Aaron Wise was born on May 2, 1844, at Erlau (now Eger), Hungary, the son of Rabbi Joseph Hirsch Weiss and Rachel Theresa Rosenfeld. His family had been represented in the rabbinate for over two hundred years, Wise being the sixth in direct succession to hold rabbinical office.
His earliest Hebrew education was directed by his father. Later he studied in Talmudical schools of Hungary, and especially under Israel Hildesheimer at the Jewish Seminary of Eisenstadt, where he received the degree of rabbi (1867). He then attended the universities of Berlin, Leipzig, and Halle, and received from the latter the degree of Ph. D. , his thesis dealing with angelology and demonology in rabbinic writing.
For several years he served as superintendent of schools in his native town. He was for a time identified with the extreme orthodox party in Hungary, acting as secretary of the organization Shomre Ha-Dath (Observers of the Law), and editing a Judeo-German weekly in its support. In 1874 he emigrated to the United States, and became rabbi of congregation Beth Elohim in Brooklyn. In March 1875 he was called to the pulpit of Temple Rodeph Sholom of New York, and served it for the rest of his life. When he came to the pulpit of Rodeph Sholom, the younger members of this orthodox congregation showed a decided leaning towards reform. The older members, on the other hand, were averse to changes. Wise steered a middle course, modernizing the temple services in some ways while retaining many of the old time-honored customs and ritual practices. He gave a prominent place to the study of Hebrew in the religious school of the congregation, and made it the cornerstone of the curriculum at a time when many were relegating Hebrew to the background or omitting it altogether. He edited a new prayer-book, The Temple Service (1891), for the congregation, and instituted Sabbath eve services at eight o'clock instead of at sundown. Under his ministry, his congregation became conservatively reformed in character and grew to be one of the influential Jewish congregations in New York City. A profound Hebrew scholar and a man of wide culture, he assisted Bernard Fischer in his revision of Johann Buxtorf's Hebrew lexicon. He contributed to the yearbook of the Jewish Ministers' Association of America and to other periodicals, and was for some time editor of the Jewish Herald of New York and of the Boston Hebrew Observer. Besides his revision of the prayer-book he also wrote Beth Aharon, a handbook for religious schools. He was closely identified with the charitable organizations and activities of his community. In 1891 he founded the sisterhood of his temple, which subsequently established the Aaron Wise Industrial School in his memory. He gave liberally of his time and energy to the Hebrew free schools maintained by his congregation as an offset to Christian missionary activities which were then actively directed towards the proselytizing of the Jewish youth. Aaron Wise died on March 30, 1896, in New York.
Aaron Wise was an eminent rabbi of the congregation for twenty years, who was well known for the studying of Hebrew in the religious schools, editing the yearbooks, as well as the other periodical publications, and for his personal charities. The Aaron Wise Industrial School was established in his memory.
Aaron Wise was a member of the Society of German Oriental Scholars (Deutsche Morgenländische Gelehrten-Gesellschaft). From 1866, Wise was a member of the Jewish Theological Seminary of New York.
Aaron Wise was a preacher of eloquence, forcefulness, and sincerity. His humanity, good nature, ready wit, and engaging personality made him especially beloved in his congregation and popular in the community at large.
In 1870, Aaron Wise married Sabine Fisher, daughter of Moritz de Fischer Farkashazy, the industrialist. The couple had three sons and three daughters.
Joseph Hirsch Weiss was a Hungarian rabbi.
Stephen Samuel Wise was an American Reform rabbi and Zionist leader.
