The Rise of Reform Judaism

A Sourcebook of Its European Origins

W. Gunther Plaut

• Publisher: The Jewish Publication Society
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9780827612792
• Topic: Teología y religión
• Subtopic: Teología judía

This fiftieth anniversary edition of W. Gunther Plaut's classic volume on the beginnings of the Jewish Reform Movement is updated with a new introduction by Howard A. Berman. The Rise of Reform Judaism covers the first one hundred years of the movement, from the time of the eighteenth-century Jewish Enlightenment leader Moses Mendelssohn to the conclusion of the Augsburg synod in 1871.

In these pages the founders who established liberal Judaism speak for themselves through their journals and pamphlets, books and sermons, petitions and resolutions, and public arguments and disputations. Each selection includes Plaut's brief introduction and sketch of the reformer. Important topics within Judaism are addressed in these writings: philosophy and theology, religious practice, synagogue services, and personal life, as well as controversies on the permissibility of organ music, the introduction of the sermon, the nature of circumcision, the observance of the Sabbath, the rights of women, and the authenticity of the Bible.

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Introduction to the 50th Anniversary Edition by Howard A. Berman
• Foreword by Solomon B. Freehof
• Introduction
• Chapter I: Trail Blazers
• Chapter II: New Temples, New Prayer Books
• Chapter III: The Great ControversyTiktin Vs. Geiger
• Chapter IV: Conferences and Synods
• Chapter V: New Patterns of Thought
• Chapter VI: A People and its Faith
• Chapter VII: Worship Reform
• Chapter VIII: Sabbath and Holiday Observance
• Chapter IX: The Personal Life
• Chapter X: The Community
• Bibliographical Notes
• Index
• Back Cover