PRIMARY SOURCE - REFORMED JUDAISM

Freedom of religion not only offered people the right to follow a religion of their choice, but how they chose to believe in a specific religion. A large example of this is Judaism. Originally, the only type of Judaism that was acknowledged was Orthodox Judaism. Reform Judaism was created by a group of Jewish businessmen. They argued, "We wish not to overthrown but to rebuild; we wish not to destroy but to reform and revise the evils complained of; we wish not to abandon the institutions of Moses but to understand and observe them" This idea is so interesting because it directly connects to the idea of modernizing a religion. These business men argued that the idea that prayers were only to be read and preformed in hebrew would eventually cause modern day Jews to stop following the religion. They argued that the most popular language within the United States was English. Most Jews within that time period who were living in America chose English as their first language. Therefore, they argued that if they wanted Judaism to continue to remain a strong and followed religion, they needed to make Judaism more modernized. They argued that their were certain tradidions that were too difficult to practice within American society. Therefore, they needed to keep the most important traditions, and modernize the traditions that would challenge maintaining a Jewish Society.

"The Beginning of Reform Judaism," Annals of American History.