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Progressive communities mark the
time when a girl becomes bat mitvah
(a daughter of the commandment);
traditional custom prohibited women
from taking part in religious services.
meaning of the Hebrew word
“kashrut”) diet and therefore as
a modern, progressive expression
of the observance.
Liturgy for today
Historically, Jewish liturgy has
tended to lengthen over the
centuries as new prayers have been
added. Progressive services retain
the framework and core prayers, but
remove some repetition; prayers,
and their translations, reflect a
reworking of concepts that do not
accord with progressive beliefs,
such as the resurrection of the
dead, the restoration of the temple,
and animal sacrifices. Many
progressive liturgies avoid feudal
and gendered language both for
God and the community, referring,
for example, to the Eternal instead
of the Lord, ancestors instead of
forefathers, and including the
biblical matriarchs along with
the patriarchs.
Novel liturgical compositions
may sometimes be included,
such as poetry or prayers of
interfaith understanding, and
a shorter weekly passage from the
Torah read. In many congregations,
services are conducted in Hebrew
as well as the vernacular, and are
often accompanied by music.
Progressive Jews observe the
Hebrew festival dates given in
the Torah, as is the practice of
all Jews in the Land of Israel.
This is in contrast to Orthodox
and Conservative Jews in the
diaspora, who traditionally extend
the duration of festivals by a day,
as was the custom outside Israel
before the Hebrew calendar was
fixed in 358 CE.
Women and men in progressive
communities generally enjoy full
equality in communal leadership
(including ordination as rabbis)
and in ritual life, whether in the
synagogue or home. Girls therefore
celebrate their ritual adulthood
at the age of 13 (becoming bat
mitzvah) just as boys do (becoming
bar mitzvah) by reading publicly
from the Torah and even leading
the congregation in prayer.JUDAISM
Progressive Judaism today
The core ideals of German Reform
Judaism took root, and led to the
growth of progressive Jewish
communities in most countries
in the world today. In the UK,
Reform Judaism and Liberal
Judaism emerged, and, with
German Jewish immigration to the
US, an American Reform movement
came into being there. This gave
rise to other progressive
communities in the US, such as
Reconstructionist Judaism, and
Conservative Judaism, which is
modern in its theology but
traditional in its practices. Other
progressive forms of Judaism are
found worldwide, including in
Israel, where the faith tends toward
a more traditional expression of
Judaism than in the diaspora.
A recent worldwide resurgence
of interest in Jewish learning
across the religious spectrum
has led to an engagement with the
study of classical texts in Hebrew
for their spiritual, literary, and
ethical value. Today’s believers may
draw from a wide range of Jewish
and secular influences, and are
therefore less likely to form a
lifelong commitment to only
one of the Jewish movements. ■The past has a vote,
but not a veto.
Dr. Mordecai M. Kaplan,
Progressive theologian