 His antagonists were therefore to be found in the ranks of the "mainstream" ultra-Orthodoxy as well as among the radical Reformers of the Hamburg Temple, the Reform synagogue founded in 1818, against whose new prayer-book Bernays had pronounced an anathema in 1841.By lectures on the Psalms, on Judah ha-Levi's Kuzari etc., he tried to strengthen and to deepen the religious life of the community, the institutions of which he supervised very carefully.His influence was felt in the Hamburg community, where Jewish traditions and the study of Jewish literature are often found united with modern education.