Reform Judaism The Reform movement, at the other end of the religious spectrum from Orthodoxy, began in nineteenth-century Germany as an attempt to help modern Jews appreciate their religion rather than regarding it as antiquated, meaningless, or even repugnant. In imitation of Christian churches, synagogues were redefined as places for spiritual elevation, with choirs added for effect, and the Sabbath service was shortened and translated into the vernacular. The liturgy was also changed to eliminate references to the hope of return to Zion and animal sacrifices in the Temple. Halakhic observances were re-evaluated for their relevance to modern needs, and Judaism was understood as an evolving, open-ended religion rather than one fixed forever by revealed Torah. [LR, 275]

Reconstructionism Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, a highly influential American thinker who died in 1983, branched off from Conservatism (which initially rejected his ideas as too radical), and founded a movement called Reconstructionism. Kaplan held that the Enlightenment had changed everything and that strong measures were needed to preserve Judaism in the face of rationalism. Kaplan asserted that “as long as Jews adhered to the traditional conception of the Torah as supernaturally revealed, they would not be amenable to any constructive adjustment of Judaism that was needed to render it viable in a non-Jewish environment.”...Kaplan created a new prayer book, deleting traditional portions he and others found offensive, such as derogatory references to women and Gentiles, references to physical resurrection of the body, and passages describing God as rewarding or punishing Israel by manipulating natural phenomena such as rain. Women were accepted fully into synagogue participation. [LR, 276]

Secular Jewish Humanism In addition to those who affiliate themselves with a religious movement, there are many Jews who identify themselves as as secular Jews, affirming their Jewish origins and maintaining various Jewish cultural traditions while eschewing religious practice. [LR, 276]

Messianic Judaism Messianic Judaism is a religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, who is referred to as Yeshua by its adherents, that claims to have at least 47,000 followers and 280 congregations worldwide as of 2006.[1] [2] Like Christians, and unlike adherents of mainstream Judaism, Messianic Jews believe Jesus to be the Messiah. While Messianic Judaism identifies itself as a branch of Judaism rather than a branch of Christianity,[3] this classification is rejected by all major Jewish denominations (Orthodox Judaism, Conservative Judaism, Reform Judaism and Reconstructionist Judaism), as well as national Jewish organizations, [4] the State of Israel [5] and others. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messianic_Judaism]

What do all of these forms have in common?

The Long Search
Judaism: The Chosen People
AV 291 L85 dvd v. 7
 

The Problem of Suffering A reporter asked me, ‘Can you believe in God after the Holocaust?’ Belief is not something static. My wife and I sometimes ask, ‘Where was God?’ A million and a half Jewish children were killed. Little boys and girls who were just learning how to say, ‘Mama,’ and the grandmother said, ‘How big is the baby?’ and tried to pick up their hands. And this child was taken and thrown into a lamppost. So yes there are questions. We have no answers.        Why did Polish people, nuns and plain peasants risk their lives to save Jewish people, when they knew that for saving a Jew’s life their house would be burned down? And their children were taken into forced labor. Why did the people of Assisi save sixty Jewish people under the noses of the Nazis? The Vatican wasn’t too helpful, didn’t speak up, but they, the simple people, risked their lives. So there is goodness in the world, too. There is goodness and Godness in the hearts of those people.        The Talmud says God said, ‘You don’t believe in me? So you don’t believe in me. But keep my commandments. Care for the poor and for the widows.’ This is exactly what a lot of those Messiahs are doing.        About chosenness: My grandfather was a really Orthodox Jew. He prayed three times a day, studied, studied the Bible, was always praying, always reciting Psalms, a really generous man.  He found time to give charity. He did the same thing that I do now: He volunteered to go to the hospitals. Some of the people couldn’t afford to go to the hospital, so he went to their homes, on the fifth floors in Poland, with no elevators, sitting with somebody sick all night. On the way home he would go to services. Then at home, something to eat—dry bread, a piece of herring, imitation coffee. This is the way he lived. This man, this chosen man, was one of the first Jews of the Lodz ghetto to be taken to the concentration camp. The Nazis used gas to kill them, and then disposed of them. If this is the chosenness that God wants us for—thank you, choose another people….        I believe in God. There is a Power above us that rules our life. We do not see it, we cannot comprehend it. But there is something. I do not deny Him—or Her; maybe it’s a Her. And I don’t deny my roots. [“An Interview with Herman Taube”; LR, 269] How can one maintain one’s faith in an all-knowing, all-powerful God who allows the death of one and a half million innocent children and a total of 6 million innocent Jews? Does the Book of Job provide a satisfactory answer to the problem of “suffering”?   Then the Lord replied to Job out of the tempest and said: Who is this who darkens counsel, speaking without knowledge? Gird your loins like a man; I will ask and you will inform Me. Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundations? Speak if you have understanding. Do you know who fixed its dimensions or who measured it with a line? Onto what were its bases sunk? Who set its cornerstone when the morning stars sang together and all the divine beings shouted for joy?... Have you ever commanded the day to break, assigned the dawn its place, so that it seizes the corners of the earth and shakes the wicked out of it?... Have the gates of death been disclosed to you? Have you seen the gates of deep darkness? Have you surveyed the expanses of the earth? If you know of these—tell Me. [ALR, 198; cf. LR, 265] What about the notion that the “chosen people” will repeatedly suffer “divine retribution” so long as they fail to fulfill the covenant they established with God? What about the notion that humans (and not God) are responsible for evil in the world?