“The Pittsburgh Platform” – 1885

1. We recognize in every religion an attempt to grasp the Infinite, and in every mode, source or book of revelation held sacred in any religious system the consciousness of the indwelling of God in man. We hold that Judaism presents the highest conception of the God-idea as taught in our Holy Scriptures and developed and spiritualized by the Jewish teachers, in accordance with the moral and philosophical progress of their respective ages. We maintain that Judaism preserved and defended midst continual struggles and trials and under enforced isolation, this God-idea as the central religious truth for the human race.

2. We recognize in the Bible the record of the consecration of the Jewish people to its mission as the priest of the one God, and value it as the most potent instrument of religious and moral instruction. We hold that the modern discoveries of scientific researches in the domain of nature and history are not antagonistic to the doctrines of Judaism, the Bible reflecting the primitive ideas of its own age, and at times clothing its conception of divine Providence and Justice dealing with men in miraculous narratives.

3. We recognize in the Mosaic legislation a system of training the Jewish people for its mission during its national life in Palestine, and today we accept as binding only its moral laws, and maintain only such ceremonies as elevate and sanctify our lives, but reject all such as are not adapted to the views and habits of modern civilization.

à 4. We hold that all such Mosaic and rabbinical laws as regulate diet, priestly purity, and dress originated in ages and under the influence of ideas entirely foreign to our present mental and spiritual state. They fail to impress the modern Jew with a spirit of priestly holiness; their observance in our days is apt rather to obstruct than to further modern spiritual elevation.

5. We recognize, in the modern era of universal culture of heart and intellect, the approaching of the realization of Israel’s great Messianic hope for the establishment of the kingdom of truth, justice, and peace among all men. We consider ourselves no longer a nation, but a religious community, and therefore expect neither a return to Palestine, nor a sacrificial worship under the sons of Aaron, nor the restoration of any of the laws concerning the Jewish state.

6. We recognize in Judaism a progressive religion, ever striving to be in accord with the postulates of reason. We are convinced of the utmost necessity of preserving the historical identity with our great past. Christianity and Islam, being daughter religions of Judaism, we appreciate their providential mission, to aid in the spreading of monotheistic and moral truth. We acknowledge that the spirit of broad humanity of our age is our ally in the fulfillment of our mission, and therefore we extend the hand of fellowship to all who cooperate with us in the establishment of the reign of truth and righteousness among men.

7. We reassert the doctrine of Judaism that the soul is immortal, grounding the belief on the divine nature of human spirit, which forever finds bliss in righteousness and misery in wickedness. We reject as ideas not rooted in Judaism, the beliefs both in bodily resurrection and in Gehenna and Eden (Hell and Paradise) as abodes for everlasting punishment and reward.

8. In full accordance with the spirit of the Mosaic legislation, which strives to regulate the relations between rich and poor, we deem it our duty to participate in the great task of modern times, to solve, on the basis of justice and righteousness, the problems presented by the contrasts and evils of the present organization of society.

Site of the infamous “Trefa Banquet.”   Highland House,  Cincinnati, 1880.

 

AND THEN WHAT HAPPENS?  Pick one of the three answers for each of the following events. 

 

It’s July 16^th 1883. Four days after the banquet,  Sephardic-American Rabbi Sabato Morias  published a dissapointed and angry essay about the banquet in the American Hebrew  magazine.  By the end of the week, Jewish Record, Jewish Tribune, and Jewish Herald  had all published the story.  And then what happens?

1)     Massive Jewish rioting breaks out that Saturday afternoon, as in synagogue many read the essay. The riots are so bad NYC mayor Fiorello LaGuardia has to send in riot police.

2)    People write in letters saying they will never give up keeping kashrut just so they can fit in better with other Americans.

3)    Nothing happens  yet.  But the essay is spreading. 

 

It's August 1^st, 1883. Head of the Reform movement, Isaac Mayer Wise reads the criticism, and makes a decision, that there's only one correct answer to this problem for the future. And then what happens?

1)     He publishes a major apology to those Jews who observe the laws of kashrut, saying he was not clear with the caterer.

2)    He holds a unity rally for the Jewish community, but has to leave the stage when local angry Jews pelt him with last year’s matzah.

3)    He doubles down on saying he did nothing wrong.

 

 

 It's November 19^th, 1885, all of the leaders of the Reform movement gathered together in Pittsburgh. For four days, they work to create a new platform to explain what Reform Judaism is, covering topics  like God,  prayer,  the land of Israel, and food.  And then what happens?

1)     They publish a document that says that keeping kosher, while important to some, is now optional.

2)    They order that to allow for Reform Judaism to be more inclusive, all official events in a temple or synagogue should be kosher.

3)     They say that keeping kosher no longer makes any sense and is foreign to the entire outlook of a modern Jew.

 

It's March of  1886, and Sabato Morias and other rabbis believe  that the Reform movement is abandoning essential spiritual practices. They decide they need to create a place to train rabbis that will Conserve tradition, but still make room for  participation in American Life. And then what happens?

1)      They create the Academy of Jewish Religion in Los Angeles, California.

2)    They create the first Solomon Shechter Day School in the Bronx, NY.

3)     They establish the Jewish Theological Seminary in Manhattan.

 

It’s July of 1888.  An observant Jewish man named Dov Behr immigrated to the United States in 1885 from Kovno (Lithuania) and came to Cincinnati as a schochet. He looks around at the observance and Judaism of the Jews in this town and decides that something is missing. So then what happens?

1)    He builds a large ritual bath facility, with separate wings for men, women, and the immersion of new dishes.

2)   He builds a tallit factory, which makes kippot as well as prayer shawls.

3)   He builds a matzah factory and kosher food company.

 

It's September of 1889. On the Lower East Side, the Orthodox community opens The Etz Chayim Yeshiva, an elementary school where students are instructed in English but also in Jewish topics such as the Talmud and Chumash. Within ten years they have a rabbinical school to match HUC, and by 1926, what has happened?

1)     They have created a college for Jews. Today, this college is known as Yeshiva University.

2)    They have created a college for Jews. Today, this college is known as the Nissan Friedman School of Food Service Management.

3)   They have created a college for Jews. Today, this college is known as the Jewish Institute of Religion.

 

It's March of 1923-   Many Jews still remain committed to Kosher Oobservance despite the Reform movement’s standards.    Kosher keeping consumers bombard their rabbis with questions about many of the new foods being manufactured throughout the country,  and so a chemist and a group of rabbis join together to deal with the issue. And then what happens?

1)       They publish the notorious pamphlet, “If You Have to Ask, it’s Not Kosher,”  telling American Jews to only eat foods made by other Jews.

2)      They create a Union of Rabbis and food inspectors,  calling themselves “Kosher Overseers of America.”

3)      The members of an already existing group, the Orthodox Union, certify as kosher Heinz baked beans by placing an O-U logo on it.

 

It's May of 1999 and to mark the century plus of time since the first Pittsburgh platform, the Reform movement returns to Pittsburgh for a new platform. Some traditionalists want to have the idea of keeping kosher be part of the platform. The reaction to these traditionalists in the Reform movement is strong. And then what happens?  

1)     Rabbi Richard Israel and the traditionalists win the day, with the platform urging Reform Jews to embrace this ancient practice as a path to spirituality.

2)    No mention of food whatsoever appears in the entire platform, even though it deals with dozens of different areas of Jewish life.

3)     Rabbi Camillie Angel leads a victorious group of progressives, giving her “You Must Eat Lobster To Be Reform” speech,  saying that to be a Reform jew means not keeping kosher.

 

  

Emma Lazarus,  “The New Colossus”

 

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she

With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"