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Contemporary Forms of Judaism Dana Evan Kaplan Cambridge Jewish History, Religion, and EDITED BY Judi th R. Baskin University ofOregon Kenneth Seeskin Northwestern University CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS LEORA BATNITZKY . H ver NH: University T 2004. Expanding the Palace ofTr_ ora h·. Orthodoxy and Feminism. ano ' . Ross, amar. d orar Judaism. Press of New Englan . A h 'tz· Histon~ Theology, and Contemp ./11 R benstein, Ric. h ar d · 1992 · Alfter use. wt. ./· 18 u Bal timme Johns Hopkins Unive_r;uy ;;~ss;,,ann Cohct!s 'Religion.of Re,,on out of t~e so;'; Schwarzschild, Steven S. 1?~2. "~Re Tit e out :; the Sources ofJudaism, trans. Simon Kap an, - . f] d . ,,, In Religion OJ eason o 'J o u aism. 2)· 5-29. Contemporary Forms ofJudaism New York: Fredenck Ungar. " Ti d't'on-AJournal ofOrthodox Thought 6 ( . h 1964 "Confrontat10n. ra t t . Soloveitchik, Josep . ) ".1 d 1 hia· Jewish Publication Society. 1983 Halakhic Man. 1 hi a e p . bl d Dana Evan Kaplan 1992'. The Lonely Man ofFaith. New York: Df~ ~:~for the Perplexed." In Persecution and the Art "Th L" ry Character o e u . p. Strauss, Leo. 1950. e nera -94 Chicago: University of Chicago ress. ofWriting, ed. Leo Strauss, 3~ . ica o· University of Chicago Press. nneth Hart 1965. Spinoza's Critique ofReli~:on. Ch. h ~hilosophy and the Crisis ofModernzry, ed. Ke "Wh We Remain Jews. lnJewts k p ss . 1997. 3{1 358 Albany: State University ofNew Y~r ~de . N Haven CT: Yale University Jewish religious practice in the twenty-first century exists in many different Green, - . d . t the Code of Maimom es. ~ ew ' Twersky, Isadore. 1980. Intro uctton o forms. This essay describes the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century origins of this Press. diversity and discusses the evolution and contemporary manifestations of Reform, Conservative, Reconstructionist, and Orthodox Judaisms, as well as other less prominent Jewish groups, in North America. Contemporary forms ofJewish life in Israel are also discussed. 0 GINS OF CONTEMP JUDAISMS Modern Judaism developed out ofthe Jewish Enlightenment (Haskalah) and polit­ ical emancipation, twin processes that deeply affected the Jews of Western and Central Europe and eventually Eastern Europe as well. As a result of diverse factors that developed in the Early Modern period, a relatively monolithic Judaism began to fragment in the course of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. During these years, increasing numbers of Western and Central European Jews became more involved in European economic, social, and cultural life. In some locations, Jews received political rights that emancipated their communities from centuries of political and economic restrictions. While some Jews continued to believe in and observe their religion in a traditional manner, others, who were becoming more acculturated to the larger society, began to discard ritual practices. Some families continued to share a Sabbath meal or perhaps attend synagogue occasionally, particularly on the Days ofAwe and the three pilgrimage festivals. Others dropped all Jewish observances, believing that they conflicted with life in modern European society. Many Jews also converted to Christianity; frequently for pragmatic rather than theological reasons, as complete political emancipation took a long time to materialize. Conversion to Christianity was the most effective way of evading the many social prejudices directed at Jews and of taking advantage of new economic and professional opportunities.1 Traditional European Jewish society had been controlled by community rab­ bis, who followed the halakhic system ofJewish law, which dictated behavior not Sorkin (1999). 444 445 CONTEMPORARY FORMS OF JUDAISM DANA EVAN KAPLAN . e~ facet of life. Although the community to Judaism while becoming more acculturated into German society. By 1840s, only in the ntual realm but ~so m ev h yl al J he had a great deal of religious however, there were a substantial number of rabbinic leaders who identified rabbi did not exert civil authority o~er t e ode dsewA%er political emancipation, the themselves with Reform views on the religious issues of the day. Abraham Geiger bl to enforce stnct stan ar . contro1 and was a e . h d nd then dissipated. The Jewish com- (1810-1874) became the best-known leader of the moderate reformers, and Samuel authority of rabbinic leadership :~:;n~s i:t~·nal solidarity and external hostility, Holdheim (1806-1860) became the leader of the more extreme faction. Each of munity was no longer held tog y . ith which individualJews could these ideological positions also carried over into the nineteenth-century North but rather developed into a voluntary associanon w American Jewish community, discussed in detail later. The Reform movement choose to affiliate. E lture with traditional Judaism was emphasized Judaism's ethical teachings as monotheism's most important contri­ 1 c . · ating uropean cu . The mo de rot mtegr . al h b i· d that natural re 11- bution to Western society. Proponents stressed the universalistic nature of their ( 29 1786) an mtellectu w o e ieve Moses Mendelssohn 17 - ' . c l t 2 Convinced that Jews religious creed and deemphasized its national character. d Ch . ns a basis ror mutua respec . gion gave Je~s an nsna h lakhah and also participate in the larger culture, As a consequence of this universal focus and a desire to indicate political alle­ could combm~ adherence to a the founder of Haskalah. He provided his fol­ giance with the countries in which they lived, Reform leaders rejected beliefs and Mendelssohn is generally seen la~ . traditional piety while engaging practices that they saw as particularistic, including dietary laws and traditional . ) · h mode ror mamtammg ~ h lowers (mas kt 1tm wit a 1 d . 1 Mendelssohn translated the 1ora modes ofSabbath observance. Nor did they look forward to the daywhen Solomon's the modern world intellectual y an fchrelat~ve YJ· s to learn the language of secular Temple would be rebuilt in Jerusalem and the Messiah would arrive to bring all Jews · 11 a means o e pmg ew · into German, parna y as ·d acculturation and assimilation, a back to the Land oflsrael. The very name of their synagogues - temples - indicated . Th' built further momentum towar . discourse. is f German-speaking Europe. to d d in t h e larger ones. o that their permanent houses of worship were be in Germany, the United States, rocess that was most a vance h sc1'ously developed a strategy or wherever else they could live in peace and brotherhood. 4 P · h i· · us movement t at con The first modern J ew1s re ig10 d . c ulturatedJews in modern society During the 1840s, German Jewish reformers held three rabbinic confer­ for building a Jewish theology an pracnce wr ace ences to discuss various issues of importance. These conferences also led to what was Reform Judaism. became Conservative Judaism. This break with Reform was initiated by Zacharias Frankel (1801-1875), who walked out of the Frankfurt Rabbinical Conference of 1845 after the group endorsed a position stating that the use of Hebrew was REFORM J DAISM IN CENTRAL EUROPE AND ITS IMPACT no longer necessary in worship. Frankel envisioned a new type of Judaism that would embrace a historical approach to the evolution ofJewish tradition but retain most of the traditional forms of practice.5 Frankel and like-minded colleagues ) wealth hilamhropist, is generally regarded as the Israel Jacobson (1768-1828 'a ~ p . 1810 he built the first Reform syn- founded the Jewish Theological Seminary of Breslau in 1854 and began to teach founder of the Reform ~ovement. ~:hi~:~~:;~nfeatu;es usually found in churches. what they termed Positive-Historical Judaism. Its name incorporated "positive" in agogue, a structure that mduded a . f t of the ark rather than in the that it sought to preserve halakhah, and "historical" because it tried to understand The bimah (the reader's platfor~ ;~: l~:~~:~~a:e~~ecame one of the characteris­ Judaism in a historical context. The proponents of this school accepted the idea of center of the sanctuary. Al thou~ . The inscriptions on the building change, but only if those changes could be justified halakhically and fit in with the c 1 t the nme 1t was umque. tics of a Re1.orm temp e, a . ther obvious deviation from tradition. Perhaps continued development of]udaism. were in Lann as well as Hebrew, ano h d n and services included not During the same time period, traditional Jews in German-speaking Europe h S synagogue a an orga ' most important, t e eesen d ons i'n the vernacular. Men and began to formulate counter-arguments to Reform and the Positive-Historical · b t also prayers an serm only instrumental music, u . h d. al ao-ogue with women sitting school. Led by Samson Raphael Hirsch (1808-1888), they became known as the . d ted as m t e tra mon syn tJ ' women remame sep~a f h alls behind a physical barrier. This separation of Neo-Orthodox, a designation that indicated that they were making a renewed in the balcony along t ree o t ~ w . d r t e of German Reform Judaism. commitment to traditional Judaism. In 1836, Hirsch wrote "Nineteen Letters on · ship remame a iea ur men and women d urmg wor h . · ftheAmerican Reform . d r ·1 · g became c aractensttc o Judaism," a series of essays defending traditional conceptions of the Jewish reli­ In contrast, mixe or ramt y seatm f h 11 s to Berlin, where he gion. Hirsch reiterated that Judaism required Jews to believe that God had given movement. Jacobson later brought many o t ese re orm the Torah to Moses at Mount Sinai and that the Torah included both written and opened a synagogue in his own home.3 .
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