Reform Movements in Europe and the United States
The European Enlightenment, and the revolutionary political changes it inspired, affected Judaism in various ways, but its most direct influence can be seen in the early stages of the Reform movement in the first decades of the nineteenth century.
Beginning in Germany, where admirers of Moses Mendelssohn called for the political “emancipation” of European Jews and their gradual assimilation to Western society, the idea of “reforming” Judaism drew support both from lay community leaders and from a younger generation of rabbis who had been permitted to receive a university education. From the outset, the Reform movement sought to accomplish two goals: first, the modernization of Jewish thought and ritual practice, and second, the acculturation of Jews to the secular culture of nineteenth-century Europe and America. As in any “reformation,” however, a split soon developed between those who were determined to achieve these objectives by radical means and those who were not.At first, reformers seemed content with largely ceremonial innovations, insisting, for example, that rabbinic sermons be delivered in the vernacular language of the nation in which they were living (rather than in Yiddish, the Germanic language of European Jews) or that men and women be permitted to sit together in synagogue during religious services (as opposed to separate seating, which had been the norm for hundreds of years). By the 1840s, however, the demands of the more aggressive reformers became increasingly anti-traditionalist and theologically innovative, as reformist rabbis increasingly embraced the idea of Judaism as an evolving religious culture. All of these changes were opposed vigorously by more traditionalist rabbis, who, from this time forward, came to be described as “Orthodox” religious authorities.
Reform Judaism
This more radical type of reformist thinking flourished in the United States after the Civil War.
By the late 1880s, Rabbi Kaufmann Kohler (1843-1926) had drafted a set of principles and objectives—known today as “The Pittsburgh Platform of 1885”—that defined the “essence” of Judaism for Kohler and many of his reformist contemporaries. The most important features of this “platform” can be found in its most negative statements, namely, that the Reform movement rejected the biblical idea of a direct, finite, and exclusive revelation from God—the traditional understanding of the concept of Torah. The reformists opted instead for the concept of an evolving (and therefore universal) revelation, an idea that was easily gleaned from the writings of Moses Mendelssohn. This way, Kohler and his colleagues were able to renounce the dietary code and all other forms of “Mosaic legislation” deemed unacceptable to the Reform rabbinate (such as circumcision and rigorous Sabbath observance) on the grounds that they were “not adapted to the views and habits of modern civilization.” And in language designed specifically to suppress any sympathy for Jewish aspirations to return to the historic land of Israel, the Pittsburgh Platform declared boldly that the Jews were no longer a nation and therefore no longer desired to return to, or to restore, a nation-state in Palestine.Conservative Judaism However acceptable these innovations may have seemed to those American Jews who identified with the Reform movement, they were clearly unacceptable to the overwhelming majority of European Jews who began to immigrate to the United States in rapidly increasing numbers during the last two decades of the nineteenth century and the first decade of the twentieth century. As the Jewish population of America increased exponentially, the religious diversity of that community increased as well. By the middle of the twentieth century, the American Jewish community found itself largely divided into three movements: Reform, Orthodox, and Conservative. Of these three, the Conservative movement had emerged, by the 1950s, as the Reform movement’s principal rival, and its appeal can be explained, historically, as a “counterreformation” both within and outside of the Reform movement itself.
Thus, for those Jews who were initially drawn to reformist ideals but who found the more extreme changes advocated by the early Reform movement distasteful, Conservative Judaism offered a more moderate departure from traditional (or what is now called “Orthodox”) beliefs and practices. Like their Reform counterparts, Conservative rabbis acknowledged the evolutionary character of Judaism and embraced the need for substantive change; unlike the leading reformists, however, they were not willing to abandon either principles of faith or religious behaviors that had defined Judaism for many centuries. The result was the formation of a “third way” of responding to the challenges facing Judaism in the modem era, in which a high level of adaptation to secular culture was combined with a selective relaxation of halacha.
In its formative stages, however, the most obvious difference between Conservative Judaism and its Reform and Orthodox counterparts was the public support of both its rabbis and laity for Zionism. Throughout its more than 100-year existence, the Conservative movement has been a fervent advocate for both the formation of a Jewish nation-state in what is now Israel and for the emigration of American Jews to this state.
Reconstructionist Judaism
One of the most important offshoots of Conservative Judaism first emerged in America in the 1930s. Known today as Reconstructionism, this new school of thought centered on the teachings of Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan (1881-1983). By the 1960s, however, the Reconstructionists had formally separated themselves from Conservative Judaism, first by writing their own prayer book and later by establishing their own rabbinical seminary. Though few in number, Reconstructionists have had a far-reaching effect on the thought and religious practices of non-Orthodox Judaism in the United States.
Philosophically, Reconstructionism occupies a position somewhere between Conservatism and Reform. Unlike their Reform counterparts, Reconstructionists held firm to the concept of Jewish nationhood; in fact, for Mordecai Kaplan, the idea that Jews constituted a separate and distinctive civilization was central to his belief system.
What followed from that assumption was a desire to retain as many traditional “folkways”—which was Kaplan’s way of referring to such ritual practices as the dietary code and circumcision—as modern Jews found meaningful. As a consequence, the Reconstructionist movement tended to place greater emphasis on the historical continuity of religious customs than did Reform Judaism.At the same time, Reconstructionism developed a much more naturalistic conception of God than either Conservativism or Reform was willing to support. For Kaplan and his followers, God could no longer be thought of as a noun—that is, as a metaphysical “entity,” separate from humanity—but rather as the expression of whatever moral and spiritual potential human beings possess in their search for holiness and righteousness. Kaplan’s virtual abandonment of the traditional concept of divine transcendence signaled a dramatic break with the Orthodox faith in which he was raised.
For many Jews, Reconstructionist theology seemed to be a contradiction in terms: lacking a true Judaic concept of God, it could be nothing more than a disguised form of secular humanism, and as such, a heretical rejection of Torah. Kaplan’s defenders, however, insisted that, as an “evolving religious civilization,” Judaism’s understanding of God and of the covenant would have to change as well, and in the process absorb contemporary scientific views of the cosmos and of the human mind.
The Varieties of Modern Judaism
Practice of Halacha
ORTHODOXY: Strict observance of halacha, allowing for limited adaptation to changing conditions of life (Sabbath, family purity, and dietary laws).
CONSERVATISM: Serious commitment to observance of halacha, combined with a significant degree of adaptation to changing circumstances of modern life.
REFORM: Liberal view of halacha, generally regarding Sabbath and dietary laws as optional observances.
RECONSTRUCTIONISM: A respectful but liberal view of halacha, coupled with a view of religious practices as “folkways” and facets of Judaism as a civilization.
Gender Separation
ORTHODOXY: Gender separation and differentiation: separate seating for women in synagogue; opposition to rabbinic ordination of women.
CONSERVATISM: Rejection of gender separation and differentiation; mixed seating in synagogue and ordination of women.
REFORM: Rejection of all forms of gender separation and differentiation; first to ordain women as rabbis and eager adoption of the Bat Mitzvah.
RECONSTRUCTIONISM: Rejection of all gender separation and differentiation; ordains women as rabbis and first movement to support the Bat Mitzvah.
Hebrew Language
ORTHODOXY: Retention of Hebrew as language of prayer and strict adherence to traditional prayer routines.
CONSERVATISM: Retention of Hebrew as the language of prayer and preservation of most traditional prayer routines coupled with innovative practices (e.g., Bat Mitzvah).
REFORM: Initial opposition to use of Hebrew prayers changes in the course of the twentieth century to greater enthusiasm.
RECONSTRUCTIONISM: Retention of many traditional Hebrew prayers combined with an interest in innovative expressions of faith in English.
Zionism and Israel
ORTHODOXY: Some ambivalence toward Israel; fervent opposition toward secular Zionism.
CONSERVATISM: Enthusiastic support of Zionism and Israel.
REFORM: Initially opposed to Zionism, but support increased during the twentieth century.
RECONSTRUCTIONISM: Intense interest in Jewish “peoplehood” and enthusiastic support for cultural and political Zionism.
Torah
ORTHODOXY: “Torah True”: belief in divine revelation at Sinai and in rabbinic interpretation of Torah.
CONSERVATISM: “Positive-Historical” Judaism: belief in divine inspiration of scriptures and acceptance of historical process in the formation of halacha.
REFORM: “Progressive Judaism” committed to an evolutionary view of Jewish belief and religious practice.
RECONSTRUCTIONISM: “Humanistic Judaism” rooted in the belief that Torah is the expression of the religious creativity of the Jewish people.
Afterlife, Redemption, and the Soul
ORTHODOXY: Literal belief in the afterlife, immortality of the soul, resurrection of the dead, messianic redemption of Israel and the world.
CONSERVATISM: Generally, nonliteral belief in the afterlife, immortality of the soul, and resurrection of the dead.
REFORM: Skeptical view of any literal belief in divine revelation, afterlife, resurrection of the dead; figurative view of immortality of the soul and messianic redemption.
RECONSTRUCTIONISM: Generally, agnostic view of any belief in a personal God, combined with a fervent belief in the creative potential of human beings.