Review Questions1. How could European Jews be Jewish and

participate in the modern world? Why was this a new question for Jews?

2. Who was Israel Jacobson and why is he significant?

3. What was the Hamburg Temple Prayer Book and why was it controversial?

Emerging Patters of

Religious Adjustment

Part II

Rabbi Abraham Geiger (1810-1874)

Born in Germany Traditional Jewish

education PhD, University of Bonn

Believed in studying Judaism scientifically

Jewish history – Rashi, history of Pharisees and Saducees

Rabbi Abraham Geiger (1810-1874) Saw German Jews leaving Judaism Philosophy

Believed that the Torah was written by human beings

Judaism had adapted to the needs of the Jewish people throughout its history.

Appointed Chief Rabbi of Berlin

Rabbinical Conferences Individual congregations making changes Need for a unified position on key issues Calls for a series of Rabbinical Conferences

1837 – Not successful 1840s – more successful Issues create schisms that lead to 3 Jewish

movements

Reform Rabbinical Conference at Brunswick (1844) Issue Under Discussion: Patriotism

Rabbis endorse the position of the French Sanhedrin on Jewish Patriotism

Do the Jews consider Frenchmen as their brethern or as strangers?

French Jews are the brethren of Frenchmen Why is this significant?

Reform Rabbinical Conference at Frankfurt (1845) Issue Under Discussion:

To what degree is the Hebrew language necessary for the public prayer service?

To what degree must the dogma of the Messiah and anything pertaining to it, be taken into consideration in the liturgy?

Rabbi Samuel Holdheim (1806-1860)

“The Talmud speaks with the ideology of its time, for its time it was right. I speak from the higher ideology of my time, and for my

time I am right.”

Rabbi Zecharias Frankel

Scholar Attends Rabbinic

Conference in 1845 Breaks with Reform over

Hebrew and Halachah Historical Positivism

Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch (1808-1888)

Yafeh Torah Im Derech Eretz

“Religion Allied to Progress” (1854)

Neo-Orthodoxy

Drawing Conclusions What is the religious impact of

Emancipation on the Jews of Germany?

For Next Week: Read pages 207-248. Special attention to documents #1, 3, 5, 7,

8, 9, 11, and 12. Think about:

Why do we study Jewish history today? What were the goals of studying Judaism

scientifically? What were some of the tensions between the

different goals?