The Movement for Reform Judaism

An American friend of mine was very shocked. He had been talking to British friends — all RSGB synagogue members — and advocating Reform Judaism as the way forward for British Jewry. They knocked him back, dismissing Reform as ‘inauthentic’, not proper Judaism.

Coming from a background in which Reform Judaism is confident and normative, he was stunned.

He shouldn’t have been, not if he had read Professor Steven M Cohen and Dr. Keith Kahn-Harris’s recent research for UJIA. This identifies the key characteristic of British Jewry as an obsession with authenticity — with authenticity defined by what went on in the synagogues our parents didn’t actually go to. “But don’t we believe in God, Torah, mitzvot and ma’asim tovim , as well?” he said.

Of course we do. But the persistence of the question in the face of all the evidence defines the challenge that Reform Judaism faces if it is to make a real impact on the future of British Jewry.

For the record: At the end of the 18th century Judaism encountered the modern world. There were two responses. The first was to take on the challenge and wrestle with the new ideas and thinking, just as Judaism had done when it encountered the Graeco-Roman world. We call that response Reform. The second was to insist that nothing fundamental could change, however cogent the ideas of modernity might be. We call that response Orthodox.

Of course we believe in God — but not the God of medieval literature who rewards the righteous and zaps the wicked.

Of course we believe in Torah — but not in an extra-historical document that came whistling through outer space direct from God to Moses without human mediation.

Of course we believe in mitzvot — but not in an arbitrary list of 613, frozen at some point in the 13th century.

Of course we believe in ma’asim tovim , good deeds — in fact we worship God as much in the way we behave towards our fellow human beings as we do at services.

There are good grounds for arguing that Reform Judaism is simply Judaism as it most naturally and cogently expresses itself at the beginning of the 21st century.

Authentic? Of course we are.

Would you please pass this article to anyone, Reform or not, who is seriously in doubt.

click here to read the December issue of the RSGB Newsletter

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