Neolog: Reforming Judaism in a Hungarian Milieu

This article explores the mentality of Neolog Judaism and how its early proponents fashioned a centrist, non-ideological alternative to both Orthodoxy and German-Jewish style Reform Judaism, an alternative that emphasized Judaism’s inherent compatibility with and adaptability to the demands of citizenship. Early proponents of this Neolog mentality, such as Aron Chorin and Leopold Löw, argued that adapting Jewish practice within the framework and systemic rules of Jewish law, precedent, and custom would not undermine a commitment to traditional Judaism in any way, as Orthodox jeremiads predicted; nor would it require the sort of re-definition of Judaism that Reform Jews advocated. Four aspects of Neolog mentality, in particular, laid the foundation for this outlook: a belief that Judaism has always been inherently malleable and diverse; a willingness to see leniency as no less authentic an option than stringency (in contrast to the “humra culture” that has defined Orthodox Judaism for the last two centuries); a preference for unity over schism (contra the secession of Orthodox communities in Germany and Hungary); and the use of halachic precedent and argumentation as a mandatory part of the rationale for innovation.

Jewish Universalism?: The Nations in the Rosh Hashanah Liturgy

Today’s positive relationship with Christians and Christianity challenges the voices of particularism in Jewish tradition. To discern how contemporary Jewish leaders are guiding their communities to think about the place of Jews within the larger human community, this article analyzes commentaries on a selection of Rosh Hashanah prayers from recently published prayer books commonly used in North American congregations. These prayers’ traditional texts themselves engage in a dialectic between universalism and particularism. The commentaries’ responses range along a spectrum, from an embrace of universalism by Reform Jews, to an advocacy also, but not exclusively, for particularism, among the orthodox.

Liberale Judentum and British Reform Jews

Two narratives dominate British Jewry: (1) Do not get too close to wider society or you will assimilate physically and theologically; and (2) The only future for Jews is in Israel. Ned Curthoys in The Legacy of Liberal Judaism identifies the German Liberale tradition as offering a third option – engagement. First, engage both to learn from wider society and contribute distinctively to it. Second, question the justice of society out of the Jewish experience of injustice. Third, include uncomfortable minorities and subversive voices; do not create pariahs. Fourth, maintain a cautious optimism about collaborating beyond narrow nationalisms to create a better society. It is possible this alternative has been proven vain by history but we have no alternative but to try again. It is not a comfortable place but it is a good place to be.

Jewish Denominations and Longevity

This study examined the relationship between affiliation with one of three denominations within Judaism representing a conservative-liberal continuum of Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform Judaism. The criterion for affiliation was burial in a cemetery maintained by these denominations. Longevities of married congregants born 1850–1910 were compared, controlling for birth year. Orthodox Jews had the shortest life spans (77 years); Conservative and Reform Jews had very similar life spans (80.7 years). Differences in years of survival of husbands after death of a spouse did not differ significantly. Reform widows survived longest (16.5 years) after death of a spouse. Conservative and Reform widows did not differ significantly from one another.

The Dedication of the New Synagogue in Poznań (Posen)

THE CIRCUMSTANCES of the building of the New Synagogue are described fully in Carol Krinsky’s article. Here it should be stressed that there was a single Jewish Communal Body (Gemeinde) in Poznań, which included both those who would now be described as Orthodox and more progressive and Reform Jews. The Neue Synagoge would today be seen as a modern Orthodox house of worship. Rabbi Wolf Feilchenfeld, whose address forms the core of the pamphlet describing the dedication, was born in Glogau, Silesia in 1827. He obtained his doctorate from the University of Berlin in 1849 with a prize-winning dissertation on the ethics of the Stoics and was ordained in 1854. He studied rabbinics with Rabbi Michel Landsberg of Berlin, Rabbi Israel Lipschutz of Danzig, the author of a commentary on the Mishnah, and Rabbi Mordechai Michael Jaffe of Hamburg. Feilchenfeld’s first rabbinic post was in Düsseldorf (1855). His correspondence reveals that he found his congregation too liberal for his views and soon started to look elsewhere, without success. In 1872 he finally obtained a post more to his taste when he was appointed rabbi in Poznań, a post he held for over forty years and where his views were in harmony with the conservative and largely orthodox opinions of his congregants. He had a lifelong interest in Jewish education and while in Düsseldorf had established a Jewish teachers’ seminary, which later moved to Cologne. He was refused governmental permission to create a similar body in Prussian Poland and had to be satisfied with an institute for training Jewish communal workers for small communities, where it was necessary to combine the function of teacher with that of cantor and ritual slaughterer. He also created an association, ‘Leshon Limudim’, to encourage religious study among young people. From 1876 to 1911 he was a member of the Central Board of the Alliance Israélite Universelle and a founder of the world Orthodox union Agudas Israel. His rabbinic rulings commanded wide respect and he was also a fine pulpit speaker, as can be seen in the address reprinted here....