The American Reform movement (UAHC/URJ)

American Reform Judaism took shape during the nineteenth century, with the founding in 1873 of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (later the Union for Reform Judaism), initiated notably by Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise, and the opening of the Hebrew Union College to train its rabbis. Inspired by the German Reform movement, it adapted the liturgy, theology, and practice to the conditions of liberal North American life, as evidenced by successive doctrinal platforms beginning with that of Pittsburgh in 1885. The movement favored an evolutionary approach to tradition, granting a prominent place to ethics and the autonomy of conscience. It was a pioneer in equality between men and women, ordaining women as rabbis from the 1970s onward, and in the inclusion of LGBT persons. It constitutes today one of the principal currents of Judaism in the United States.

Sources & resources

• Encyclopaedia Judaica — 2e éd., Keter/Macmillan
• Jewish Virtual Library ↗