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THE PITTSBURGH PLATFORM
—
HUNDRED YEARS ON
A
hundred years ago today something Tather important happened in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: important that is, for the history of Pro—
gresfive Judaism.
But before
I
tell you what it was, let me fill you
in on the background.
Progressive Judaism, as
I
am sure everybody knows, began in Germany
at the beginning of the nineteenth century.
people, and it was only
a
It was Started by lay
generation later, towards the middle of the
century, that a number of‘rabbis were drawn into the movement and be—
came its leaders, chief among them Abraham Geiger.
but several of his colleagues emigrated to America.
He stayed in Germany,
One of them was
David Einhorn, who settled in Baltimore, then_Philadelphia and ultimate—
ly New York: a man of prophetic fervour and champion of civil rights.
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Another was Isaac Mayer Wiseblwho settled first in Albany, then in
Cincinnati, and founded the great institutions of American Progressive
‘Judaism such as the Union of American Hebrew Congregaéions and the
Hebrew Union College, which he served as President for the rest of the
century.
A
third, though a generation younger, was Kaufmann Kohler.
connections with all the people
I
have mentioned.
For he was
He had
a
disciple
of Geiger; he married Einhorn's daughter and succeeded him in New York;
and he ultimately succeeded Wise as President of the Hebrew Union College.
Kohler was only twenty—six when he arrived in America and settled in
Detroit.
That same year he attended
a
conference convened by Einhorn
in Philadelphia which drew up a set of principles of Progressive Judaism,
known as the Philadelphia Platform.
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But Kohler was not satisfied, and in 1885 he took the initiative
in convening another conference,
this time in Pittsburgh.
It began
on the sixteenth of November, which was a Monday, and was attended by
fifteen rabbis, including Wise but not'Einhorn, who was no longer alive.
By the end of the first day the conference had agreed a new set of
principles which became known as the Pittsburgh Platform.
It was in
its time, and remained for fifty years, the most important self-definit—
ion of Progressive Judaism; and though it has since been superseded,
thought it might be instructive as well as appropriate if this morn/
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close look at it, which is why copies of the text have been distributed.
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But just before we look at the text let me say a word or two about
the sequel.
In 1903 Kohler became President of the Hebrew Union College.
Two years later there arrived there one of its most brilliant students,
Israel Mattuck, who became our first rabbi.
So there is a continuous
chain of tradition which stretches from Geiger through Einhorn, then
Kohler, to Mattuck and his disciples.
Soon after Rabbi Mattuck came
to England the First World War broke out and swept
optimism of the nineteenth century.
away much of the
It was followed a few years later
by the rise of Hitler, then the Se§ond World War and the Holocaust,
which swept away most of what had remained of nineteenth—century optim>ism.
It was during the gathering of the clouds, in 1937, at a meeting
of the Central Conference of American Rabbis in ColumbuSIOhio, that
the Pittsburgh Platform was finally discarded in favour of a new
statement, known as the 'Guiding Principles' or the 'Columbus Platform'.
After the War the State of Israel was established, producing
a
further
shift'in Jewish attitudes, and finally, in 1976, which marked the centenary of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, yet another
platform was agreed, which superseded all the previous ones and became
known as the 'Centenary Perspective'.
Of course none of these platforms have ever been formally adopted in
this country. gThey are strictly American.' But they reflect changes in
outlook which have occurred on this side of the Atlantic also;[énd of
all the Progressive movements in fhe world, our own Union of Liberal
and Progressive Synagogues is probably closerin spirit to the American
movement than any other] What, therefore, we want to ask ourselves as
we go through the Pittsburgh Platform is, on the one hand, how far we
have travelled from it, and, on the other, how far it nevertheless ex—
presses beliefs and aspirations which we still cling to.
If,
then, you will look at the first clause you will see that it be—
gins, where it should begin, with God.
With remarkable modernity for
its time,;i§ acknowledges that there is authenticity in other religious
traditions also, but goes on to assert that "Judaism presents the high—
est conception of the God-idea".
Platform is
a
By way of comparisoh,
the Columbus
little more modest; it merely says that "the doctrine of
the One, living God" is "the heart of Judaism and its chief contribution
religion";[yhile the Centenary Perspective, while afffifiing God, says
that Jews have "conceived of God in many ways" and wistfully acknowledges
to
that “the trials of our own time...have made steady belief and Clear
understanding difficult for some."
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.The sepond clause is about the Bible, which it describes both as
a
"record" and as an "instrument of religious and moral instruction" but
which, it says, must be understood in the light of "modern discoveries"
and is then seen as sometimes "reflecting the primitive ideas of its
own age".
We,
I
think, would go along with that but would prefer to
put it more positively, as the Columbus Platform does when it says that
"Revelation is
a
continuous process" and that the Torah "enshrines
Israel's ever—growing consciousness of God and of the moral law."
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stage in the history of our people
which became obsolete long ago excepging only that the "moral laws"
remain binding and that those "ceremonies" are to be maintained which
"elevate and sanctify our lives",[énd that does 322 include those which
"regulate diet”, priestly purity and dress"
All that is, of course, an over—
simplification.
Jewish law does not fall so neatly into two categories,
moral and ceremonial.
There are many more, and they overlap, and all
of them deserve careful study for the relevance they may (or may not)
still have.
We would therefore prefer, would we got, the wording of
the Columbus Platform which says of the Torah, "Being products of hist—
orical processes, certain of its laws have lost their binding force with
the passing of the conditions that called them forth" but that neverthe—
less "the Torah remains the dynamic source" of Jewish lifeC>and "each
age has the obligation to adapt" its teachings to ifis needs]
Furthermore, although it remains true that ceremonies must "elevate
and sanctify", there is no Simple rule for determining which of them
—
_
5
_
are capable of doing so, and not a few which former generations discarded have been found to be religiously valuable, after all.
Perspective strikes,
I
The Centenary
think, the right balance when it says: "Within
each area of Jewish observance" Progressive Jews "are called upon to
confront the claims of Jewish tradition...and to exercise their individual
autonomy, choosing and creating on the basis of commitment and knowledge."
Clauses Five and Six of the Pittsburgh Platform are, on the face of
_\
them,the most dated.
For they speak with an optimismc and
a
confidence
<::i::‘wu"k::>which the past hundred years have all too tragically
falsified.
The modern era, they say, is one of "universal culture of
heart and intellect" and heralds "the realization of Israel's great
Messianic hope for fhe establishment of the kingdom of truth, justice
and peace among all men".
Again, they refer to "the spirit of broad
humanity of our age" as presaging
future
-
-
one gathers in the fairly near
"the establishment of the feign of truth and righteousness
among men."
In other words, the Messianic Age is just round the corner!
And because the Pittsburgh Rabbis believed that, because they saw the
glittering vista of universal brotherhood and peace as attainable within
only a generation or two, therefore the idea of
a
return to Palestine,
which in 1885 had only just begun to be advocated in Eastern Europe,
seemed to them unnecessary, incongruent and irrelevant.
We, with hindsight, know better
-
or, rather, different.
We know
that the world has not changed; or if it has changea for the better,
it has also changed for the worse, andnone of us can say with any con—
fidence whether, compaked with
a
hundred years ago, we are
a
little
nearer along the road towards the messianic goal or, on the contrary,
farther away from it.
Certainly our Jewish experience in the last
hundred years, and especially in the last fifty, has made the re-
establishmept of
a
highly relevant but
Jewish autonomous state in Palestine not only
a
dire necessity.‘ And that experience, in its
turn, is now seen by us, in retrospect, as
a
continuation of
a
long
past.
[Erime Minister Shimon Peres put the point extraordinarily well,
I
thought, when, in his speech at the United Nations General Assembly
last month (on 21st Octoberh he said to the delegates: "Search the map
of Western civilization across the ages: Not a place will be found
where Jews were not persecuted.
Save for the New World, you will find
yourselves marching along the trail of Jewish blood and tears, tracing
the chronology of Jewish martyrdom.
for two thousand years
—
This was the history of my people
until there came a point when the Jews tired
of dependence on the hatred_or tolerance of others to settle their
fate."
This;" said Mr. Peres, "is the very essence
of Zionism."i]
In that sense, at least, we all affirm Zionism nowadays, do we not?
At any rate, we would surely endorse what the Columbus Platform says
about that: that "in the rehabilitation of Palestine
,
the land hallowed
by memories and hopes, we behold the promise of renewed life for many
of our brethren", and what the Centenary Perspective says, that the
State of Israel provides "unique opportunities for Jewish self—expression“,
[glthough we would also go along with it when it redresses the balance
by speaking of "the mandate of our tradition to create strong Jewish
communities wherever we live" and by affirming that "a genuine Jewish
life is possible in any land."i1
_
7
_
‘So yes, the Pittsburgh Platform is
dated.
It was drawnlép in an
age so different from ours that we can hardly imagine what it must have
been like to live in it.
We can respect and we can envy the optimism
of those fifteen rabbis gathered in Pittsburgh in
share it.
with them
And yet we share with them
—
at least five
—
convictions.
1885, but we cannot
that is to say,
2929 we share
First, that Judaism is about
I
Goa and<<:::> His will, about good and evil, right and wrong.
that Judaism is a developing religion.
Secondly,
It has developed in the past, in
response to changing circumstances, and it must do so in the present and
_the future if it is to keép pace with truth and answer to the needs of
succeeding generations.
Thirdly, that through this Judaism of ours we
contribution to make to the spiritfial and moral well—being of
mankind. We have a service to render. God is still saying to us, as
have
a
He said to our ancestors in Patriarchal times: V‘HIT-BAR'CHU V'ZAR—ACHA
KOL GOYEY HA—ARETZ, "Through your descendants all the nations of the
earth shall be blessed" (Gen. 26:4).
Fourthly, that, much as we re-
joice in the existence of the State of Israel, nevertheless it is possible
to live as Jews in other lands, and indeed it is
if we are to render such a service to mankind,
a
positively desirable,
that we should maintain
presence throughout God's earth, and that we should work together
with our fellow human beings of other races, nations and religiofis for
the betterment of human society; that, to quote from the last clause of
the Pittsburgh Platform, it is 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 society.”
~..
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And finally this, that though the Messianic Age is not round the corner,
and the road to it is long and winding and full of difficulties and ob-
stacles, nevertheless, under God's providence, our children's children
will get there in the end.
We do not say it glibly.
to say it at all after what we have experienced.
We hardly dare
But deep down we yet
know that it is true, that "the path of the righteous is as the light
of dawn, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day" (Prov. 4:18).
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