Reform Judaism
A Centenary Perspective
Adopted at San Francisco, 1976
Scanned (and uncorrected) from text provided by
Ms. Emily Grotta, director of communications for the Union of
American Hebrew Congregations
The Central Conference of American Rabbis has on special occasions
described the spiritual state of Reform Judaism. The centenaries
of the founding of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations
and the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion seem
an appropriate time for another such effort. We therefore record
our sense of the unity of our movement today.
One Hundred Years: What We Have Taught
We celebrate the role of Reform Judaism in North America,
the growth of our movement on this free ground, the great contributions
of our membership to the dreams and achievements of this society.
We also feel great satisfaction at how much of our pioneering
conception of Judaism has been accepted by the Household of Israel.
It now seems self- evident to most Jews: that our tradition should
interact with modern culture; that its forms ought to reflect
a contemporary esthetic; that its scholarship needs to be conducted
by modern, critical methods; and that change has been and must
continue to be a fundamental reality in Jewish life. Moreover,
though some still disagree, substantial numbers have also accepted
our teachings: that the ethics of universalism implicit in traditional
Judaism must be an explicit part of our Jewish duty; that women
have full rights to practice Judaism; and that Jewish obligation
begins with the informed will of every individual. Most modern
Jews, within their various religious movements, are embracing
Reform Jewish perspectives. We see this past century as having
confirmed the essential wisdom of our movement.
One Hundred Years: What We Have Learned
Obviously, much else has changed in the past century. We continue
to probe the extraordinary events of the past generation, seeking
to understand their meaning and to incorporate their significance
in our lives. The Holocaust shattered our easy optimism about
humanity and its inevitable progress. The State of Israel, through
its many accomplishments, raised our sense of the Jews as a people
to new heights of aspiration and devotion. The widespread threats
to freedom, the problems inherent in the explosion of new knowledge
and of ever more powerful technologies, and the spiritual emptiness
of much of Western culture have taught us to be less dependent
on the values of our society and to reassert what remains perenially
valid in Judaism's teaching. We have learned that the survival
of the Jewish people is of highest priority and that in carrying
out our Jewish responsibilities we help move humanity toward
its messianic fulfillment.
Diversity Within Unity, the Hallmark of Reform
Reform Jews respond to change in various ways according to
the Reform principle of the autonomy of the individual. However,
Reform Judaism does more than tolerate diversity; it engenders
it. In our uncertain historical situation we must expect to have
far greater diversity than previous generations knew. How we
shall live with diversity without stifling dissent and withou
paralyzing our ability to take positive action will test ou character
and our principles. We stand open to any position thoughtfully
and conscientiously advocated in the spirit of Reform Jewish
belief. While we may differ in our interpretation and application
of the ideas enunciated here, we accept such differences as precious
and see in them Judaism's best hope for confronting whatever
the future holds for us. Yet in all our diversity we perceive
a certain unity and we shall not allow our differences in some
particulars to obscure what binds us together.
- God -- The affirmation of God has always been essential
to our people's will to survive. In our struggle through the
centuries to preserve our faith we have experienced and conceived
of God in many ways. The trials of our own time and the challenges
of modern culture have made steady belief and clear understanding
difficult for some. Nevertheless, we ground our lives, personally
and communally, on God's reality and remain open to new experiences
and conceptions of the Divine. Amid the mystery we call life,
we affirm that human beings, created in God's image, share in
God's eternality despite the mystery we call death.
- The People Israel -- The Jewish people and Judaism
defy precise definition because both are in the process of becoming.
Jews, by birth or conversion, constitute an uncommon union of
faith and peoplehood. Born as Hebrews in the ancient Near East,
we are bound together like all ethnic groups by language, land,
history, culture, and institutions. But the people of Israel
is unique because of its involvement with God and its resulting
perception of the human condition. Throughout our long history
our people has been inseparable from its religion with its messianic
hope that humanity will be redeemed.
- Torah -- Torah results from the relationship between
God and the Jewish people. The records of our earliest confrontations
are uniquely important to us. Lawgivers and prophets, historians
and poets gave us a heritage whose study is a religious imperative
and whose practice is our chief means to holiness. Rabbis and
teachers, philosophers and mystics, gifted Jews in every age
amplified the Torah tradition. For millennia, the creation of
Torah has not ceased and Jewish creativity in our time is adding
to the chain of tradition.
- Our Religious Obligations: Religious Practice --
Judaism emphasizes action rather than creed as the primary expression
of a religious life, the means by which we strive to achieve
universal justice and peace. Reform Judaism shares this emphasis
on duty and obligation. Our founders stressed that the Jew's
ethical responsibilities, personal and social, are enjoined by
God. The past century has taught us that the claims made upon
us may begin with our ethical obligations but they extend to
many other aspects of Jewish living, including: creating a Jewish
home centered on family devotion: lifelong study; private prayer
and public worship; daily religious observance; keeping the Sabbath
and the holy days: celebrating the major events of life; involvement
with the synagogues and community; and other activities which
promote the survival of the Jewish people and enhance its existence.
Within each area of Jewish observance Reform Jews are called
upon to confront the claims of Jewish tradition, however differently
perceived, and to exercise their individual autonomy, choosing
and creating on the basis of commitment and knowledge.
- Our Obligations: The State of Israel and the Diaspora
-- We are privileged to live in an extraordinary time, one in
which a third Jewish commonwealth has been established in our
people's ancient homeland. We are bound to that land and to the
newly reborn State of Israel by innumerable religious and ethnic
ties. We have been enriched by its culture and ennobled by its
indomitable spirit. We see it providing unique opportunities
for Jewish self-expression. We have both a stake and a responsibility
in building the State of Israel, assuring its security, and defining
its Jewish character. We encourage aliyah for those who
wish to find maximum personal fulfillment in the cause of Zion.
We demand that Reform Judaism be unconditionally legitimized
in the State of Israel.
At the same time that we consider the State of Israel vital
to the welfare of Judaism everywhere, we reaffirm the mandate
of our tradition to create strong Jewish communities wherever
we live. A genuine Jewish life is possible in any land, each
community developing its own particular character and determining
its Jewish responsibilities. The foundation of Jewish community
life is the synagogue. It leads us beyond itself to cooperate
with other Jews, to share their concerns, and to assume leadership
in communal affairs. We are therefore committed to the full democratization
of the jewish community and to its hallowing in terms of Jewish
values.
The State of Israel and the Diaspora, in fruitful dialogue,
can show how a people transcends nationalism even as it affirms
it, thereby setting an exampic for humanity which remains largely
concerned with dangerously parochial goals.
- Our Obligations: Survival and Service -- Early Reform
Jews, newly admitted to general society and seeing in this the
evidence of a growing universalism, regularly spoke of Jewish
purpose in terms of Jewry's service to humanity. In recent years
we have become freshly conscious of the virtues of pluralism
and the values of particularism. The Jewish people in its unique
way of life validates its own worth while working toward the
fulfillment of its messianic expectations.
Until the recent past our obligations to the Jewish people
and to all humanity seemed congruent. At times now these two
imperatives appear to conflict. We know of no simple way to resolve
such tensions. We must, however, confront them without abandoning
either of our commitments. A universal concern for humanity unaccompanied
by a devotion to our particular people is self-destructive; a
passion for our people without involvement in humankind contradicts
what the prophets have meant to us. Judaism calls us simultaneously
to universal and particular obligations.
Hope: Our Jewish Obligation
Previous generations of Reform Jews had unbound confidence
in humanity's potential for good. We have lived through terrible
tragedy and been compelled to reappropriate our tradition's realism
about the human capacity for evil. Yet our people has always
refused to despair. The survivors of the Holocaust, being granted
life, seized it, nurtured it, and, rising above catastrophe,
showed humankind that the human spirit is indomitable. The State
of Israel, established and maintained by the Jewish will to live,
demonstrates what a united people can accomplish in history.
The existence of the Jew is an argument against despair; Jewish
survival is warrant for human hope.
We remain God's witness that history is not meaningless. We
affirm that with God's help people are not powerless to affect
their destiny. We dedicate ourselves, as did the generations
of Jews who went before us, to work and wait for that day when
"They shall not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain
for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the
waters cover the sea." |