How a baby boy divided a prominent synagogue in 1830s Philadelphia

Dr. Ranum holds a degree in history and specializes in Protestantism, Judaism and folk religion in the British Atlantic. She was first introduced to the existence of Etting as footnotes in books written by Jacob Rader Marcus. Known as the “father of American Jewish history,” Marcus was a scholar and Reform rabbbi. Dr. Ranum followed the notes left by Marcus and came upon documents housed at the American Jewish Archives.

“This just stood out to me,” she explained her interest. “Gender and the body and religion and masculinity — it’s all in one place, it is all the things that I do. But it’s not generally a concern in modern Jewish life, they’re not thinking these thoughts. It was an odd case, which also makes it fun to study.”

Little Frederick Etting was born in 1834 in Philadelphia. His family were prominent members of society and connected with a global shipping business. Sadly, the young Etting passed away, as many children of the time did, from illness in September of 1835.

The Ettings were a part of the synagogue, Mikveh Israel, which was considered the capital of Jewish North America. The family wanted to bury their son in its cemetery, but were told they were not allowed to do so. The reason was the Ettings had done something that had broken centuries of Jewish tradition — they did not circumcise their son.

This ritual of body modification, known as the brit milah or bris, was vital in completing a Jewish man’s religious identity. According to Dr. Ranum, it is a belief that one is born a Jew, in particular if they come from a Jewish mother. However, for boys, they also must be made complete through the brit milah.

In abstaining from the brit milah, Frederick Etting’s religious identity was put into question.

“Frederick is simultaneously in the community and outside of it as a one-year-old, without this procedure,” Dr. Ranum noted to the audience.

She went on to explain that what this caused was a division of factions within the synagogue. There was a side that supported the Ettings and wished for the young boy’s burial in the proper way. The other side, which was behind the synagogue’s leader, Isaac Leeser, believed that the parents had not done what their obligations were and the son was not fully Jewish.

Leeser was a young hazan at this time. A hazan was someone who was not fully ordained, but was qualified to lead prayer. Dr. Ranum described Leeser as a man of conservative views and he wrote letters to other Jewish leaders for advice on the precarious situation. Many of these letters were sent overseas, as there were no existing rabbis living and working in North America at the time.

He ultimately came to a decision, which was written in a letter to the chief rabbi in England.

It reads:

“Were I to give an opinion from my own notion and feelings, I would say that the child is not entitled to burial. But taking our liberal code of laws from my guide, I have come to the conclusion that the child may be admitted to the burying ground, so long as he be circumcised and named on the ground before burying.”

And so, Frederick Etting was circumcised, given his Jewish name and was buried in the synagogue cemetery.

However, he was not given a name on his tombstone and he was placed in an unnamed children’s row. Dr. Ranum explained that this row was often for children that had died before their natural circumcision date.

His parents elected to not be buried there.