On the 29th of Cheshvan, 5630, 135 years ago, at the Philadelphia Conference (Nov. 3-6, 1869), the leading Reform Rabbis of the day adopted two resolutions dealing with the attitude of Reform Judaism to Zionism, and the attempts to
re-establish a Jewish Homeland in the Land of Israel. Led by Rabbi Samuel Hirsch, they totally rejected a modern return to Palestine, stating that the dispersion was an end in itself, in order that the Jews serve as a “Light unto the Nations”.
The resolutions stated:
1) The Messianic aim of Israel is not the restoration of the old Jewish state under a descendant of David, involving a second separation from the nations of the earth, but the union of all the children of G-d in the confession of the unity of G-d, so as to realize the unity of all rational creatures and their call to moral sanctification.
2) We look upon the destruction of the second Jewish commonwealth not as a punishment for the sinfulness of Israel, but as a result of the divine purpose revealed to Abraham, which, as has become ever clearer in the course of the world's history, consists in the dispersion of the Jews to all parts of the earth, for the realization of their high-priestly mission, to lead the nations to the true knowledge and worship of G-d.
Since that initial resolution, Reform theology has evolved, albeit slowly, until today, most Reform Jews are probably unaware that, in the 1950s and `60s, the State of Israel was anathema to its leaders. The avowed goal of Reform was to eliminate every vestige of Jewish nationalism from prayer and synagogue. The attitude of Reform Judaism was best summed up by the first Reform temple in America, in Charleston in 1824. “This country is our Palestine, this city our Jerusalem, this House of G-d our Temple.” The Reform movement remained the staunchest and most potent opponent of Zionism until the advent of the Hitler years. Professors who dared demonstrate Zionist inclinations were dismissed from Hebrew Union College. Reform conventions constantly echoed and re-echoed with anti-Zionist resolutions. However, there were exceptions to the rule. Rabbis Bernard Felsenthal, Steven Wise and Abba Hillel Silver were kingpins of Zionist history. American Reform Jews changed, beginning with the opening of the Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem (1963), and especially after the Six-Day War. Not only did they formally join the Zionist movement, but they also formulated a new worldview, recognizing Israel's centrality to Judaism.
[http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=715&letter=C#2396;http://www.wzo.org.il/en/resources/view.asp?id=1437; Encyclopedia Judaica] |
