Sarah Richter

Format:
1. Part I: 5 Creative questions. opinion/ pick your own subject -25 points
2. Part II: 1 Essay on denominations (Reform, Conservative, Orthodoxy - know
differences between them) - 20 points
3. Part III: 7 matching -14 points
4. Part IV: 5 Quotes - who said it? Significance? 20 points
5. Part V: 21 MC - 21 points

Main difference between the two:

Responses to Emancipation:
● Abraham Mendelssohn
○ Son of moses
○ Basically the reason I converted you is bc
○ Diasm
● Heinrich Heine
○ ”the baptismal certificate is the ticket of admission to European culture”
○ Example of someone who converted to christianity
● Reform Judaism
○ Started with the Hamburg Temple which introduced seemingly modernate
changes
■ Only prayed once a week
○ Confirmation ceremony, choir, organ played by non jew
○ Becomes more radical and movement bc of →
● Samuel Holdheim
○ “The Talmud has no authority dogmatically or practically”
■ Science has determined that
■ Therefore it should be studied for a literary legacy
○ Says he has the authority just like the rabbis back in the day did
● Abraham Geiger
○ Most famous of reform rabbis
○ Calls for conferences of reform rabbis
● Reform Rabbinic conferences - decisions
○ Abolished Kol Nidrei bc its embarrassing and makes it look like we don't
keep our promises
○ Abolish extra day of holiday for Galut
 ○ German Reform Jews- We’re not a nation only a religion
■ “Berlin is our Jerusalem and Germany is our Zion”
○ Intermarrige is okay if you raise the children as jews
■ Patrilineal descent - only dad has to be Jewish
● They seem like such a large sect, but it’s because they
include so many ppl who aren’t even Halachically Jewish
○ Don't believe in Messiah of a person, but in the Messianic Era
○ Take out all mentions of Zion in prayers
■ (Were not Zionists initially, but now they claim they are)
○ Replace hebrew in siddur with German
○ Don’t need Brot Milah if you convert
○ Should we move Shabbat to sunday? (to be like other religions)
● Zecharya Frankel and conservative Judaism
○ AKA Historical Judaism
○ Was angered by the decisions of these conferences so he made his own
group
○ Completely observant and believed Halacha is Holy
○ “Judaism is the religion of the Jews”
■ Emphasizes Judaism as a nation unlike reform who says we are
only a religion not a nation
■ Missing mention of God - bc he believed in the power of the ppl to
create the holiness of Judaism
■ Theoretically then we the people can change halacha - even tho it’s
holy
○ “ History hallows halacha”
■ Most important part of making Halacha and Judaism Valid
■ This is the problem with conservative Judaism
○ “Law is a tradition of Moses from Sinai”
■ Can’t prove something happened but doesnt matter bc if we believe
that it happened, we keep it
● Exactly where consevative and orthodox differ
● Othrodox don't keep bc our mom did it, its because Hashem
commanded it
○ Conditions for change in Halacha:
■ Moderate
■ Will of the ppl
■ Majority
○ You can drive to shul and right back
 ● JTS
○ Jeiwsh Theological Seminary
○ Home and base for conservative Judaism
○ Was also a school in Germany for the C. rabbis
● Chatam Sofer
○ Ultra orthodox leader
○ “chadash assur min hatorah”
○ Can't change anything vc jews should be “Shalem” - shem lashon
malbush
○ Even if its permissible bc then you’ll be on a slippery slope to radical
changes
○ Aka moses schreiber
R. Samson Raphael Hirsch, neo-Orthodoxy:
● Torah is divine, obligated in Halacha
● Makes it new bc he believed you can combine Modernity and Judaism without
giving up anything in Judaism
● “Torah im Derech Eretz”
○ What combines the two: the way of the world - be a good person
○ Cant change anything in Torah
● “Jisroel - mensch”
○ The Dash is very important because you can’t break one from the other
○ Good relig jew was someone who was well rounded
● The nineteen letters
○ His book written in German - the lang the young ppl know
○ Exchange between rabbi and student who has difficult questions about
judaism
○ Gives the young ppl the belief they need
● Chorev
○ Book in German too
○ Every Mitzvah in Torah with its Symbolic meaning
○ Comprehensive Philosophy
○ Needed for Shatnez
● Austritt
○ Controversial
○ Secession of Othodox Jews from the Jewish Community
○ In germany there's a law that everyone must belong to a community
○ Hirsch is an orthodox jew who says he can’t remain in a community with
Reforms (“Apikorsim”) who are killing Judaism so he asks permission to
leave and creates his own Community
○ Becomes the model for other session communities
● Wissenschaft des Judentums:
○ We are losing people bc Jews don’t appreciate how rich our philosophy is
○ Let’s learn from an academic secular critical perspective
■ So they studied JH, Philosophy, Literature
● Graetz - scholar
○ One of the first historians
○ Looked at political, social, and economic forces that shape JH
● Steinschneider - scholar
○ First modern jeiwsh bibliographer
○ Organized lots of books
● Zunz - scholar
○ Founder of the movement
○ Writer on rabbinic themes and parts of JH
● History Syrian Jewish community:
● Aleppo vs Damascus
○ Aleppo - city of scholars
○ Damascus - businesses
● Dhimmi
○ “The protected people”
■ Muslims protected us because we believe in Allah
■ BUT we dont believe in Muhammad so we are second class and
can’t build our own things… etc
■ A lot of times jews ignored the laws so it wasn’t terrible
○ Better to be a jew living under Islam than Christians bc then we didn’t kill
their God
● Mustarab
○ Native Jews
● Spanish Jews in Syria
○ Came from spain
○ Snobby , thought they had better customs than Mustarab
○ Now they’re blended and not Hostile
● Dayan family
○ Prominent Mustarab family that ran things in Aleppo
● Aleppo Codex/ keter Aram Zova
○ Considered the most accurate version of the Torah that we currently have
○ Not the oldest (Dead sea Scrolls are)
○ Ramam uses it
○ First thought to be lost in Riots in 1947 but it was saved by Fahams
○ It shows up in israel with a bunch of sections missing
● Life in the “Hosh”
 ○ Jews lived in courtyard situation
○ Communal kitchen..
○ Had a Hosh even if you were wealthy
● Francos
○ Groups of businessman jews that came from Italy
● Piciottos
○ Came from Italy
○ Diplomats
○ Exempt from taxes
○ Consul generals in aleppo
● Chaim Farhi
○ Prominent member of a family who was a diplomat and businessman who
was close to the Sultan
○ “Farhi bible”
● Shabtai Zvi / impact on community
○ False Messiah who was a sephardic Jew from Turkey
○ Ended up converting to Islam
○ Some people still believe he was the Messiah - “The Donmeh”
○ Syrian “Lecha Dodi” is shorter than Ashkenaz
● Relationship to Muslim culture
○ Engaged in business together
● R. Hayim Vital
○ Famous sephardic rabbi
○ Famous mekubal buried in Damascus today
○ Taught Kabbalah based on his teacher the Arizal who didn’t write anything
down
● Not including this unit on test only aftermath of Holocaust
● DP camps
○ Jews placed in Displaced person’s camp
● Bricha
○ Largest mass illegal migration flight in history
○ Hagnah brought Jews to evade British Blockade in Palestine
○ Exodus 1947
■ One ship that failed
● Zionism/ State of Israel
● Zionism as combination of the old and the new
● Herzl -political Zionism
○ Saw solution to anti semitism through political means
○ Pick up and leave Europe and make our own state
● Kalisher and Alkali (Rabbis) - religiousZionism
 ○ Want a state but we are a religion too and have to keep torah
○ “Ein somchin al hanes”
■ Can’t wait for the miracle
■ Like Nachson Ben AMinadav
● British mandate/ White Papers
○ Made it hard for Jews to immigrate to Israel