{"collection":"Judaism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/jud/100.htm","path":"jud/100.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/jud/100.htm","text":"Scanned (and uncorrected) from text provided by Ms. Emily Grotta,\ndirector of communications for the Union of American Hebrew\nCongregations\nThe Central Conference of American Rabbis has on special occasions\ndescribed the spiritual state of Reform Judaism. The centenaries of the\nfounding of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations and the Hebrew\nUnion College-Jewish Institute of Religion seem an appropriate time for\nanother such effort. We therefore record our sense of the unity of our\nmovement today.\nOne Hundred Years: What We Have Taught\nWe celebrate the role of Reform Judaism in North America, the growth of\nour movement on this free ground, the great contributions of our\nmembership to the dreams and achievements of this society. We also feel\ngreat satisfaction at how much of our pioneering conception of Judaism has\nbeen accepted by the Household of Israel. It now seems self- evident to\nmost Jews: that our tradition should interact with modern culture; that\nits forms ought to reflect a contemporary esthetic; that its scholarship\nneeds to be conducted by modern, critical methods; and that change has\nbeen and must continue to be a fundamental reality in Jewish life.\nMoreover, though some still disagree, substantial numbers have also\naccepted our teachings: that the ethics of universalism implicit in\ntraditional Judaism must be an explicit part of our Jewish duty; that\nwomen have full rights to practice Judaism; and that Jewish obligation\nbegins with the informed will of every individual. Most modern Jews,\nwithin their various religious movements, are embracing Reform Jewish\nperspectives. We see this past century as having confirmed the essential\nwisdom of our movement.\nOne Hundred Years: What We Have Learned\nObviously, much else has changed in the past century. We continue to probe\nthe extraordinary events of the past generation, seeking to understand\ntheir meaning and to incorporate their significance in our lives. The\nHolocaust shattered our easy optimism about humanity and its inevitable\nprogress. The State of Israel, through its many accomplishments, raised\nour sense of the Jews as a people to new heights of aspiration and\ndevotion. The widespread threats to freedom, the problems inherent in the\nexplosion of new knowledge and of ever more powerful technologies, and the\nspiritual emptiness of much of Western culture have taught us to be less\ndependent on the values of our society and to reassert what remains\nperenially valid in Judaism's teaching. We have learned that the survival\nof the Jewish people is of highest priority and that in carrying out our\nJewish responsibilities we help move humanity toward its messianic\nfulfillment.\nDiversity Within Unity, the Hallmark of Reform\nReform Jews respond to change in various ways according to the Reform\nprinciple of the autonomy of the individual. However, Reform Judaism does\nmore than tolerate diversity; it engenders it. In our uncertain\nhistorical situation we must expect to have far greater diversity than\nprevious generations knew. How we shall live with diversity without\nstifling dissent and withou paralyzing our ability to take positive action\nwill test ou character and our principles. We stand open to any position\nthoughtfully and conscientiously advocated in the spirit of Reform Jewish\nbelief. While we may differ in our interpretation and application of the\nideas enunciated here, we accept such differences as precious and see in\nthem Judaism's best hope for confronting whatever the future holds for\nus. Yet in all our diversity we perceive a certain unity and we shall not\nallow our differences in some particulars to obscure what binds us\ntogether.\nGod -- The affirmation of God has always been essential to\nour people's will to survive. In our struggle through the centuries to\npreserve our faith we have experienced and conceived of God in many ways.\nThe trials of our own time and the challenges of modern culture have made\nsteady belief and clear understanding difficult for some. Nevertheless,\nwe ground our lives, personally and communally, on God's reality and\nremain open to new experiences and conceptions of the Divine. Amid the\nmystery we call life, we affirm that human beings, created in God's image,\nshare in God's eternality despite the mystery we call death.\nThe People Israel -- The Jewish people and Judaism defy\nprecise definition because both are in the process of becoming. Jews, by\nbirth or conversion, constitute an uncommon union of faith and peoplehood.\nBorn as Hebrews in the ancient Near East, we are bound together like all\nethnic groups by language, land, history, culture, and institutions. But\nthe people of Israel is unique because of its involvement with God and its\nresulting perception of the human condition. Throughout our long history\nour people has been inseparable from its religion with its messianic hope\nthat humanity will be redeemed.\nTorah -- Torah results from the relationship between God and\nthe Jewish people. The records of our earliest confrontations are\nuniquely important to us. Lawgivers and prophets, historians and poets\ngave us a heritage whose study is a religious imperative and whose\npractice is our chief means to holiness. Rabbis and teachers,\nphilosophers and mystics, gifted Jews in every age amplified the Torah\ntradition. For millennia, the creation of Torah has not ceased and Jewish\ncreativity in our time is adding to the chain of tradition.\nOur Religious Obligations: Religious Practice -- Judaism\nemphasizes action rather than creed as the primary expression of a\nreligious life, the means by which we strive to achieve universal justice\nand peace. Reform Judaism shares this emphasis on duty and obligation.\nOur founders stressed that the Jew's ethical responsibilities, personal\nand social, are enjoined by God. The past century has taught us that the\nclaims made upon us may begin with our ethical obligations but they extend\nto many other aspects of Jewish living, including: creating a Jewish home\ncentered on family devotion: lifelong study; private prayer and public\nworship; daily religious observance; keeping the Sabbath and the holy\ndays: celebrating the major events of life; involvement with the\nsynagogues and community; and other activities which promote the survival\nof the Jewish people and enhance its existence. Within each area of Jewish\nobservance Reform Jews are called upon to confront the claims of Jewish\ntradition, however differently perceived, and to exercise their\nindividual autonomy, choosing and creating on the basis of commitment and\nknowledge.\nOur Obligations: The State of Israel and the Diaspora -- We\nare privileged to live in an extraordinary time, one in which a third\nJewish commonwealth has been established in our people's ancient homeland.\nWe are bound to that land and to the newly reborn State of Israel by\ninnumerable religious and ethnic ties. We have been enriched by its\nculture and ennobled by its indomitable spirit. We see it providing\nunique opportunities for Jewish self-expression. We have both a stake and\na responsibility in building the State of Israel, assuring its security,\nand defining its Jewish character. We encourage aliyah for those\nwho wish to find maximum personal fulfillment in the cause of Zion. We\ndemand that Reform Judaism be unconditionally legitimized in the State of\nIsrael.\nAt the same time that we consider the State of Israel vital to the\nwelfare of Judaism everywhere, we reaffirm the mandate of our tradition to\ncreate strong Jewish communities wherever we live. A genuine Jewish life\nis possible in any land, each community developing its own particular\ncharacter and determining its Jewish responsibilities. The foundation of\nJewish community life is the synagogue. It leads us beyond itself to\ncooperate with other Jews, to share their concerns, and to assume\nleadership in communal affairs. We are therefore committed to the full\ndemocratization of the jewish community and to its hallowing in terms of\nJewish values.\nThe State of Israel and the Diaspora, in fruitful dialogue, can\nshow how a people transcends nationalism even as it affirms it, thereby\nsetting an exampic for humanity which remains largely concerned with\ndangerously parochial goals.\nOur Obligations: Survival and Service -- Early Reform Jews,\nnewly admitted to general society and seeing in this the evidence of a\ngrowing universalism, regularly spoke of Jewish purpose in terms of\nJewry's service to humanity. In recent years we have become freshly\nconscious of the virtues of pluralism and the values of particularism.\nThe Jewish people in its unique way of life validates its own worth while\nworking toward the fulfillment of its messianic expectations.\nUntil the recent past our obligations to the Jewish people and to all\nhumanity seemed congruent. At times now these two imperatives appear to\nconflict. We know of no simple way to resolve such tensions. We must,\nhowever, confront them without abandoning either of our commitments. A\nuniversal concern for humanity unaccompanied by a devotion to our\nparticular people is self-destructive; a passion for our people without\ninvolvement in humankind contradicts what the prophets have meant to us.\nJudaism calls us simultaneously to universal and particular obligations.\nHope: Our Jewish Obligation\nPrevious generations of Reform Jews had unbound confidence in humanity's\npotential for good. We have lived through terrible tragedy and been\ncompelled to reappropriate our tradition's realism about the human\ncapacity for evil. Yet our people has always refused to despair. The\nsurvivors of the Holocaust, being granted life, seized it, nurtured it,\nand, rising above catastrophe, showed humankind that the human spirit is\nindomitable. The State of Israel, established and maintained by the Jewish\nwill to live, demonstrates what a united people can accomplish in history.\nThe existence of the Jew is an argument against despair; Jewish survival\nis warrant for human hope.\nWe remain God's witness that history is not meaningless. We affirm\nthat with God's help people are not powerless to affect their destiny. We\ndedicate ourselves, as did the generations of Jews who went before us, to\nwork and wait for that day when \"They shall not hurt or destroy in all My\nholy mountain for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as\nthe waters cover the sea.\"","title":"Reform Judaism -- A Centenary Perspective","type":"page"}