Download Varieties of Judaism - Catholic

Varieties of Judaism
Two common myths;
Js are genetic descendants of Father Abraham
Until the advent of Ref Jud in the 1800¹s all Js were homogenous and
Orthodox
Abraham and Lot
Biblical times - political and religious differences
We are all Talmudic Jews - 500 bce to 600 ce
Karaites - circa 600 ce - Bagdad and/or Alexandria - 40,000 in Israel today
After Diaspora - geographical divisions. Ashkenazi, Sephardim, Mizrachim
(China, Japan etc) Enlightenment (1650-1850
Napolean (1769-1821)
18th & 19th century - Maskilim were the leaders of the Haskalah movement.
Moses Mendelsohn (1729-86)
Jews leaving Judaism for Christianity
Reform Geiger, Holdheim, Zunz
Mostly Germany but other pockets in England, Scandanavia, Belgium
Not starting a new movement.
Between 1810 and 1820, congregations in Seesen, Hamburg and Berlin
instituted fundamental changes in traditional Jewish practices and beliefs,
such as mixed seating, single ¬day observance of festivals and the use of a
cantor/choir. Many leaders of the Reform movement took a very "rejectionist"
view of Jewish practice and discarded traditions and rituals. For example:
€ Circumcision was not practiced, and was decried as barbaric.
€ The Hebrew language was removed from the liturgy and replaced with
German.
€ The hope for a restoration of the Jews in Israel was officially
renounced, and it was officially stated that Germany was to be the new Zion.
€ The ceremony in which a child celebrated becoming Bar Mitzvah was
replaced with a "confirmation" ceremony.
€ The laws of Kashrut and family purity were officially declared
"repugnant" to modern thinking people, and were not observed.
€ Shabbat was observed on Sunday.
€ Tallis & Yarmulke
They convened synods but did not formally establish independent
organizations or a rabbinical body. During the 1840s and 1850s, separate
reform congregations were set up in two major centers of the German Jewry,
Frankfurt and Berlin. Significant step, in 1870, to create a rabbinical
seminary and research center known as the Hochschule für die Wissenschaft
des Judentums.
Orthodox
Reaction of Eastern Europe Jews. Do no like term Orthodox - Haredi - no
central organization.
Hasidim
Conservative - Masorti
R. Zecharias Frankel - Germany- 1845
Conservative Judaism is also a reaction to Reform
Consevadox - right wing Conservative
Neo Orthodox - Samson Rafael Hirsch (1808-1888) Germany
Modern Orthodoxy draws on the teachings of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook
(1864-1935
For Modern Orthodoxy secular culture and knowledge are seen as a complement
to Torah, and, to some extent, encouraged for their own sake. Some would
suggest that in Modern Orthodoxy, Judaism is enriched by interaction with
modernity, whereas in Neo-Orthodoxy human experience (and modernity) are
enriched by the application of Torah outlook and practice.
The differences between Reform and traditional branches of American Judaism
came to a head in 1883, at the "Trefa Banquet"- where shellfish and other
non-kosher dishes were served at the celebration of the first graduating
class of Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati.
The adoption of the radical Pittsburgh Platform in 1885, which dismissed
observance of the ritual commandments and Jewish peoplehood as
"anachronistic", created a permanent wedge between the Reform movement and
more traditional American Jews.
1886, prominent Sephardic Rabbis Sabato Morais and H. Pereira Mendes founded
the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) in New York City as a more traditional
alternative to Hebrew Union College. The Seminary's brief affiliation with
the traditional congregations that established the Union of Orthodox
Congregations in 1898 was severed due to the Orthodox rejection of the
Seminary's academic approach to Jewish learning.
Reconstructionist Judaism
The first split in the Conservative coalition occurred in 1963, when
followers of Mordecai Kaplan seceded from the movement to form a distinct
Reconstructionist Judaism. Kaplan had been a leading figure at JTS for 54
years. 1968, the split became formalized with the establishment of the
Reconstructionist Rabbinical College.
No anthropomorphism. God as a force. No Chooseness. If God is not a Being,
Who is doing the Choosing?
Judaism is a religious Civilization and constantly evolving. Not static.
Jewish Community Centers
All of Halachah should be catagorized as folkways and not a religious law.
Egalitarian. Congregational voice equal to Rabbi.
100 synagogues in the U.S.
Humanistic Judaism
defines Judaism as the cultural and historical experience of the Jewish
people and encourages humanistic and secular Jews to celebrate their Jewish
identity by participating in Jewish holidays and lifecycle events such as
weddings and Bar mitzvahs.
Humanistic Judaism was founded in 1963 by Rabbi Sherwin Wine, a Reform
Rabbi in Michigan who developed a Jewish liturgy that reflected his, and his
congregation¹s philosophical viewpoint by emphasizing Jewish culture,
history, and identity along with Humanistic ethics while excluding all
prayers and references to God.
Kaplan redefined God and other traditional religious terms and continued to
use traditional prayer language. Wine rejected this approach as confusing,
since participants could ascribe to these words whatever definitions they
favored. Wine tried to achieve philosophical consistency by creating rituals
and ceremonies that were purely non-theistic. Services were created for
Shabbat, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and other Jewish holidays and festivals,
often with reinterpretation of the meaning of the holiday to bring it into
conformity.
Humanistic Chanukah blessing.
"I acknowledge those processes in the universe which make for my highest
fulfillment, which predominate in it, and to which our people has been
devoted, thereby creating activities which help the individual and group
achieve self-fulfillment, one of which ennobling activities is to kindle
these Chanukah candles.²
Rabbi Kook: Atheism is a spiritual protest against the confinement of God
into the concepts and institutions of a limited religious establishment. The
tendency of unrefined people to see the divine essence as embodied in the
words and letters alone is a source of embarrassment to humanity, and
atheism arises as a pained out-cry to liberate man from this narrow and
alien pit.
Jewish renewal
A recent movement which seeks to reintroduce the ancient Judaic traditions
of mysticism and meditation, gender equality and ecstatic prayer to what
they considered moribund and uninspiring Judaic worship services.
Incorporates storytelling, yoga, chant, dance. Borrows from Hasidiam and
from Buddhism, Sufism and other fatiths.
It is not a denomination.
Marcia Prager writes:
Jewish Renewal is a "movement" in the sense of a wave in motion, a
grassroots effort to discover the modern meaning of Judaism as a spiritual
practiceŠŠ. more similar to the multi-centered civil rights or women's
movements than to contemporary denominations.
The movement's most prominent leader is Zalman Schachter-Shalomi -ordained
Lubavitch Rabbi
Not synagogues but Havurot.
OhaLah rabbinic association. Mentor training. Courses taken at established
seminaries.
Havurah movement
1973 Michael & Sharon Strassfield Jewish Catalogue: A Do-It-Yourself Kit
More intellectual and halachic than Renewal
Ethical Culture
Although started by Felix Adler it is not a Jewish movement
Workmen¹s Circle
The Workmen¹s Circle or Arbeter Ring is a Yiddish language-oriented American
Jewish
fraternal organization committed to Social Justice, Jewish Community, and
Ashkenazic
Culture. The Arbeter Ring provides old age homes, schools, camps, retreats,
affordable
health insurance, and year-round programs of concerts, lectures, and secular
holiday
celebrations.