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Reform Judaism

Reform Judaism. Haskalah: Age of Jewish Enlightenment Moses Mendelssohan (1729 -1786) Influenced a group of German Jews who were rethinking the relationship between Judaism and modernity. End of judicial power of local rabbis Liturgy in the local vernacular (German)

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Reform Judaism

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  1. Reform Judaism • Haskalah: Age of Jewish Enlightenment • Moses Mendelssohan (1729 -1786) • Influenced a group of German Jews who were rethinking the relationship between Judaism and modernity.

  2. End of judicial power of local rabbis • Liturgy in the local vernacular (German) • Introduction of musical instruments • Adoption of Christian traditions • Nominal adherence to Sabbath regulations • Diminished Nationalistic ideals • Emphasis on social action 

  3. Judaism as evolving change • Is there then nothing but change? Is change the end of all our history and all our striving? No. there is something else, the desire to be free…In the end the Jew has always understood that changelessness is spiritual death. The Jew who would live must never completely surrender himself to one truth, but …must reach out for the farther and faith horizons of an ever Great God…This is the meaning of Reform. Jacob Rader Marcus (Reform advocate)

  4. Institutions and literature • Union of American Hebrew Congregations (UAHC) 1873 • Hebrew Union College in 1875 • Union Prayer Book in 1895 • Gates of Prayer 1975 • Gates of Repentance 1978

  5.  Current Trends •  More Hebrew • Gender Neutral God language • Continued emphasis on social action • Renewed interest on Spirituality • Between 1940 and 1080 the number of congregation sdoubled in the United States

  6. Conservative Judaism • Dissatisfaction with orthodoxy's rejection of scientific method, and the Reforms rejection of Jewish nationalism and its willingness to ignore mitzvoth when it pleased them • Zacharias Frankel thought there were important traditions to keep • He offered Positive Historical Judaism • Jewish Theological Seminary. JTS in New York City • Solomon Schecter becomes president • Largest branch of American Judaism • 1955 women are allowed to come to the bimah to read Torah • In 1973 women are counted toward a minyan and in 1983 the first female students attend JTS

  7. Reconstructionsim • Unknown outside of US • Founder Rabbi Mordechai Kaplan (1881) • Judaism as a religious civilization • Sacred texts are not divine but the creation of the Jewish people • Democratic • Kaplan created the first bat mitzvah for 12 yr old girls • Conservative in practice, but their prayer book Kol Haneshama rejects the concept of the Jews as the Chosen people and the idea of a personal messiah 

  8. Political Challenges Today • Does Israeli identity serve to define Jewish identity? • Should Judaism be the established religion of the state, and what should be the status of the religious minorities? • Should the state be governed by Jewish law? • Or if there is a conflict between Jewish law and the law of the state, how should it be resolved? • Do Jews in the diaspora owe a loyalty to Israel? • Is there an obligation on all Jews to settle in Israel?

  9. Social Challenges Today • What are the limits of permissible assimilation? • A question of observance? • Relationship with other faith traditions

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