–part of the origins of the German Reform Movement:
(meaning, the origins of Reform Judaism in Germany)
Starting in 1806, the journal Sulamith provided a forum for Jewish educators to discuss their vision of religious reform. The journal was started by two teachers of Judaism in Dessau (Germany), David Frankel and Joseph Wolf.
Articles in the journal presented ideas that often repeated in the discussions of previous reformers:
• an appreciation for Kantian universalism as a universal religion
• the belief that Judaism represented the highest form of morality but was backwards in other ways
• a distinction between ceremony and “true religion”
• envisioning reform as a separation ‘of the wheat from the chaff’
• concern that traditional Jewish customs made Jews too different from their neighbors