Reform Judaism in Germany

Where was the first permanent Reform temple founded?

• Hamburg

• Berlin

• Seesen

• Breslau (Wrocław)

When was the first permanent Reform Temple founded?

• 1918

• 1818

• 1718

• 1819

What were some practices at early Reform Temples?

• Ritual bovine sacrifice

• Prayer and sermons in the local language (and not in Hebrew)

• Playing the organ

• Men and women both wore tallit and kippot

• Mixed seating

This key figure in the early German Reform movement was elected rabbi of Wiesbaden in 1832 and in 1835 he began the publication of his "Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift für Jüdische Theologic."

• Isaac Jacobson

• Zacharias Frankel

• Eduard Kley

• Abraham Geiger

• David Einhorn

A founder and leader of Radical Reform Judaism, he was a Rabbi in Frankfurt an der Oder, then Mecklenburg-Schwerin. He wrote a controversial book, Ueber die Autonomie der Rabbinen (The Autonomy of the Rabbis), in which he criticizes the continuity of Jewish marriage and divorce laws.

• Zachariah Frankel

• Samuel Holdheim

• Isaac Jacobson

• Abraham Geiger

German theologian, rabbi, and one of the founders of Conservative Judaism. He was Rabbi of Dresden and came up with a theology “positive-historical Judaism” which accepted scientific and historical research and wanted to make some worship changes.

• Samuel Holdheim

• Abraham Geiger

• Samson Hirsch

• Zachariah Frankel

Rabinnical conferences were held at ____, _____, and ______ in 1844, 1845, and 1846

• Brunswick

• Dessau

• Frankfurt-am-Main

• Berlin

• Breslau

If you were in attendance, which aims of the Reform Rabbinical Councils in the mid 1840s would have been most important to you? Be ready to say why.

• Adapting the religion to the modern world

• Declaring many Reform practices law

Based on your scant research last week, what do you think? What did Reform Judaism want to do?

• Help Jews in 19th century Europe respond to modernity and their new role as citizen

• Help Jews seem part of larger society

• Move Judaism away from its image as an ancient religion

• Allow a person to be secular and Jewish

• Demystify Jews as members of an ancient, insular society with dress, language, laws, and diet that kept it apart from its neighbors