Irwin Lachoff, "Rabbi Bernard Illowy: Counter Reformer"
Illowy, born in Kolin, Bohemia on April 14, 1814, came from a long line of learned rabbis and teachers....Bernard's father, Rabbi Jacob Joseph, was in business and did not have a pulpit, but was renowned for his learning and attracted many students...Illowy received smicha from Rabbi Moses Sofer at the renowned yeshiva in Pressburg, Hungary, and a Ph.D. in Languages and Classics from the University of Pudapest. He attended the Collegio Rabbinico Italian, headed by Rabbi Samuel David Luzzatto, in Padua Italy. This yeshiva, one fo the first orthodox seminaries to combine secular with traditional learning, integrated a scientific approach to the study of traditional Jewish text.
Dr. Bernard Illowy (Occident 16, Feb. 1859)
How can you brothers, entrust you and your children's salvation unto such a man, who turns like a bulrush in the direciton of every wind, and reels to and for like an inebriate, and finds a firm footing nowhere? Will you be asked to be instructed by a man who plays his own game with sacred truth, who deals with so much levity with the holiest things, who has even no principle, and changes his position constantly?
Dr. Bernard Illowy (Der Israelite, 7:5, Jan. 1866)
However, in a country where Rabbis dar to declare oysters kosher for Jews, while they themselves eat pastries from non-Jewish bakers, while here nothing is prepared without pork fat....here ancient Talmudic principles are no longer observed.
David Ellenson, "A Jewish Legal Decision", American Jewish History, 180.
...Illowy met with practical successes as evidenced by the fact that when he came to New Orleans in 1861 not one family erected a private sukkah during the holiday of Sukkot, but, by 1864, over 50 families, due to Illowy's influence, constructed such booths....
...he came quite friendly, while in New Orleans, with the Union general who commanded the occupying Northern forces and was given direct access to him, intervening on behalf of Jews in this region with the commander on several occasions...
Bertram Korn, The Early Jews of New Orleans, 197.
[in reference to Shangaray Chassed by-laws re: special sections in cemetery]
These provisions relating to intermarriage offer vivid testimony of the extent of marriage out of the faith, and demonstrate how strongly the congregational leaders tried to keep these men from feeling alienated from their ancestral faith, and how profoundly they hoped that the children of these marriages might be saved for Judaism.
CONVERSION CONTROVERSY OF 1864
Isaac Leeser (Occident 23, December 1864)
Although the decision is undoubtedly strictly legal, we doubt whether it is wise for a Rabbi in this country to give an order, which he has every reason to believe will be disregarded. Dr. Illowy's authority in New Orleans extended only to the Shaagaray Chassed; the Shaaray Tefillah, to which Mr. Goldenberg belongs, owed him no obligation, being a perfectly independent body of the author. If, then, he is ever so right, it is useless to issue an edict which will not be heeded.
R. Bernard Illowy, Sefer Milchamot Elokim
Educated by a Christian mother and an irreligious father, who publicly violates Shabbat and festivals,and whos table is desecrated by all kinds of forbidden foods, as is the case here....; in the parental house the child can not even perceive the slightest tint of our religion...; would it not be better for these poor children to let them be what their mothers are, Christians, than convert them for appearance's sake into Jews which they will never be?.... Can there be anything more detrimental to the cause of Judaism than to make such Jews?
R. Tzvi Hirsch Kalischer (quoted in Ellenson, 190)
Illowy prohibited these boys from receiving circumcision because his pure heart was agitated on account of these sinners (the fathers). Therefore, he ruled that any mohel who circumcised them would be committing a sin and a transgression, and he declared the mohel who ransgressed his ruling to be unfit (for this office).
Regarding the questions as to whether it is a sin to circumcise children such as these, it seems to me that it is not a sin, but only a mitzvah, and I will bring several proofs to support this...
...We are commanded to circumcise him at the proper moment according to the directive of his father, so that when he grows up, the boy will quickly be able to obey the directive of his father and immerse himself ritually according to Jewish law. And if we do not circumcise him, it is as though we repel him with both hands from the community of Israel....
...when a sinner directs his heart to repent, how will his repentance be accepted if he raises his children as gentiles?... However, if we perform his will in this matter and circumcise his sons, he along with his children will return and we will have aided him in repenting. And if, God forbid, he should not repent, in this matter his desire to circumcise his children according to the jewish religion is a good one, without a doubt; when they grow up they can be immersed ritually before a Jewish court....
In my opinion the decision of Dr. Illowy of New Orleans was incorrect.
R. Shimshon Refael Hirsch, Shemesh Marpe, YD 58 (quoted in Ellenson/Gordis, "Pledges of Jewish Allegiance", 45)
...To convert him and impose these commandments upon him when there was almost no possibility that he would observe them would constitute an unconscionable act on the part of the rabbinic court. In our age, the responsibility these considerations entail has several times greater significance in regard to a baby who has not yet matured. No one who regards his fellow human being's peace of mind and conscience as holy and inviolable should act so as to endanger that peace of mind and conscience in this way.
What is the Halacha in this case?
וְכָל מִי שֶׁאֵין לָהּ לֹא עָלָיו וְלֹא עַל אֲחֵרִים קִדּוּשִׁין, הַוָּלָד כְּמוֹתָהּ. וְאֵיזֶה, זֶה וְלַד שִׁפְחָה וְנָכְרִית:
Any [woman] for whom there is no betrothal either to him or to others, the child is like her. Which is this? This is the child of a [non-Jewish] maidservant or a non-Jewish woman.
GEMARA: Rav Huna said: With regard to a convert who is a minor, one immerses him in a ritual bath with the consent of the court. As a minor lacks the capacity to make halakhic decisions, the court is authorized to make those decisions in his stead. ...Rav Huna’s statement was necessary lest you say: With regard to a gentile, licentiousness is preferable for him, so conversion is contrary to his interests, just as we maintain that with regard to a slave, licentiousness is certainly preferable. Just as a slave has no interest in assuming the restrictions that come with freedom, in that a freed Canaanite slave is a convert to Judaism, a gentile would have the same attitude toward conversion. Therefore, Rav Huna teaches us: That applies only with regard to an adult, who has experienced a taste of prohibition. Therefore, presumably he prefers to remain a slave and indulge in licentiousness. However, with regard to a minor, who did not yet engage in those activities, it is a privilege for him to convert.
(י) בֶּן נֹחַ שֶׁרָצָה לַעֲשׂוֹת מִצְוָה מִשְּׁאָר מִצְוֹת הַתּוֹרָה כְּדֵי לְקַבֵּל שָׂכָר. אֵין מוֹנְעִין אוֹתוֹ לַעֲשׂוֹתָהּ כְּהִלְכָתָהּ. וְאִם הֵבִיא עוֹלָה מְקַבְּלִין מִמֶּנּוּ. נָתַן צְדָקָה מְקַבְּלִין מִמֶּנּוּ. וְיֵרָאֶה לִי שֶׁנּוֹתְנִין אוֹתָהּ לַעֲנִיֵּי יִשְׂרָאֵל. הוֹאִיל וְהוּא נִזּוֹן מִיִּשְׂרָאֵל וּמִצְוָה עֲלֵיהֶם לְהַחְיוֹתוֹ. אֲבָל הָעַכּוּ''ם שֶׁנָּתַן צְדָקָה מְקַבְּלִין מִמֶּנּוּ וְנוֹתְנִין אוֹתָהּ לַעֲנִיֵּי עַכּוּ''ם:
(10) A non-Jew113One who had accepted the Seven Commandments, i.e. a Resident Convert. who wishes to perform another Torah Commandment114Other than learning Torah or observing Shabbos. (merely) in order to receive a reward is not prevented from so doing in the Halochically correct way.
https://www.jewishsouth.org/system/files/sjh_v._5_2002_lachoff.pdf