Judaism is the word used to describe the Jewish religion and is defined as the sum of beliefs and practices of the Jewish people, given by God and documented in the Torah (Hebrew bible) and subsequent holy scriptures of Judaism. For years, Jews in Europe lived as an excluded minority as the Christians governed the world in the political group called the Holy Roman Empire. However, there was a revolution of a sort, this was called the Enlightenment secularization which allowed for human self-realization to undergo drastic improvement.
Judaism modernity emerged with help of these Enlightened Europeans who understood the importance of diversity rather than religious myths. The goal was to remove the divide between Christians and Jews, which became successful as Jews were now looked at as equal and included in all aspects of citizenship in the prevailing capitalist nations. One of the Jewish reforms is its approach to modern life. For example, Jews could use the spoken language instead of Hebrew in worship, therefore synagogue devotions and sermons could be spoken in the native language (English, German etc). Thus, rather than the Jews considering the reform as being full of dangers and to be opposed, it was seen as a place of opportunities and to be appreciated.
In describing how one could be a Jew and still be part of a greater secular society, Reform Judaism began the journey of Judaism into the modern world and was the forge of all modern Judaism. Although the Reform was excepted by many Jews there were still some who did not agree that it was not going down the right path, thus conflicting with the rest of the Enlightened movement. This resulted in the second form of modern Judaism called Orthodox Judaism. Orthodox Judaism remains to abide by the early tradition of premodern Rabbinic Judaism. Orthodoxy beliefs are to resist any change whereas Reformed Jews believe the opposite. Reformed Jews disputed for changes that would accommodate the modern world, while the Orthodox wanted to rebuff all accommodation, although they rarely accomplished this. One common issue among Reformed Jews and Orthodox Jews was the fact that Rabbinic Jews believed there was no dilemma regarding the fact that there was no “Judaism” to pick, only God, the Torah and Israel. The Reform Jews and Orthodox Jews clash on many different issues pertaining to what Judaism should be, including those already mentioned.
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In addition, to differences amongst the so called “new Jews” and the “old Jews” the role or status of women also changed during the modernity of Judaism. In the early days of Talmudic Judaism, women were seen as property to men. For example, a father had the ability to sell his daughter as payment for a debt. A women’s sole role was to be a mother and the backbone of the family. Just as the Enlightenment brought change to Judaism overall, it also changed the status of women particularly in Western culture. Women began taking control of their lives with the help of the modern forms of Judaism which equated
