What is the History of Reform Judaism?
Judaism has been evolving ever since it began. It is evident within the Pentateuch itself, while the Prophets added a radical edge to the Law of Moses. The dominance of rabbinic interpretation after the first century led to a more monolithic form of Judaism, although it also engineered major changes in the beliefs, practices and development of the faith. Reform Judaism began in Germany, where the need for religious change had been heightened by the sudden emergence of the Jewish community into society at large after years of isolation. Jews had been cut off from wider social and intellectual life both by the confines of the ghetto and by numerous discriminatory laws preventing them from playing a meaningful role in European life. The collapse of the ghetto following the upheavals of the Napoleonic Wars brought a rush of new knowledge and opportunities. Whilst some Jews reacted by hiding themselves away from this new world, others by converting to Christianity, and others by abandoning
