soc., vol. IX (1901) ; Cyrus Adler, in
Jewish Encyc., vol. VI (ed 1925) ; Emanuel Hertz,
Abraham Lincoln, The Tribute of the Synagogue
) J Israel Goldstein, A Century of Judaism in N.
1823-1925 (1930).] D fog p

(JOT?)
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Isham
ISHAM, SAMUEL (May 12, i855~June 12,
1914), artist and author, was born in New York
City, the son of William Bradley Isham and
Julia (Burhans). His father was a business
man, allied with matters of banking and real es-
tate, who, regretting that he had himself received
no academic advantages, was doubly resolved to
give them to his sons. Samuel was prepared at
Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass., and sent to
Yale at an early age, where he was graduated
in his twentieth year with the class of 1875
(B.A.). His studies were pursued in part in the
Art School where Professor Niemeyer gave him
a severe training in the rudiments. This assigned
a particular direction to the young man's inter-
ests when, following what his father had estab-
lished as in some sort a family tradition, he went
abroad on the termination of his college course.
Isham gravitated straight to Paris and spent
three years there, chiefly under the guidance of
Jacquesson de la Chevreuse. The disciplinary
habit of that painter, who in his inculcation of
sound principles of draftsmanship continued the
austere ideal of Ingres, left a profound impres-
sion upon the American student. It helped to
make him, all his life long, a devoted craftsman.
On his return to the United States Isham was,
humanly speaking, destined as a matter of course
to an artistic career. Curiously he turned his
back upon it and practised as a lawyer instead.
Five years of the legalistic life, however, only
served to throw him back upon the profession he
had chosen first, and in the early eighties he was
dedicated decisively to the brush. He proceeded
to Paris again and entered the Academic Julien,
working under Boulanger and Lefebvre. He
painted landscape and the figure, showing- dis-
tinctive talent in both categories, and especially
excelling in a firm, clean-cut type of workman-
ship. His themes in genre were of an idealistic
and decorative nature, with a not infrequent tinc-
ture of classical myth. "Music," "The Apple of
Discord," "Psyche," "The Lilac Kimono"—the
titles of some of his pictures—suggest the grace-
ful and more or less imaginative material in
which he dealt.
His success was prompt, especially, at the out-
set, upon the scene of his French training. Works
by him were cordially received into the Paris
Salon and on his homecoming he found his col-
leagues equally appreciative. In 1891 he was
elected to the Society of American Artists, the
body salient at that time for its progressive per-
sonalities and policies. Identification with the
Society was tantamount to identification as one
of the coming men. In 1900 he became an asso-
ciate of the National Academy of Design and six