The Rabbinical Conference of Brunswick was a conference held in 1844 in Brunswick, convoked by Levi Herzfeld and

Ludwig Philippson Ludwig Philippson (28 December 1811 – 29 December 1889) was a German rabbi and author. Early life and education Ludwig Philippson was born in Dessau, the son of , a printer, writer, teacher, translator, publisher and a member of the Haskalah. H ...

. Other attendees included Solomon Formstecher,

Samuel Hirsch Samuel Hirsch, (June 8, 1815 – May 14, 1889) was a major Reform Judaism philosopher and rabbi who mainly worked and resided in present-day Germany in his earlier years. He promoted the radical German Reform Judaism movement and published several ...

Mendel Hess Rabbi Mendel Hess (March 17, 1807, Lengsfeld (now Stadtlengsfeld), Saxe-Weimar - September 21, 1871, Eisenach) was a German rabbi. Biography He was one of the first Jewish theologians to combine a university education with Talmudical training ...

Samuel Holdheim Samuel Holdheim (1806 – 22 August 1860) was a German rabbi and author, and one of the more extreme leaders of the early Reform Movement in Judaism. A pioneer in modern Jewish homiletics, he was often at odds with the Orthodox community.(Histo ...

. Although he did not attend due to impending death, following the conference Áron Chorin, on his death-bed, wrote a declaration of his support of its conclusions. The following summer a synod at

Frankfort-on-the-Main Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its n ...

heard reports commissioned by the Brunswick session that dealt with various liturgical, practical, and theological topics. At this 1845 synod rabbis attending it declared that women count in a

minyan In Judaism, a ''minyan'' ( he, מניין \ מִנְיָן ''mīnyān'' , lit. (noun) ''count, number''; pl. ''mīnyānīm'' ) is the quorum of ten Jewish adults required for certain religious obligations. In more traditional streams of Jud ...

, a formalization of a customary Reform practice dating back to 1811. Responding to the various complaints raised over the centuries against the

Kol Nidre Kol Nidre (also known as Kol Nidrey or Kol Nidrei; Aramaic: ''kāl niḏrē'') is a Hebrew and Aramaic declaration which is recited in the synagogue before the beginning of the evening service on every Yom Kippur ("Day of Atonement"). Strictly ...

, the 1844 rabbinical conference decided unanimously that the formula was not essential, and that the members of the convention should exert their influence toward securing its abolition, before the following

Yom Kippur Yom Kippur (; he, יוֹם כִּפּוּר, , , ) is the holiest day in Judaism and Samaritanism. It occurs annually on the 10th of Tishrei, the first month of the Hebrew calendar. Primarily centered on atonement and repentance, the day's ...

. The conference endorsed the

Grand Sanhedrin The Grand Sanhedrin was a Jewish high court convened in Europe by Napoleon to give legal sanction to the principles expressed by an assembly of Jewish notables in answer to the twelve questions submitted to it by the government.Jew. Encyc. v. 468 ...

's conclusions, except that they went further in relation to inter-faith marriage, arguing that the marriage of a Jew with the adherent of any

monotheistic Monotheism is the belief that there is only one deity, an all-supreme being that is universally referred to as God. Cross, F.L.; Livingstone, E.A., eds. (1974). "Monotheism". The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (2 ed.). Oxford: Oxford ...

religion is permissible in Judaism, as long as the civil law in the place of marriage permits the children of such a union to be raised in the Jewish religion. They also decided that the oath of a Jew would be binding if it invoked the name of God, regardless of any other consideration. Some Jews opposed the decisions of the conference;

Israel Moses Hazan Israel Moses Hazan (1808 October 1862 in Beirut) was a Sephardic rabbi from Smyrna. Life He was taken by his father Eliezer Hazan to Jerusalem (1811), where he was educated under his grandfather, Joseph ben Hayyim Hazan. In 1840 he became a membe ...

wrote a letter condemning the reforms advocated by it.

Hirsch Lehren Hirsch Lehren, also known as Tsebi Hirsch Lehren (April 1784, The Hague - September 1853, Amsterdam) was a Dutch Jewish merchant and community worker. Lehren was prominent in the history of the Ḥaluḳḳah in the first half of the nineteenth cen ...

, circulated a letter among several rabbis, which in the autumn following the conference resulted in a protest, signed by seventy-eight Orthodox rabbis of Germany, Bohemia, Moravia, and Hungary, against the results of the conference.June 12-19, 1844; see "Univ. Isr." 1845, ii. 12 et seq.

References

External links

Full protocol in German

An Orthodox condemnation
facsimile, 1844. Rabbinical organizations Religion in Braunschweig 1844 in Germany Duchy of Brunswick Reform Judaism in Germany {{jewish-hist-stub