A *Progressive denomination within mainstream *Judaism. From the time of the *Enlightenment, there was an attempt to make Judaism more relevant by introducing new *prayers in the vernacular and abbreviating the traditional liturgy. Reform Judaism developed differently in different countries.
In Great Britain, Reform Judaism became very much like the *Conservative movement in the United States and a more radical movement, Liberal Judaism, was founded in the late 19th Century. In Germany, despite the reform of the liturgy, congregations remained theologically conservative. In the United States, at the Pittsburgh Platform, the Reform *rabbis pledged themselves to accepting only the laws and customs which ‘elevate and sanctify our lives’. This position was modified by the Columbus platform in 1937 and in recent years American Reform Judaism has become more traditional. In the United States, Reform rabbis are trained at the Hebrew Union College and in Great Britain, the Leo Baeck College trains both Liberal and Reform.
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