Some History

In the Winter 1998 Reform Judaism magazine cover story, "Is It Time To Chart a New Course for Reform Judaism?" CCAR President Rabbi Richard Levy discussed his rationale for proposing a new Pittsburgh Platform for our times and presented draft three of the "Ten Principles for Reform Judaism," which had been created in consultation with the Executive Board and membership of the Conference. In a radical departure from the Reform movement's earlier Pittsburgh Platform (1885), these guidelines called for Reform Jews to reclaim some traditional Jewish practices rejected by our Reform predecessors and to embrace new pathways to holiness and social justice. In a rebuttal, published in the same edition, entitled "This is Not the Way," Reform Rabbi Robert Seltzer argued that "we must guard against the pitfalls of turning Reform Judaism into Conservative Judaism Lite."

In response to the outpouring of comments from both rabbis and key leaders following the publication of draft three, Rabbi Levy and other CCAR leaders produced a fourth draft. At the UAHC Board meeting in December, Rabbi Levy discussed his rationale for the new draft and outlined the next steps in the process of guiding the movement toward the creation of a new platform (see Rabbi Levy's comments for details).

Voicing a somewhat different perspective in his remarks to the Board, UAHC President Rabbi Eric H. Yoffie questioned the need for a new set of principles at this time. He urged the Central Conference of American Rabbis "to proceed slowly and very deliberately."

In mid-February, the CCAR Advisory Task Force-composed of members of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, two HUC faculty members, three members of the UAHC Executive Board, and an HUC student-developed a fifth draft (now known as the "Statement of Principles") as a series of two- to three- sentence headlines.

As we went to press in mid-April, revisions were still being made to the fifth draft for presentation of the statement at the Central Conference of American Rabbis convention in Pittsburgh, May 21-26, 1999.

0n May 5th, the CCAR posted a sixth draft of the principles, which is proposed for adoption at the 1999 Pittsburgh convention.

NEW INFO: On May 26, after heated debate and several rewordings, the Central Conference of American Rabbis voted 324-to-68 to accept the new platform, entitled "A Statement of Principles for Reform Judaism."