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A defense of the first Reform Rabbinical Congress, The Brunswick Conference (June 12-19, 1844) in Germany. Attended by the following reform minded rabbis: A. Adler of Worms; S. Adler of Alzey; Ben Israel of Coblenz; Bodenheimer of Hildesheim; Adler of Minden; Formstecher of Offenbach; Frankfurter of Hamburg; Geiger of Breslau; Goldman of Kurhessen; Heidenheim of Sondershausen; Herzfeld of Brunswick; Herxheimer of Bernburg; Hess of Weimar; Hirsch of Luxemburg; Hoffmann of Meiningen; Holdheim of Mecklenburg-Schwerin; Jolowicz of Marienwerder; J. Kahn of Treves; Klein of Pomerania; Maier of Stuttgart, who was president of the conference; Philippson of Magdeburg; Salomon of Hamburg; Schott of Randegg; Sobernheim of Bingen.
The purpose of the conference was declared to be "to consider the ways and means for the preservation of Judaism, and the awakening of the religious spirit." The reform resolutions passed by the conference were as follows:
"The oath of a Jew is binding without any further ceremony than the invocation of the name of G-d. The prayer 'Kol Nidre' is unessential; and the members of the conference were to take steps to abolish it on the following Day of Atonement."
The conference endorsed the responsa of the French Sanhedrin, with the exception of the third, which it changed to read: "The marriage of a Jew with a Christian - in fact, the marriage of a Jew with the adherent of any monotheistic religion - is not forbidden if the civil law permits the parents to raise in the Jewish religion the children issuing from such a union."
The Brunswick conference called forth huge protests from many German and Hungarian rabbis. Publications such as, Asef Asifah, Protestation Gegen die Rabbinerversammlung von D. Deutsch, Rabbiner in Sohrau, O. S. were written in opposition. In defense was issued this lot "Die Erste Rabbinerversammlung und Ihre Gegner," by Kirchenrath Dr. Maier.
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