Differences over darwinism: American orthodox Jewish responses to evolution in the 1920s

Rabbis have offered a variety of reactions to evolutionary theory since On the Origin of Species was published in 1859. The current article focuses on the differences of opinion on Darwinism among American Modern Orthodox rabbis in the wake of the Scopes "Monkey Trial" that captured headlines in 1925. It illustrates that some rabbis in this group proposed that evolution could be easily integrated into Jewish philosophy, while others claimed that it was outside the bounds of a worldview that accepted a divinely created and guided universe. It is argued here that those who adopted this later view did so, at least in part, because of an approach that differentiated between the emerging American "modern" and "ultra" Orthodoxies based solely on cosmetic grounds, rather than ideological ones, and identified Darwinism with an ideological assault against all streams of Orthodox Judaism.