Reform Judaism

[To appear in the CCAR Journal, Spring 2020] The inherent tension between Reform theology and halakhah is as foundational as it is enduring.  At the outset, early Reformers in Europe such as Abraham Geiger (1810-1874) focused less on the project of developing an evolving Reform halakhah and more on what they saw as the necessary transformations of Jewish life and prayer precisely because Jewish law had failed to allow for these transformations. While halakhic considerations --as well as the accompanying political and sociological considerations-- were certainly part of their thinking about the transformation of Judaism that these Reform thinkers led, they focused more on the philosophy of Judaism that would provide the foundation for it.  At its core, Reform Judaism sought the re-framing of Jewish life not by creating a new halakhah but, rather, primarily through the development of a new theology –through prayer and practice-- for a Judaism that could thrive in the modern world. ...Although later thinkers inherited the texts of rationalists of early Reform thought some mid-twentieth century American Reform thinkers, attracted to the existentialism of Buber and Rosenzweig, began once again to consider the place of God and halakhah in Jewish thought. However, for the most part, leaders of the Reform movement retained a primary focus on the adaptation of Judaism to modern life in America as the fulfillment of their Jewish duty and wanted it to allow them to be fully American.....

In: Martin Baumeister, Philipp Lenhard, Ruth Nattermann (ed.): Rethinking the Age of Emancipation. Comparative and Transnational Perspectives on Gender, Family, and Religion in Italy and Germany, 1800–1918. New York, Oxford: Berghahn, 2020, S. 139-162.

המושג "הדתה" נעשה בשנתיים האחרונות אחת הכותרות הנפוצות בכלי התקשורת וברשתות החברתיות, והוא מעורר פולמוס ציבורי כשמתגלות תופעות של הטמעת רעיונות ופרקטיקות יהודיים דתיים במוסדות ציבוריים ובארגונים ממלכתיים.
חדירת שיח ונורמות הלכתיים למערכת החינוך ולמסדרונות צה"ל, לצד תופעות של משטור ופיקוח דתיים במרחב הציבורי, חושפים מהלכים פוליטיים רחבים של קבוצות כוח ואת הניסיון העיקש שלהן לקבוע את צביונו הדתי של הסדר החברתי בישראל.
במאמר זה אני טוען שהדתה עשויה להתרחש גם במסגרת שאינה זו ההלכתית המוכרת, אלא זו של תנועה דתית הממוקמת בשוליה של החברה הישראלית – התנועה הרפורמית. באמצעות ניתוח איכותני־אתנוגרפי של פעילות המכינה הקדם־צבאית למנהיגות יהודית מתקדמת ביפו אדגים כיצד מובנת הדתה זו דרך ביצוע ריטואלים דתיים יום־יומיים, לימוד טקסטים מן המקורות והפקת
פרקטיקות ציבוריות במרחב עירוני משותף. על אף שיסודותיה של הבניה זו הם ערכי הליברליזם, חופש הבחירה והסובלנות הדתית, ועל אף שהיא ניצבת מול התעצמותם של רעיונות ותופעות של הדרה, פיקוח וכפייה דתית־לאומנית במרחב הציבורי, למעשה אין ההבניה חפה משעתוק יחסי הכוח בחברה. הטמעתם של ערכים מערביים־ליברליים מתגלה במאמר כפרקטיקה של כוח, גם אם היא
מבוצעת על ידי קבוצה חברתית שסובלת בעצמה מדה־לגיטימציה. מחד גיסא ביצוע ריטואלים שונים בכותלי המכינה ומחוצה לה חושף את החניכים ליהדות הרפורמית ומחמש אותם בערכיה, ומאידך גיסא הפעילות מעוררת גם הסתייגות לא מבוטלת וגם את התנגדותם של תושבי יפו הפלסטינים מעצם מיקומה של מכינה קדם־צבאית במרחב בין־דתי טעון.

מילות מפתח: הדתה, יהדות רפורמית, מכינה קדם־צבאית, יפו

Öz 18. yüzyılda yaşayan Alman Yahudi filozof Moses Mendelssohn Yahudi dinine yönelik bir modernizasyon görüşü geliştirerek, Avrupa Yahudi tarihinde yeni bir dönem başlatmıştır. Mendelssohn modernizasyonu önünde engel olarak gördüğü dini otorite ve onun dayandığı dini literatüre yönelik eleştirilerde bulunmuştur. Bu sebeple Mendelssohn ve hareketinin geleneksel Yahudilik çizgisinden ayrılarak reformist bir karaktere büründüğü iddia edilmiş ve Heinrich Heine gibi bazıları da Mendelssohn'u Hıristiyan reform hareketini başlatan Martin Luther'e benzetmiştir. Çalışma, dini otoriteye karşı sergilenen tutum ve Kutsal Kitab'a yapılan vurgu noktasında iki şahsiyetin benzer yönlerine dikkat çekerken, önemli farklılıkları da ihmal etmeyerek böyle bir karşılaştırmanın ne derece isabetli olduğunu ortaya koymaya çalışmaktadır. Abstract German Jewish Philosopher Mendelssohn, who lived in the 18th century developing a vision for the modernization of jewish religious, ushered in a new age in European Jewish History. Seen as an obstacle to Mendelssohn's modernization criticized religious authority and literature which it is based. For his reason, has been claimed that Mendelssohn and his movement separated from the line of traditional Judaism has taken a reformist character and have compared some people also like Heinrich Heine Mendelssohn to Luther, who started Christian reform movement. The study while taking care of the two figure's similar aspects in point of attitudes towards religious authority and the emphasis on the Bible, by not neglecting to important differences is trying to reveal how accurate such a comparison to be made between two figures.

Roland B. Gittelsohn, the first Navy rabbi assigned with U.S. Marines, served in the Pacific during World War II.  In his wartime memoir, written in 1946 but only published in 2021, he related his odyssey from doctrinaire pacifist to "pacifist no more," his training, and his ministry to Marines and sailors on Iwo Jima.  His sermon at the dedication of the 5th Marine Division cemetery riveted all Americans, even though it would only be heard by a small gathering that day.  Woven though his account are reflections on morale, service, leadership, and interfaith understanding.  Donald M. Bishop edited the volume, which includes a foreword by Rear Admiral Harold Robinson, Chaplain Corps, U.S. Navy (Retired) and a preface by Ronit Y. Stahl, Assistant Professor of History at the University of California, Berkeley.  (Copies of the print book may be ordered from the Marine Corps University Press at no cost. Email mcu_press@usmcu.edu.

An English version is to be found under "Articles in English"

מטרת המאמר היא לפרוס את השאלות והעניינים העיקריים שניסרו בחללה של היצירה הליטורגית ביהדות-הרפורמית המתונה יחסית באירופה וברפורמה-הקלאסית והרדיקלית בארצות-הברית ולהשוותה לזו שנוצרת בעשורים האחרונים. מטבע הדברים, לא נוכל למצות את ריבוי האנפין הספרותי, התיאולוגי והאידיאולוגי. בכל תנועה בין-לאומית, רב-תרבותית ורב-דורית יש גיוון תיאורטי וטקסטואלי. קל וחומר ביהדות-הרפורמית, שמראשית היווצרה ביקשה להיענות באופן דתי וקהילתי לצרכי המקום והשעה, ואשר בה לַמזג ולסגנון האישי יש תפקיד חשוב. ריבוי האנפין ביהדות הרפורמית, הלך רוח תרבותי (Weltanschauung), אשר הוא בן כמעט מאתיים שנה, ואשר התגבש לתנועה מאורגנת שקהילותיה פועלות בחמש יבשות תבל, מקנדה ועד ישראל ומדרום אפריקה ועד הונג-קונג הוא רב מאד ודומה, שהצגת החומר הוא דבר שבעתו.

Bibliography and Developments in Progressive Jewish Liturgy, 1967-2015
After the complete bibliography of prayer books and liturgical material used in European congregations this article analyses the changes and specific developments in European Jewish liturgy since 1967.

Gotthard Deutsch (1859–1921) taught at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati from 1891 until his death, where he produced a card index of 70,000 ‘facts’ of Jewish history. This article explores the biography of this artefact of research and poses the following question: Does Deutsch’s index constitute a great unwritten work of history, as some have claimed, or are the cards ultimately useless ‘chips from his workshop’? It may seem a curious relic of positivistic history, but closer examination allows us to interrogate the materiality of scholarly labor. The catalogue constitutes a total archive and highlights memory’s multiple registers, as both a prosthesis for personal recall and a symbol of a ‘human encyclopedia’. The article argues that this mostly forgotten scholar’s work had surprising repercussions: Deutsch’s student Jacob Rader Marcus (1896–1995) brought his teacher’s emphasis on facticity to the field of American Jewish history that he pioneered, catapulting a 19th-century positivism to the threshold of the 21st century. Deutsch’s index was at an inflection point of knowledge production, created as his- torians were shifting away from ‘facts’ but just before new technologies (also based on cards) enabled ‘big data’ on a larger scale. The article thus excavates a vision of mon- umentality but proposes we look past these objects as monuments to ‘heroic’ scho- larship. Indeed, Deutsch’s index is massive but middling, especially when placed alongside those of Niklas Luhmann, Paul Otlet, or Gershom Scholem. It thus presents a necessary corrective to anointing such indexes as predecessors to the Internet and big data because we must keep their problematic positivism in perspective.

Throughout generations, various prayers have been composed to express religious and cultural experiences of the Jewish community, such as holidays life-cycle and national tragedies. However, some social issues, such as sexual assault, have been excluded from this canon. This article uncovers Jewish prayers and liturgical texts dedicated to female victims of sexual assault. Drawing on a qualitative inquiry based on content analysis and interviews with the prayers' authors, I demonstrate how these texts (re)position sexual assault victims in Jewish liturgy by including new phrasings and references to God; by removing masculine violence related to God; by mentioning biblical female characters who experienced sexual harassment; by denouncing of patriarchal abuse; or by sanctifying the woman's painful body, which is incorporated as an important agent in the ritual's structure. Therefore, I suggest considering these texts a political mean to voice women's traumas and to incorporate them into the religious sphere, thereby rectifying a long-silenced discourse.

In 1983, the Central Conference of American Rabbis—the North American organization of Reform rabbis—passed a resolution that upended the traditional understanding of how Jewish status was transmitted. Officially described as resolution regarding “The Status of Children of Mixed Marriages,” it is colloquially known as the decision on “patrilineal descent.” In this paper, I briefly outline the origins and fallout of the patrilineal descent resolution and address several responsa that are directly linked to its interpretation of Jewish identity and its relationship to giyur.

This is a comparative study of German and Hungarian Jewry, assessing the role of the  Haskalah and Religious Reform, two movements emanating from Germany, had on Hungarian Jewry at the end of the 18th and first half of the 19th centuries. German Jewry set a precedent that could not be ignored, but Hungarian Jewry also gained a perspective on the historical experience of German Jewry that created the possibility to adopt, modify and also reject these two movements. The specific context of Hungary, situated within the Habsburg monarchy, also determined the specific role that the German Jewish influence had in modernizing Hungarian Jewry as opposed to the role of enlightened absolutism. Vienna also played a mediating role in moderating German Reform's impact on Hungarian Jewry. And finally, the role of Hungarian nationalism is assessed.

A late Habad text attributed to Rabbi Yosef Yitshak Schneerson speaks of the Maskilim in the following way: "All the Maskilic writers, their students, and their students' students take every chance to disparage the honor of Hasidism and its princes (that is, Habad) and to belittle the value of their service to the ethical and financial good of the Jewish people."  Even though some Maskilim did see Habad as a particularly dangerous form of Hasidism, it is hard to accept the impression left by Habad historiography that the Maskilim saw only the negative elements of Habad -- in fact they presented the group in a decidedly and uniquely positive light -- even if their own motives in doing so were clear. The portrayal of Habad in Maskilic literature is important on three counts: first, because these images commanded a central place within the self-consciousness of Maskilim over different periods; second, because the Hasidic movement itself adopted certain elements of those Maskilic portrayals; and third, because these portrayals influenced -- and continue to influence -- scholarly understandings of Hasidism. The Article presents a few of those images who frequently appear throughout the nineteenth century.

The main purpose of this study is to reconstruct the conceptions of Judaism as presented in the selected writings of Joseph Soloveitchik, Mordecai Kaplan, Solomon Schechter and David Philipson. The choice of the authors is based on the criteria of contemporaneousness and the range of intellectual impact, meaning that their works were published in the twentieth century and had inspired the following generations of writers and thinkers. Most importantly, these thinkers were chosen to represent the early development stages of the main four currents in modern Judaism. Soloveitchik’s answer to modernity is constituted upon the identification of Judaism with following the halakhah whereas its ultimate goal is bringing the holiness down to the world. Kaplan leaves the idea of religion for the sake of identifying Judaism with civilization and by means of the latter term and secular translation of the core ideas he tries to embrace as many notions of Judaism as possible. Schechter’s Judaism was identical with the tradition understood as the interpretation of Torah, in itself being the history of the constant updates and adjustment of the Law performed by means of the creative interpretation. Philipson draws the outlines of the Reform movement in Judaism by opposing it to the rabbinical approach and thus comes to the conclusions similar to that of the Conservative movement. All of the presented solutions can be furthermore compared basing on several criteria: the value of the tradition, the cultural and religious flexibility and the past-future orientation.

Kabbalat Shabbat (Welcoming the Sabbath) is a traditional Jewish ritual marking the transition between the profane weekday and the holy Shabbat. Reform Jewish communities maintain this practice with certain ritualistic and textual revisions, in order to include gender and sexual categories previously excluded from mainstream traditional Jewish texts and rituals.
This ethnographic article analyzes the particular LGBTQ
Kabbalat Shabbat. By creating unique rituals to mark phenomena of both oppression and exclusion, on the one hand, and of love and acceptance, on the other, the Reform congregation emerges as a religious safe space. I argue that those rituals dedicated to and constructed by the LGBTQ community function as a performance of affirmation and empower of gender and sexual identities.
This egalitarian performance fosters a shared political discourse for promoting the struggle for equal rights, through a new religious practice.

Redemption is an umbrella construct for a variety of eschatological ideas in classical Jewish thought, incorporating: a messiah, descended from the House of David; the ingathering of the Jewish exiles in the Land of Israel; the reestablishment of the priestly cult in a rebuilt Temple in Jerusalem; an era of peace and universal knowledge of the God of Israel; retribution against the enemies of Israel; and the resurrection of the dead. Although all these ideas did not necessarily coexist simultaneously in the thought of individual Jewish philosophers throughout the ages, each notion appears in various contexts in the traditional Jewish prayerbook.
Modernity challenged each of these ideas in a variety of ways, and the responses to those challenges were expressed on the pages of Reform prayerbooks, first in Europe and then in America. While the development of Reform liturgy has been the subject of many studies, the theological underpinnings that have shaped contemporary prayerbooks have not been well analyzed. This thesis explores the treatment of three of those themes—the personal messiah, the ingathering of exiles, and the resurrection of the dead—as they appeared in Reform prayerbooks, culminating in Mishkan T’filah, the official liturgy for the American Reform Jewish community in the first part of the twenty-first century. The rationalist confidence of the nineteenth century gave way to doubt, a limited rediscovery of Jewish particularism, and a desire to welcome a plurality of theologies by the second half of the twentieth century. In Mishkan T’filah, we observe a modest recovery of some of these classical, non-rational modes of Jewish eschatology, filtered through the prism of all that came before it.

"A Brand Plucked from the Fire: The Life of Rabbi Herman E. Schaalman," published in 2013 by KTAV Publishing House, tells the life story of one of the most respected Reform Jewish rabbis of the twentieth century. Schaalman, who died in January 2017 at the age of one-hundred, was the oldest surviving rabbi of his time.

Having been born in 1916 in Munich, Germany, Schaalman knew at an early age that he wanted to become a rabbi. In 1935 while a rabbinic student at Berlin’s Lehranstalt Für Die Wissenschaft
Des Judentums, he received a scholarship to attend Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati. After his ordination in 1941, and a eight-year stint as a rabbi in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, he was hired as the Midwest Regional Director of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations. In 1956, he was appointed senior rabbi of Chicago’s famed Emanuel Congregation. For the rest of this rabbinate, he worked to bring about tolerance and trust among religious peoples of all faiths.

In 1981, he was elected president of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the worldwide association of Reform Rabbis. During the same decade, he and Chicago’s Archbishop Cardinal Joseph Bernardin became close friends and together established the Council of Religious Leaders of Metropolitan Chicago. Within two years of its founding, Rabbi Schaalman became its president. Since its founding, the organization has grown to include all recognized religious groups in metropolitan Chicago.

In1989, Rabbi Schaalman was instrumental in forming the Council of the Parliament of World Religions, an international organization of religious leaders from around the world. From its headquarters on Lake Street, the Council planned the 1993 Parliament of World Religions conference in Chicago attended by more than 8,000 people.

Throughout Rabbi Schaalman’s career, he has received many honors for his contributions to interfaith work both in the United States and worldwide. He served as a member of the Education Committee of the National Holocaust Memorial, and, as part of his commitment to interreligious understanding and the promotion of a peaceful world, he has been a Trustee on the Board of the Millennium Institute. In 1991, the president of Germany honored him with the award of the Order of Merit, First Class. The International Council of Christians and Jews (ICCJ) gives Schaalman its highest honor, Interfaith Gold Medallion—Peace Through Dialogue; the Chicago Theological Seminary (CTS), in recognition of his lifetime involvement in interfaith activities established an academic chair in Jewish studies.

Among his many honors are: his induction into the Jewish Community Centers Hall of Fame; his Doctor of Hebrew Letters awarded by Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies for his contributions in fostering strong Jewish participation in interfaith dialogue and activity and in pioneering the Jewish camping experience; the prestigious Order of Lincoln Award from the Lincoln Academy of Illinois for his exceptional effort to advance religious knowledge and understanding among citizens of different religious persuasions.

In addition, he has played a leadership role as a vice president the World Union for Progressive Judaism and the Association of Reform Zionists of America.  In that same year, the Jewish Community Centers of Chicago named him its 1991 honoree for its Hall of Fame. In the ceremony, Rabbi Alexander Schindler, President of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations congratulated him for his years of service to the Jewish community and acknowledged Schaalman’s leadership as a “superb example” and “total commitment to our people and our faith.”

Among the many other noteworthy awards he has received in Chicago for his interfaith work are the coveted Richard Alschuler Award from the American Jewish Congress; the Award of Laureate in Ecumenical and Inter-religious Affairs conferred by the Archdiocese of Chicago; the Julius Rosenwald Memorial Award from the Jewish Federation of Chicago; an Honorary Doctorate from Chicago’s Catholic Theological Union; and the Graham Taylor Award from Chicago Theological Seminary for his outstanding lifetime dedication to a life of “selfless service, mercy and justice for all.”

"The Gang of Five" is a sequel to my biography, "A Brand Plucked from the Fire." This new book tells the story of how he and four other German rabbinic students made the difficult transition from Nazi Germany to America to become major leaders in 20th century Reform Judaism.

"The Gang of Five" tells the story of how W. Gunther Plaut, Wolli Kaelter, Alfred Wolf, and Leo Lichtenberg, and Herman Schaalman became leaders in Reform Judaism and offers an assessment of their contributions to its development in the second half of the 20th century. The book pays tribute to and ensures that the contributions of these rabbis would not be neglected or forgotten.

The story of these amazing rabbis began in late August 1935 when five rabbinic students left their homeland to travel to an unknown land and to new experiences they had never dreamed of. Their departure was an appointment with destiny. For “The Gang of Five,” as they came to be known by their Hebrew Union College student colleagues, the experience of coming to America turned out to be transformative not only for them but for American Reform Judaism. In the last half of the 20th century, they helped shape the development of Reform Judaism.

Their contributions helped write the history of 20th century Reform Judaism. Karl Richter wrote: “Over the years, Leo Lichtenberg, Wolli Kaelter, Herman Schaalman, W. Gunther Plaut, and Alfred Wolf would have a remarkable impact, attaining prominence as rabbis, scholars, and community leaders.” At the same time, they, too, were radically transformed by their training as Reform rabbis, a transformation that allowed them to become part of the Reform establishment as well as agents of change.

[German version of this essay can be found under "Essays in German"]

Gender related issues have been discussed in liberal Judaism in North America since the seventies and are probably the most heated topic in contemporary Jewish liturgy and worship. This article discusses the unique challenges of gender language in Israeli Reform liturgy over the last two decades: inclusive language when referring to the congregation; adding representative female characters; reclaiming and adapting old rituals; creating new rituals; gender-balanced metaphors for God. Arguably the greatest challenge is altering the pronounced gender specification of the Hebrew language. The article delineates the parameters of gender language in Israeli liturgy, where the vernacular is both the Holy language and the language of the prayer.

Passing Through Divinity is a research project looking at the discrimination religious trans women face and how religiosity can be a factor for resiliency. The process included interviews with six religious transsexual and transgender women (five participants and the researcher) living in Southern Ontario. The focus was to discuss the transmisogyny, the hatred and widespread discrimination against trans women, and religious discrimination they experience as well
as how religiosity helped trans women challenge oppression. The participants came from Santeria, Reform Jewish, Christian (Anglican, Deaf Church, Quaker) and Heathen communities. The aim of my research is to build knowledge for understanding the various ways that religion can allow trans women to resist oppression and exploring how that knowledge can be used by social service professionals to better provide support for other trans women.

This draft chapter provides text-based evidence, drawn from publicly available documents, to enable Western readers to have possession of texts and commentary which some Muslims in the Middle East, or elsewhere, would say are important to understand Muslim resistance and opposition to the State of Israel.  From original German language texts written by the "Father of the State of Israel," to real historical problems with the so-called "Balfour Declaration," to manipulations by many Zionists up to, during, and after the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, to a virtually-unknown public Jewish-American Opposition of the formation of any Zionist State--published in the New York Times, with the text and names of these powerful American Jews standing up against Zionists IN the Wilson Government, this chapter has many elements of real historical important.  It is a rough draft, but it has many substantive areas of content.