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 perennially 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.
1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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."
Source: http://www.ccarnet.org/platforms/centenary.html
Copyright © 1997, Central Conference of American Rabbis