Pittsburgh Platform
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The Union of American Hebrew Congregations (UAHC) adopted the Pittsburgh Platform in 1885. It was the culmination of a meeting of American Reform Rabbis from November 16-19, 1885. The Pittsburgh Platform is the founding document of what has come to be called "Classical Reform" ideology and was a pivotal document in the history of the American Reform movement in Judaism.
The Pittsburgh Platform called for American Jews to adopt a modern approach to their Judaism. It explicitly called for a rejection of those laws which have a ritual, rather than moral, basis. An example of a ritual rejected by the Pittsburgh Platform is kashrut, or the observance of Jewish dietary laws. These ritual laws were seen as detracting from Jewish life in the modern era by placing undue emphasis on ritual, rather than ethical considerations.
Instead of a nation, the Pittsburgh Platform envisioned Jews as a religious community within a nation. For this reason, there was an explicit rejection of Zionism. Zionism was viewed as unnecessary, because American Jews were at home in America. The Pittsburgh Platform also calls for a recognition of the inherent worth of Christianity and Islam, although it still held that Judaism was the "highest conception of the God-idea."
The Pittsburgh Platform helped shape the future of American Reform Judaism by calling for American Jews to engage in acts of social justice. Today this principle is adopted by the Reform movement among others through their commitment to Tikkun Olam (the repair of the world).
There were many early leaders of the "Classical Reform" ideology, including Rabbi Kaufmann Kohler, Isaac Mayer Wise, and David Marx.
