During the 1870s and 1880s, American Jews discussed Darwin and scientific theories of evolution in the context of debates within the Jewish community on the future of American Judaism. Kaufmann Kohler, a prominent American Reform rabbi, appealed to Darwin and evolutionary theory as support for radical Reform Judaism, which emphasized the idea of progressive revelation. The legitimacy of radical Reform, however, was subject to much debate. More moderate Reform rabbis as well as traditionalist Jewish leaders criticized Kohler's support for evolution and the links he made between evolution and radical Reform. Moreover, traditionalists who accepted evolution also attacked Kohler and his fellow radicals, claiming that evolutionary theory actually gave more support to traditional Judaism!

Intracommunity rivalry was certainly not alone in shaping the responses of Jews to evolution. The American Jewish community faced many challenges from without that threatened the integrity and survival of Judaism. Religious leaders pointed to assimilation as the community's most urgent problem, whether it resulted from conversions to Christianity, the appeal of the Ethical Culture Society (founded in 1876 by Felix Adler, son of a prominent Reform rabbi), or the antagonism to religion generated by the growth of agnostic and materialistic thought.