The so-called "Trefa Banquet" was an elegant and sumptuous dinner held on July 11, 1883, at the Highland House restaurant in Cincinnati, Ohio. Held in honor of the first graduating class of Hebrew Union College (including David Philipson, a major source on the event) and the delegates to the eighth annual meeting of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, it offended a number of guests by featuring non-kosher (treyf) foods. It became symbolic of the growing divide within American Reform Judaism, which would eventually lead to the birth of Conservative Judaism.
The event
According to the elaborate menu, which has been reproduced several times, it was "in honor of the Delegates to the Council of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations". Although not stated in the menu, the banquet was also honoring the first four graduates of the Hebrew Union College, whose ordination was being held at the same time as the convention. There were about 215 attendees, who were greeted by "a dinner orchestra". According to the menu, "an elegant French cuisine dinner composed of nine courses and five alcoholic drinks would be served.… By any standard, the party was lavish, even in an age of excess. For sure, the dinner was extremely costly." The cost was defrayed by wealthy Jews ("Cincinnati's leading Jewish families"), at the head of whom was Julius Freiberg, the business partner and neighbor of Samuel Levy, the husband of a daughter of Jacob Ezekiel, who was Secretary of the Board of Hebrew Union College.
The Highland House, razed in 1895, was Cincinnati's leading venue, a "brilliantly lighted showplace where even political meetings and conventions could be held". At the top of Mt. Adams (today's Eden Park), and served by funicular, it had a commanding view of the city, with upper and lower esplanades, on which concerts, parades, and picnics were held.
A non-kosher meal
The meal, while eschewing pork, did not conform to Jewish dietary laws (kashrut). It included the prohibited (treif) foods clams, crabs, shrimp, and frogs' legs. It also combined meat with dairy dishes (ice cream). The meat was probably not kosher. This reflected the dining tendencies of Reform Jews at the time, who maintained the prohibition against pork but commonly ignored others, such as the one on shellfish.
The banquet received a long write-up in the Cincinnati Enquirer, under the title of "Jewish Jollification," which reproduced the menu completely, without comment, gave the program of the 12 numbers played by the orchestra (Brahms, Offenbach, von Suppé), and offered a long list of "the ladies present". In Rabbi Wise's American Israelite, the "collation" was "up to the standard"; besides a list of the ladies present, the article provides the texts of 7 toasts which were offered. The banquet was also mentioned briefly in discussions of the meeting of the Council of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, which lasted three days (July 10–12). Nowhere is there any reference to objections or controversy in connection with the non-kosher dishes served.
Reactions
An eyewitness (the last living attendee, David Philipson) wrote, almost sixty years later, that "terrific excitement ensued when two rabbis rose from their seats and rushed from the room. Shrimp had been placed before them as the opening course of the elaborate menu." If this is so, and his report has been described as "replete with misinformation" (among other things, shrimp was not the opening course), these rabbis did so quietly, without confrontation or protest. Another eyewitness, Henrietta Szold, commented in a letter, published in The Jewish Messenger on July 27, that the number who were indignant was "surprisingly small. …Two rabbis left the table without having touched the dishes, and I am happy to state that I know of at least three more who ate nothing and were indignant but signified their disapproval in a less demonstrative manner."
The first known complaint, however, is from a non-attendee, Sabato Morais, who would become the first president of the Conservative Jewish Theological Seminary of America. In a letter to the editor of the American Hebrew dated July 16, he complains: