Reform Judaism began in Germany, praying in everyday language and adapting old customs to modern life.
Began in Germany with Israel Jacobson's synagogue at Seesen (1810) and the Hamburg Temple (1818): sermons and some prayers in the vernacular, an organ, and a view of Jewish law as evolving rather than fixed. Reform institutions developed differently across countries.
The tree's references for this branch: Britannica: Reform Judaism · Union for Reform Judaism: History of the Reform Movement · Wikipedia: Reform Judaism.
Lineage: Israel and Judah: the First Temple›Second Temple Judaism›Rabbinic Judaism›Reform Judaism
Reform Judaism began in Germany in the early 1800s, among Jews who wanted worship they could follow and a Judaism that could live in the modern world. It is now the largest Jewish movement in the United States.
Israel Jacobson opened a synagogue at Seesen in 1810 with a sermon in German, an organ and hymns, and the Hamburg Temple followed in 1818 with a prayer book that shortened the service and translated much of it 17,18,12. Abraham Geiger gave the movement its argument: that Judaism had visibly developed through its whole history, that scholarship could show how, and that it could therefore develop again 13,12,10. Rabbinical conferences in the 1840s worked through what that meant for Hebrew, the Sabbath and the laws of the body, and the traditionalists who would not follow, Frankel among them, went their own way 12,10.
In America the movement grew fastest. Isaac Mayer Wise built its institutions: a union of congregations in 1873, a seminary in Cincinnati in 1875, and a conference of rabbis in 1889, which are today the Union for Reform Judaism, Hebrew Union College and the Central Conference of American Rabbis 14,1,7. In 1885 the rabbis met at Pittsburgh and issued a declaration of principles that accepted as binding only the moral law of Moses, kept only those ceremonies that elevate and sanctify our lives, and rejected the rest as not adapted to the views and habits of modern civilization 4,16. That is the high-water mark of what is now called classical Reform, and the movement has been walking back from it ever since 12,1.
See it on the family treeReform Judaism holds that God is one, that the prophets' demand for justice is the heart of the Torah, and that revelation continues rather than having stopped. Each Jew is expected to study the tradition seriously and then to decide what it asks of them.
The 1885 platform put the ethical above the ritual so sharply that it read the Mosaic legislation as training for an earlier stage of the people's life 4. The movement changed its mind in stages: at Columbus in 1937 it embraced peoplehood and the rebuilding of a Jewish home in Palestine, and in 1999 it returned to the language of commandment, committing itself to the ongoing study of the whole array of mitzvot and to the fulfilment of those that address us as individuals and as a community 3,5,12.
What did not change is where the decision sits. In Reform Judaism the individual Jew, informed by study and by the community, chooses which practices to take on, and the rabbi teaches rather than rules 5,6,9. From that follow the movement's best-known positions: complete equality for women, including as rabbis and cantors; the welcome of gay and lesbian Jews and of interfaith families; and the 1983 decision that a child of one Jewish parent of either sex, raised as a Jew, is a Jew, which Orthodox and Conservative Judaism do not accept; Reconstructionists had already adopted a comparable position in 1968 25 19,12,6. The phrase most used for the movement's public work is tikkun olam, repairing the world 6,9. The prophet behind that emphasis is Micah, whose call for justice, mercy and humility is often emphasized 23.
A Reform service is shorter than a traditional one, mixes Hebrew with the local language, and is usually accompanied by music. Men and women sit together and take equal parts. Most congregations call the building a temple.
The prayer book in North America is Mishkan T'filah, published in 2007, which prints Hebrew, transliteration, a translation and an alternative reading across each opening, so that people who cannot read Hebrew are not left out 20,6. Instruments were among the movement's earliest changes and remain, from the organ at Seesen to guitars now 17,12. The Sabbath is kept as a day of rest and gathering rather than by the traditional list of prohibited work, and the festivals are observed, with many congregations keeping one day where tradition keeps two 6,9. Bar and bat mitzvah are near universal, confirmation for older teenagers is a Reform contribution, and social action, from food banks to advocacy, is treated as part of worship rather than beside it 1,2,6.
Reform Jews read the Torah as a human record of an encounter with God, shaped by the times it was written in, and study it with the tools of history and archaeology. The movement's own commentary prints those questions on the page.
The Torah: A Modern Commentary, edited by Gunther Plaut and published in 1981, gives the Hebrew, a translation, and a commentary that takes modern scholarship as a matter of course, and The Torah: A Women's Commentary followed in 2008 with a woman scholar on every portion 6,12. The Torah is read on a cycle and carried through the congregation as in any synagogue, and the same text is treated as authoritative for what it asks rather than for its literal account of events 5,9. Read here: the JPS translation of 1917, an earlier Jewish English translation, distinct from the later JPS TANAKH used in modern study editions 24, the pointed Hebrew of the Leningrad Codex, and the Modern Hebrew Bible. The versions guide sets out what each Jewish movement reads.
Free to read here: JPS TaNaKH 1917, תנ״ך, Leningrad Codex, the Modern Hebrew Bible. The full note on which Bible Reform Judaism use, with sources ›
These passages illustrate themes discussed in this profile; they are not a survey of members' favorite verses. Each is quoted from the JPS TaNaKH 1917 and links to its chapter. You can explore the text for study or personal reflection; memorization is optional.
It hath been told thee, O man, what is good, and what the LORD doth require of thee: only to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God.
To do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God. No verse is quoted more often in Reform pulpits, and the 1885 platform is an argument about it.
But let justice well up as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.
Let justice well up as waters. Thirteen words that carry the prophetic emphasis at the centre of Reform Judaism.
Yea, He saith: 'It is too light a thing that thou shouldest be My servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the offspring of Israel; I will also give thee for a light of the nations, that My salvation may be unto the end of the earth.'
A light unto the nations. Reform Judaism read this as the Jewish people's mission to the wider world, and built its early self-understanding on it.
And God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them.
Male and female created He them. The verse behind the movement's insistence on the equal standing of women, decades before it was common.
Justice, justice shalt thou follow, that thou mayest live, and inherit the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.
Justice, justice shalt thou follow. The repetition is the point, and it is written over the doors of more than one Reform congregation.
About four in ten American Jewish adults identify as Reform, more than any other movement. Progressive Judaism also has communities across Europe, Israel, Latin America and the former Soviet Union.
Pew found in 2020 that 37 percent of American Jewish adults identify as Reform, against 17 percent Conservative and 9 percent Orthodox, though the Reform share falls among younger adults 11. The World Union for Progressive Judaism links Reform, Liberal, Progressive and Reconstructionist communities in about fifty countries 8,12. In Israel the movement is small and its rabbis' conversions and marriages are not recognised by the state rabbinate, a restriction it has fought in the courts for decades 8,9. The movement's congregations are the most likely to include interfaith families and Jews by choice, an emphasis that also raises differences with other movements about Jewish status 11,19.
Reform approaches to ritual, Hebrew prayer and Jewish peoplehood have changed over time. Classical Reform dropped Hebrew, the dietary laws, the skullcap and the hope of return to Zion, and the Pittsburgh Platform of 1885 declared that Jews are no longer a nation but a religious community 4,16. The Columbus Platform of 1937 revised that position, and congregations spent the later twentieth century putting back the Hebrew, the tallit and the festivals their grandparents had removed 3,12,6. The 1983 decision on patrilineal descent has consequences individuals still meet: a person Reform Judaism counts as a Jew may not be counted by the Conservative or Orthodox movements or by the Israeli rabbinate 19,12.
Early Reform congregations used the word deliberately. Traditional Judaism prays for the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem; calling the local synagogue a temple said that this place, here, is where Jews now meet God, and that no return was awaited. The name stuck even after the movement's view of Zion changed 12,16,4.
Traditional Jewish law counts a child as Jewish if the mother is Jewish. In 1983 the American Reform rabbis decided that a child of one Jewish parent, mother or father, who is raised as a Jew, is a Jew. The Conservative and Orthodox movements and the Israeli rabbinate do not accept the decision 19,12.
Both hold that Judaism has developed historically. Conservative Judaism holds that Jewish law still binds and changes it through a legal process; Reform Judaism holds that the individual, informed by the tradition, decides which practices to take on. In practice the difference shows in Hebrew, the dietary laws and the Sabbath 5,12,9.
Broadly yes. The movement is called Reform in North America, Liberal or Progressive in Britain and much of Europe, and Progressive in Israel and elsewhere, and the World Union for Progressive Judaism links them. Practice varies between countries, with British Liberal Judaism historically further from tradition than American Reform 8,12.
Numbered references link the account above to its sources. These include the tradition's own documents and outside reference works. The review status below distinguishes source checking from completed member and scholarly review.
BibleVerse. “Reform Judaism: where they came from, what they hold, and the Bible they read.” bibleverse.site, version 2026-09-09, https://bibleverse.site/denominations/reformj/
Awaiting review by a member of the tradition. First published 2026-09-07; last changed 2026-09-09. Years before the common era are written BCE, and after it CE, as Jewish readers write them.
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The verse Reform Judaism has built on for two centuries. To do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.
It hath been told thee, O man, what is good, and what the LORD doth require of thee: only to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God.