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Primary source: Central Conference of American Rabbis, The Pittsburgh Platform, 1885.
Caption: In 1885, American Reform rabbis met in Pittsburgh to outline the basic principles of American Reform Judaism.
Reform rabbis from around the United States met from November 16 through November 19, 1885. . . . The rabbis adopted the following seminal text:
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3. We recognize in the Mosaic legislation a system of training the Jewish people for its mission during its national life in Palestine, and today we accept as binding only its moral laws, and maintain only such ceremonies as elevate and sanctify our lives, but reject al[l] such as are not adapted to the views and habits of modern civilization.
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8. In full accordance with the spirit of the Mosaic legislation, which strives to regulate the relations between rich and poor, we deem it our duty to participate in the great task of modern times, to solve, on the basis of justice and righteousness, the problems presented by the contrasts and evils of the present organization of society.
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Central Conference of American Rabbis, The Pittsburgh Platform, 1885; reprinted in The Jew in the Modern World: A Documentary History, Paul R. Mendes-Flor and Jehuda Reinharz, eds. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1980), 371–72 (page citations refer to the reprint).
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