Always,
You have to remember Judaism looked very different back then. Rabbi Abraham Rice was the first (& for a while) only real Frum Rabbi in America. This what he wrote from Baltimore in the 1840’s to his Rebbe in Germany. A very sad description indeed.
“I dwell in complete isolation (obscurity) without a teacher or a companion in this land whose atmosphere is not conducive to wisdom; all religious questions (shaalos) are brought to me for solution. I have to carry the full load on my shoulders and have to assume the authority to render decisions in Halachic questions in both private and public matters.
And one more thing I wish to disclose to you my revered master and teacher … and my soul weepeth in the dark on account of it, namely, that the character of religious life in this land is on the lowest level; most of the people are eating non-kosher food, are violating the Shabbos in public … and there are thousands who have been assimilated among the non-Jewish population, and have married non-Jewish women. Under these circumstances, my mind is perplexed and I wonder whether a Jew may live in a land such as this.”
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