50 Years After

We consider ourselves no longer a nation but a religious community, and therefore expect neither a return to Palestine, nor a sacrificial worship under the administration of the Sons of Aaron, nor the restoration of any of the laws concerning the Jewish State.

That was how some U. S. rabbis felt in 1885, before political Zionism was more than a dream in Jewish hearts. The rabbis were Reformed Jews, in the vanguard of the movement in the U. S. They met in Pittsburgh, drew up a "Platform" as a guide for Reformed Judaism, put their views on Zionism in paragraph No. 5. Further, their Platform rejected old Jewish ideas of bodily resurrection, of Gehenna and Eden. Mosaic and rabbinical laws of diet, priestly purity and dress the Reformed rabbis found incompatible with modern life. They staked their faith on "the indwelling of God in man," declared that modern scientific discoveries are not antagonistic with Jewish doctrine, saluted Christianity and Islam as daughter religions of Judaism.

Youngest rabbi at the Pittsburgh meeting was David Philipson, its secretary. By last week Rabbi Philipson, white-haired and goat-bearded at 72, was the only survivor of that historic gathering. Called the "dean of the Reform rabbinate," he is the shepherd of B'ne Israel Congregation in Cincinnati and honorary president of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, mouthpiece of Reform Jewry. In the latter capacity Dr. Philipson last week journeyed to Chicago for C. C. A. R.'s 46th annual meeting.

In its 50 years the Pittsburgh Platform has stood unchanged. To the conference members who, wearing no such beards of yarmulki as do their Orthodox brothers, looked much like a convention of doctors or dentists, Rabbi Samuel Goldenson key-noted in the Platform's vein: Let Jews beware of any current secular movement which tends to consider Judaism a civilization rather than a religion. But Rabbi Philipson declared the time had come to re-examine Reform Jewry's credo, see how it stacked up under modern conditions. And the conference took the first step, after stormy debate and cries of "subterfuge" and "cowardice," by reversing its stand on Zionism, resolving: "We are persuaded that acceptance or rejection of the Zionist program should be left to the determination of individual members. . . ."

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