Lowenstamm, Abraham ben Aryeh Loeb. Tzeror HaChaim [“The Bond of Life”: Nine responses to the innovations of the Reform Movement]

(REFORM JUDAISM)

Moritz Weisz

Ujhely

1868

Second edition

Friedberg, TZ-416

The author instructs the prohibition of praying in a synagogue where there is an organ; castigates against the practices of abolishing the silent recitation of the Amidah, changing the formula of the prayer-book, altering from Aschkenazic custom to Sephardic custom, praying in the vernacular, praying bareheaded or in mixed company and emphasizes the firm obligation of continued belief in the Messiah (in contradistinction to the Reform omission of references to the Messiah in the prayers). First printed in Amsterdam in 1820, the fact that the book was reissued in Hungary in 1868 is not without historic significance. The battle between the Orthodox and Neolog (Reform) elements within Hungarian Jewry had reached a climax at that time. In that year, the government convened the General Jewish Congress and the polemics between the Orthodox and the Reform became the central issue of the Congress. The final outcome of the Conference was the formal division of Hungarian Jewry into three factions: Orthodox, Neolog and Status Quo Ante (i.e. those communities - such as Miskolc, in particular - which did not join either side but rather retained their pre-Congress status). See EJ, Vol. VIII, col. 1092