I.
Introduction


Judaism,
religious culture of the Jews (also known as the people of Israel); one of
the world's oldest continuing religious traditions.
The
terms Judaism and religion do not exist in premodern Hebrew.
The Jews spoke of Torah, God's revealed instruction to Israel, which
mandated both a worldview and a way of life—see Halakah.
Halakah, meaning the “way” by which to walk, encompasses Jewish law,
custom, and practice. Premodern Judaism, in all its historical forms, thus
constituted (and traditional Judaism today constitutes) an integrated
cultural system encompassing the totality of individual and communal
existence. It is a system of sanctification in which all is to be subsumed
under God's rule—that is, under divinely revealed models of cosmic order
and lawfulness. Christianity originated as one among several competing
Jewish ideologies in 1st-century Palestine, and Islam drew in part on
Jewish sources at the outset. Because most Jews, from the 7th century on,
have lived within the cultural sphere of either Christianity or Islam,
these religions have had an impact on the subsequent history of Judaism.
Judaism
originated in the land of Israel (also known as Palestine) in the Middle
East. Subsequently, Jewish communities have existed at one time or another
in almost all parts of the world, a result of both voluntary migrations of
Jews and forced exile or expulsions (see Diaspora).
In the early 1990s the total world Jewish population was about 12.8
million, of whom about 5.5 million lived in the United States, more than
3.9 million in Israel, and nearly 1.2 million in the Soviet Union, the
three largest centers of Jewish settlement. About 1.2 million Jews lived
in the rest of Europe, most of them in France and Great Britain. About
356,700 lived in the rest of North America, and 32,700 in Asia other than
Israel. About 433,400 Jews lived in Central and South America, and about
148,700 lived in Africa.

II. Basic
Doctrines and Sources


As
a rich and complex religious tradition, Judaism has never been monolithic.
Its various historical forms nonetheless have shared certain
characteristic features. The most essential of these is a radical
monotheism, that is, the belief that a single, transcendent God created
the universe and continues providentially to govern it. Undergirding this
monotheism is the teleological conviction that the world is both
intelligible and purposive, because a single divine intelligence stands
behind it. Nothing that humanity experiences is capricious; everything
ultimately has meaning. The mind of God is manifest to the traditional Jew
in both the natural order, through creation, and the social-historical
order, through revelation. The same God who created the world revealed
himself to the Israelites at Mount Sinai. The content of that revelation
is the Torah
(“revealed instruction”), God's will for humankind expressed in
commandments (mizvoth) by which individuals are to regulate their
lives in interacting with one another and with God. By living in
accordance with God's laws and submitting to the divine will, humanity can
become a harmonious part of the cosmos.
A.
Covenant


A
second major concept in Judaism is that of the covenant
(berith), or contractual agreement, between God and the Jewish people.
According to tradition, the God of creation entered into a special
relationship with the Jewish people at Sinai. They would acknowledge God
as their sole ultimate king and legislator, agreeing to obey his laws;
God, in turn, would acknowledge Israel as his particular people and be
especially mindful of them. Both biblical authors and later Jewish
tradition view this covenant in a universal context. Only after successive
failures to establish a covenant with rebellious humanity did God turn to
a particular segment of it. Israel is to be a “kingdom of priests,”
and the ideal social order that it establishes in accordance with the
divine laws is to be a model for the human race. Israel thus stands
between God and humanity, representing each to the other.
The
idea of the covenant also determines the way in which both nature and
history traditionally have been viewed in Judaism. Israel's well-being is
seen to depend on obedience to God's commandments. Both natural and
historical events that befall Israel are interpreted as emanating from God
and as influenced by Israel's religious behavior. A direct causal
connection is thus made between human behavior and human destiny. This
perspective intensifies the problem of theodicy (God's justice) in
Judaism, because the historical experience of both individuals and the
Jewish people has frequently been one of suffering. Much Jewish religious
thought, from the biblical Book of Job onward, has been preoccupied with
the problem of affirming justice and meaning in the face of apparent
injustice. In time, the problem was mitigated by the belief that virtue
and obedience ultimately would be rewarded and sin punished by divine
judgment after death, thereby redressing inequities in this world. The
indignities of foreign domination and forced exile from the land of Israel
suffered by the Jewish people also would be redressed at the end of time,
when God would send his Messiah
(mashiah, “one anointed” with oil as a king), a scion of the
royal house of David, to redeem the Jews and restore them to sovereignty
in their land. Messianism, from early on, has been a significant strand of
Jewish thought. Yearning for the Messiah's coming was particularly intense
in periods of calamity. Ultimately, a connection was drawn between the
messianic idea and the concept of Torah: The individual Jew, through
proper study and observance of God's commandments, could hasten the
Messiah's arrival. Each individual's action thus assumed a cosmic
importance.

B. The
Rabbinic Tradition

Although
all forms of Judaism have been rooted in the Hebrew Bible (referred to by
Jews as the Tanach, an acronym for its three sections: Torah, the
Pentateuch; Nebiim, the prophetic literature; and Ketubim, the other
writings), it would be an error to think of Judaism as simply the
“religion of the Old Testament.” Contemporary Judaism is ultimately
derived from the rabbinic movement of the first centuries of the Christian
era in Palestine and Babylonia and is therefore called rabbinic Judaism. Rabbi,
in Aramaic and Hebrew, means “my teacher.” The rabbis, Jewish sages
adept in studying the Scriptures and their own traditions, maintained that
God had revealed to Moses on Sinai a twofold Torah. In addition to the
written Torah (Scripture), God revealed an oral Torah, faithfully
transmitted by word of mouth in an unbroken chain from master to disciple,
and preserved now among the rabbis themselves. For the rabbis, the oral
Torah was encapsulated in the Mishnah (“that which is learned or
memorized”), the earliest document of rabbinic literature, edited in
Palestine at the turn of the 3rd century. Subsequent rabbinic study of the
Mishnah in Palestine and Babylonia generated two Talmuds (“that which is
studied”; also called Gemera, an Aramaic term with the same meaning; see Talmud),
wide-ranging commentaries on the Mishnah. The Babylonian Talmud, edited
about the 6th century, became the foundation document of rabbinic Judaism.
Early
rabbinic writings also include exegetical and homiletical commentaries on
Scripture (the Midrashim; see Midrash)
and several Aramaic translations of the Pentateuch and other scriptural
books (the see Targums).
Medieval rabbinic writings include codifications of talmudic law, the most
authoritative of which is the 16th-century Shulhan Arukh (Set
Table) by Joseph ben Ephraim Caro. In Judaism, the study of Torah refers
to the study of all this literature, not simply of the Pentateuch (“the
Torah,” in the narrow sense).
III.
Worship and Practices


For
the religious Jew, the entirety of life is a continuous act of divine
worship. “I keep the Lord always before me” (Psalms 16:8), a verse
inscribed on the front wall of many see synagogues,
aptly characterizes Judaic piety.

A.
Prayers and Services


Traditionally,
Jews pray three times a day: in the morning (shaharith), afternoon
(minhah), and evening (maarib). The times of prayer are
deemed to correspond to the times when sacrifices were offered in the
Jerusalem Temple. In this and other ways, rabbinic Judaism metaphorically
carries forward the structure of the destroyed Temple cult. A company of
ten men forms a congregation, or quorum (minyan), for prayer.
The
single required component of all Jewish worship services is a series of
benedictions called the Tefillah (“prayer”); it is also known
as the Amidah, or “standing” prayer, because it is recited
standing, and the Shemoneh Esreh, because it originally contained
18 benedictions. On weekdays it is now composed of 19 benedictions,
including 13 petitions for welfare and messianic restoration. On see Sabbaths
and festivals, these petitions are replaced by occasional prayers. A
second major rubric is the recitation of the Shema
in the morning and evening. All services conclude with two messianic
prayers, the first called Alenu, the second an Aramaic doxology
called the Kaddish.
As a sign of devotion to God, the observant adult male Jew during weekday
morning prayers wears both a fringed prayer shawl (tallith; the
fringes are called zizith) and phylacteries
(prayer boxes, called tefillin). Both customs are derived from the
scriptural passages that are recited as the Shema, as is a third, the
placing of a mezuzah (prayer box) on the doorpost of one's house, a
further reminder that God is everywhere. As a gesture of respect to God,
the head is covered during prayer, either with a hat or a skullcap (kippah;
Yiddish yarmulke). Pious Jews wear a head covering at all times,
recognizing God's constant presence.

B. Torah


The
study of Torah, the revealed will of God, also is considered an act of
worship in rabbinic Judaism. Passages from Scripture, Mishnah, and Talmud
are recited during daily morning services. On Monday and Thursday
mornings, a handwritten parchment scroll of the Torah (that is, the
Pentateuch) is removed from the ark at the front of the synagogue and
read, with cantillation, before the congregation. The major liturgical
Torah readings take place on Sabbath and festival mornings. In the course
of a year, the entire Torah will be read on Sabbaths. The annual cycle
begins again every autumn at a celebration called Simhath Torah
(“rejoicing in the Torah”), which falls at the end of the Sukkot
festival. Torah readings for the festivals deal with the themes and
observances of the day. Thematically appropriate readings from the
Prophets (Haftarah, meaning “conclusion”) accompany the Torah readings
on Sabbaths and festivals. The public reading of Scripture thus
constitutes a significant part of synagogue worship. In fact, this appears
originally to have been the primary function of the synagogue as an
institution.

C.
Benedictions


In
addition to the daily prayers, Jews recite numerous benedictions
throughout the day before performing commandments and before enjoying the
bounties of nature. For the Jew, the earth belongs to God. Humans are
simply tenant farmers or gardeners. The owner, therefore, must be
acknowledged before the tenant may partake of the fruits.

D.
Dietary Laws


Jewish
dietary laws relate to the Temple cult. One's table at home is deemed
analogous to the table of the Lord. Certain animals, considered unclean,
are not to be eaten (see Deuteronomy 14:3-21). Into this category fall
pigs as well as fish without fins or scales. Edible animals—those that
have split hooves and chew their cuds—must be properly slaughtered (kasher,
or “fit”) and the blood fully drained before the meat can be eaten.
Meat and milk products are not to be eaten together. See Kosher.
E. The
Sabbath

The
Jewish liturgical calendar carries forward the divisions of time
prescribed in the Torah and observed in the Temple cult. Every seventh day
is the Sabbath, when no work is performed. By this abstention, the Jew
returns the world to its owner, that is, God, acknowledging that humans
extract its produce only on sufferance. The Sabbath is spent in prayer,
study, rest, and family feasting (see Kiddush).
An additional (musaf) service is recited in the synagogue on
Sabbaths and festivals, corresponding to the additional sacrifice that is
offered in the Temple on these days.
F.
Festivals


The
Jewish year includes five major festivals and two minor ones. Three of the
major festivals originally were agricultural and are tied to the seasons
in the land of Israel. Pesach (Passover),
the spring festival, marks the beginning of the barley harvest, and
Shabuoth (Weeks or Pentecost) marks its conclusion 50 days later. Sukkot
(Tabernacles) celebrates the autumn harvest and is preceded by a 10-day
period of communal purification. From an early date, these festivals came
to be associated with formative events in Israel's historical memory.
Passover celebrates the Exodus
from Egypt. Shabuoth
is identified as the time of the giving of the Torah on Sinai. It is
marked by the solemn reading of the Ten
Commandments in the synagogue. Sukkot is still observed primarily as a
harvest festival, but the harvest booths in which Jews eat during the
festival's seven days also are identified with the booths in which the
Israelites dwelt on their journey to the Promised Land. The ten-day
penitential period before Sukkot is inaugurated by Rosh
Hashanah, the New Year, and concludes with Yom
Kippur, the Day of Atonement. According to tradition, the world is
judged each New Year and the decree sealed on the Day of Atonement. A
ram's horn (shofar) is blown on the New Year to call the people to
repentance. The Day of Atonement, the holiest day in the Jewish year, is
spent in fasting, prayer, and confession. Its liturgy begins with the
plaintive chanting of the Kol
Nidre formula and includes a remembrance of the day's rites (avodah)
in the Temple.
The
two minor festivals, Hanukkah
and Purim,
are later in origin than the five Pentateuchally prescribed festivals.
Hanukkah (Dedication) commemorates the victory of the Maccabees
over the Syrian king Antiochus IV in 165 BC and the ensuing
rededication of the Second Temple. Purim (Lots) celebrates the tale of
Persian Jewry's deliverance by see Esther
and Mordecai. It occurs a month before Passover and is marked by the
festive reading in the synagogue of the Scroll of Esther (megillah).
Four fast days, commemorating events in the siege and destruction of the
two Temples in 586 BC and AD 70, complete
the liturgical year. The most important of these is Tishah b'Ab, or the
Ninth of Ab, observed as the day on which both Temples were destroyed.

G.
Special Occasions

Significant
events in the life cycle of the Jew also are observed in the community. At
the age of eight days, a male child is publicly initiated into the
covenant of Abraham through circumcision (berith milah). Boys reach
legal maturity at the age of 13, when they assume responsibility for
observing all the commandments (bar
mitzvah) and are called for the first time to read from the Torah in
synagogue. Girls reach maturity at 12 years of age and, in modern Liberal
synagogues, also read from the Torah (bat mitzvah). In the 19th century,
the modernizing Reform movement instituted the practice of confirmation
for both young men and women of secondary school age. The ceremony is held
on Shabuoth and signifies acceptance of the faith revealed at Sinai. The
next turning point in a Jew's life is marriage (kiddushin, “sanctification”).
Even at the hour of greatest personal joy, Jews recall the sorrows of
their people. The seven wedding benedictions include petitionary prayers
for the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the return of the Jewish people to
Zion. Also, at the Jewish funeral the hope for resurrection of the
deceased is included in a prayer for the redemption of the Jewish people
as a whole. The pious Jewish male is buried in his tallith.
IV.
History


The
biblical literature and cognate archaeological materials provide the
earliest information about the history of Judaism (see Bible;
Jews).
Earliest Israel was not monotheistic, but henotheistic: Worshiping only
one God themselves, the Israelites did not deny the existence of other
gods for other nations.
Preexilic
Israel, first as a confederation of tribes and then as a kingdom,
celebrated as its formative experiences the redemption from Egyptian
bondage and, particularly, the conquest and settlement of the land of
Canaan (the land of Israel). Its deity was Yahweh (see Jehovah),
the god of the patriarchs. Yahweh had redeemed the Israelites from Egypt
and brought them into the promised land. Israelite religion was intimately
bound to the land, its climate, and the agricultural cycle of the year.
Yahweh was believed to bring the rainfall that guaranteed a bountiful
harvest or famine, drought, and pestilence if the community proved
unfaithful and recalcitrant. Israel thus saw itself as dependent on God
for its livelihood and obligated to respond with sacrificial offerings of
gratitude and propitiation. The sacrificial cult ultimately was
centralized in the royal sanctuary in Jerusalem, which later was rivaled
by the northern sanctuaries at Bethel and Dan. Opposition to syncretistic
cultic practices at both the northern (Israelite) and southern (Judean)
sanctuaries and to social injustices under the monarchies was voiced
during this period by the prophets, charismatic “men of God.” They did
not reject the sacrificial cult per se, but merely what they saw as an
exclusive, smug reliance on it that ignored the moral dimension of
Israelite society. Their warnings were perceived to have been vindicated
when first the northern, then the southern, kingdoms were destroyed by
foreign conquerors.

A.
Babylonian Exile


The
exile of the Judeans to Babylonia in 586 BC was a major turning point in
Israelite religion. The prior history of Israel now was reinterpreted in
light of the events of 586, laying the foundation for the traditional
biblical Pentateuch, prophetic canon, and historical books. The prophets
Ezekiel and Deutero-Isaiah believed that Yahweh had used the Babylonian
Empire to punish the Israelites for their sins, and he therefore had the
power to redeem them from captivity if they repented. A truly monotheistic
religion developed, the God of Israel now being seen as the God ruling
universal history and the destiny of all nations. The Babylonian exiles'
messianic hope for a restored Judean kingdom under the leadership of a
scion of the royal house of David seemed to have been vindicated when
Cyrus the Great, after conquering Babylon in 539 BC,
permitted a repatriation of subject populations and a restoration of local
temples. The restored Judean commonwealth did not fully realize this hope,
however, because the Persians did not allow the reestablishment of a
Judean monarchy, but only a temple-state with the high priest as its chief
administrator.

B.
Maccabean and Roman Periods


The
introduction into the Middle East of Greek culture, beginning with the
conquests of Alexander the Great in 331 BC, put the
indigenous cultures of the region on the defensive (see Hellenistic
Age). The Maccabean revolt of 165 to 142 BC began as a
civil war between Jewish Hellenizers and offended nativists; it ended as a
successful war for Judean political independence from Syria. This
political and cultural turmoil had a major impact on religion. The
earliest apocalyptic
writings were composed during this period. This genre of cryptic
revelations interpreted the wars of the time as part of a cosmic conflict
between the forces of good and evil that would end with the ultimate
victory of God's legions. Bodily resurrection at the time of God's Last
Judgment was promised for the first time to those righteous Jews who had
been slain in the conflict. (In earlier Judaism, immortality consisted
solely in the survival of the individual's children and people and in a
shadowy afterlife in the netherworld, Sheol.)
The
Maccabean victories inaugurated an 80-year period of Judean political
independence, but religious turmoil persisted. Members of the Hasmonaean
priestly family that led the revolt proclaimed themselves hereditary kings
and high priests, although they were not of the ancient high priestly
lineage. This, together with their Hellenistic monarchical trappings,
prompted fierce opposition from groups such as the Qumran community, known
to modern scholars from the Dead
Sea Scrolls. Led by dissident priests, this sect believed that the
Jerusalem Temple had been profaned by the Hasmonaeans and saw itself as a
purified Temple exiled in the wilderness.
The
Qumran group can probably be identified with the Essenes described by
Jewish historian Flavius Josephus and other ancient writers. Josephus also
described two other groups, the Sadducees
and the Pharisees,
for whom no identifiable firsthand sources have been found. The Pharisees
(perushim, “separatists”), like the Qumran group, put forth
their own traditions of biblical law, which were disputed by the
Sadducees, an aristocratic priestly group. The Pharisees were the lineal
forerunners of the rabbinic movement after AD 70. All the
religious factions of this period, particularly those opposed to the
Temple administration, appealed to the authority of Scripture, to which
each gave its own distinctive interpretation.
Messianic-apocalyptic
fervor increased when Judean political independence was brought to an end
by Roman legions in the middle of the 1st century BC and
climaxed in the outbreak of an unsuccessful revolt against Rome in AD
66 to 70. (Christianity began as one of these messianic-apocalyptic
movements.)

C.
Development of Rabbinic Judaism


The
Romans' destruction of the Second Temple in AD 70 and their
suppression of a second messianic revolt in 132 to 135 led by Simon Bar
Kokhba were catastrophes for Judaism of no less magnitude than the
destruction of the First Temple in 586 BC. The priestly
leadership was decisively discredited. In this context the rabbinic
movement emerged. Because the Jewish people had lost control of their
political destiny, the rabbis emphasized their communal and spiritual
life. They taught that by conformity in daily life to the Torah as
elaborated in the rabbinic traditions—through study, prayer, and
observance—the individual Jew could achieve salvation while waiting for
God to bring about the messianic redemption of all Israel. Some rabbis
held that if all Jews conformed to the Torah, the Messiah would be
compelled to come. Institutionally, the synagogue (which had existed
before AD 70) and the rabbinic study house replaced the
Temple that had been destroyed.

D.
Medieval Judaism


The
rabbinization of all Jewry, including the growing Mediterranean and
European Diasporas, was a gradual process that had to overcome sharp
challenges from the Karaites
and other antirabbinic movements. The Arab conquest of the Middle East in
the 7th century by Islamic Arab armies facilitated the spread of a uniform
rabbinic Judaism. Near the seat of the Abbasid caliphate in Baghdad, the
heads of the Babylonian rabbinical academies (geonim; plural of gaon,
meaning “excellence”) attempted to standardize Jewish law, custom,
and liturgy in accordance with their own practices, which they set forth
in their replies (responsa) to inquiries from Diaspora communities.
Thus, the hegemony over Jewry passed from Palestine to Babylonia, and the
Babylonian Talmud came to be the most authoritative rabbinic document.
In
the cultural ambit of Islam, rabbinic Judaism encountered Greek philosophy
as recovered and interpreted by Islamic commentators. Rabbinic
intellectuals began to cultivate philosophy to defend Judaism against the
polemics of Islamic theologians and to demonstrate to other Jews the
rationality of their revealed faith and law. Medieval Jewish philosophy
typically concerns the attributes of God, miracles, prophecy (revelation),
and the rationality of the commandments. The most notable philosophical
interpretations of Judaism were put forth by Babylonian gaon Saadia
ben Joseph in the 9th century, Judah Ha-Levi in the 12th century, and,
preeminently, Moses ben Maimon (Maimonides) in the 12th century (Guide
for the Perplexed, 1190?; translated 1881-1885). The exposure to
systematic logic also affected rabbinic legal studies in the Islamic world
and is evident in numerous posttalmudic codifications of Jewish law, the
most famous being Maimonides' elegant Mishneh Torah.
Medieval
Judaism developed two distinctive cultures, Sephardic (centered in Moorish
Spain) and Ashkenazic (in the lands of the Holy Roman Empire; see Ashkenazim).
Philosophy and systematic legal codification were distinctly Sephardic
activities and were opposed by the Ashkenazim, who preferred intensive
study of the Babylonian Talmud. The great Rhineland school of Talmud
commentary began with 11th-century scholar Solomon ben Isaac (Rashi) of
Troyes and continued with his grandsons and students, known as the
tosaphists, who produced the literature of tosaphoth
(“additions” to Rashi's Talmud commentary).
Throughout
the medieval period, Judaism was continually revitalized by mystical and
ethical-pietistic movements. The most significant of these were the
12th-century German Hasidic, or “pietist,” movement and the
13th-century Spanish Cabala,
of which the most influential work was Sefer ha-zohar (The Book of
Splendor) by Moses de León.
The
Cabala is an esoteric theosophy, containing elements of Gnosticism
and Neoplatonism,
that describes the dynamic nature of the godhead and offers a powerful
symbolic interpretation of the Torah and the commandments. It began in
small, elite scholarly circles but became a major popular movement after
the calamitous expulsion of the Jews from Catholic Spain in 1492. The
spread of the Cabala was facilitated by the mythical, messianic
reinterpretation of it made by Isaac Luria of Safed. Lurianic Cabala
explained to the exiles the cosmic meaning of their suffering and gave
them a crucial role in the cosmic drama of redemption. Luria's ideas paved
the way for a major messianic upheaval, centered around the figure of
Sabbatai Zevi, which affected all Jewry in the 17th century. They also
influenced the popular 18th-century Polish revival movement called
Hasidism.
Begun
by Israel Baal Shem Tov, Hasidism proclaimed that, through fervent,
rapturous devotion, the poor, unlearned Jew could serve God better than
the Talmudist. Rabbinic opposition to Hasidism was eventually mitigated in
the face of a more serious threat to both groups: the western European see Age
of Enlightenment and the various modernizing movements that it
generated within Judaism.

E. Modern
Tendencies


The
civil emancipation of European Jewry, a process complicated by lingering
anti-Jewish sentiment, evoked different reformulations of Judaism in
western and eastern Europe. In the west (particularly in Germany) Judaism
was reformulated as a religious confession like modern Protestantism.
The German Reform movement abandoned the hope of a return to Zion (the
Jewish homeland), shortened and aestheticized the worship service,
emphasized sermons in the vernacular, and rejected as archaic much Jewish
law and custom. The Reform rabbi took on many of the roles of the
Protestant minister. Early Reform theologians such as Abraham Geiger and
Samuel Holdheim, influenced by German philosophers Immanuel Kant and G. W.
F. Hegel, emphasized ethics and a belief in human progress. Right-wing
Reformers, led by Zacharias Frankel, favored the retention of Hebrew and
more traditional customs. Modern Orthodoxy, championed by Samson
R. Hirsch in opposition to the Reformers, sought a blend of
traditional Judaism and modern learning.
In
eastern Europe, where Jews formed a large and distinctive social group,
modernization of Judaism took the form of cultural and ethnic nationalism.
Like the other resurgent national movements in the east, the Jewish
movement emphasized the revitalization of the national language (Hebrew;
later also Yiddish) and the creation of a modern, secular literature and
culture. Zionism,
the movement to create a modern Jewish society in the ancient homeland,
took firm hold in eastern Europe after its initial formulations by Leo
Pinsker in Russia and Theodor Herzl in Austria. Zionism was a secular
ideology but it powerfully evoked and was rooted in traditional Judaic
messianism, and it ultimately led to the creation of the state of Israel
in 1948.
V.
Judaism in America

The
contemporary American Jewish community is descended largely from central
European Jews who immigrated in the mid-19th century and, particularly,
from eastern European Jews who arrived between 1881 and 1924, as well as
more recent refugees from, and survivors of, the Holocaust.
The multiple forms of Judaism in America—Reform, Conservative,
Orthodox—have resulted from the adaptation of these Jewish immigrant
groups to American life and their accommodation to one another.
Institutionally, Judaism in America has adopted the strongly
congregationalist structure of American Christianity. Although affiliated
with national movements, most congregations retain considerable autonomy.

A. Reform
Judaism

Reform
Judaism, the first movement to define itself, was largely German at the
outset. In America, it was influenced by liberal Protestantism and
particularly by the Social
Gospel movement. Its national institutions, all founded in the 1870s
and 1880s by Isaac
M. Wise, are the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (UAHC), the
Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR), and the Hebrew Union
College, the oldest surviving rabbinical school in the world (which merged
in 1950 with the more Zionist-oriented Jewish Institute of Religion). Once
the bastion of religious rationalism, the Reform movement since the 1940s
has put more emphasis on Jewish peoplehood and traditional religious
culture. Its orientation remains liberal and nonauthoritarian. The Hebrew
Union College—Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati, Ohio, ordained
its first woman rabbi in 1972, and the Reform movement has worked to
increase the participation of women in religious ritual. In the year 2000
Reform rabbis voted to affirm gay and lesbian unions. While supporting
same-sex unions, the CCAR, which passed the resolution, left it to
individual rabbis to decide whether to perform such ceremonies and what
kind of ritual to use.

B.
Conservative Judaism

The
Conservative movement embodies the sense of community and folk piety of
modernizing eastern European Jews. It respects traditional Jewish law and
practice while advocating a flexible approach to Halakah. Its major
institutions, founded at the turn of the century, are the Jewish
Theological Seminary of America (JTSA), the United Synagogue of
Conservative Judaism (USCJ), and the Rabbinical Assembly (RA). An offshoot of the Conservative
movement is the Reconstructionist movement founded by Mordecai M. Kaplan
in the 1930s. Reconstructionism advocates religious naturalism while
emphasizing Jewish peoplehood and culture. Reconstructionists began to
ordain women rabbis in the 1970s, and in 1983 the JTSA voted to admit
women to its rabbinical program and ordain them as Conservative rabbis.
Outside of the US Conservative Judaism and its official association is
called Masorti.

C.
Orthodoxy


American
Orthodoxy is not so much a movement as a spectrum of traditionalist
groups, ranging from the modern Orthodox, who try to integrate traditional
observance with modern life, to some Hasidic sects that attempt to shut
out the modern world. The immigration to America of many traditionalist
and Hasidic survivors of the Holocaust has strengthened American
Orthodoxy. No single national institution represents all Orthodox groups.
Among the synagogue organizations are the Union of Orthodox Jewish
Congregations and Young Israel (“modern” Orthodox) and Agudas Israel;
among the rabbinical groups, the Rabbinical Council of America
(“modern”) and the Rabbinical Alliance of America; and among the
rabbinical schools, Isaac Elchanan Seminary at Yeshiva University and the
Hebrew Theological College (“modern”) in Skokie, Illinois, and
numerous small European-type yeshivas (talmudic academies). The
Synagogue Council of America is a forum for discussion and joint action
among these movements.

D.
Significance of Israel

American
Judaism has been profoundly affected by the Nazi destruction of European
Jewry and the founding of the modern state of Israel. The Holocaust and
Israel are closely linked in the perceptions of most contemporary Jews as
symbols of collective death and rebirth—profoundly religious themes.
Israel has a religious dimension, embodying Jewish self-respect and the
promise of messianic fulfillment. All movements in American Judaism
(excepting the ultra-Orthodox sectarians) have become more Israel-oriented
in the past decades. Both the Reform and Conservative movements have been
striving to achieve legal recognition and equal status with Orthodoxy in
the state of Israel, where marriage, divorce, and conversion are
controlled by the Orthodox rabbinate, which is backed in the government by
the important National Religious Party.