Editing Abraham Geiger (section)

==Geiger and Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform Judaism==

===Geiger's rejection of Orthodox Judaism===
To Geiger, Judaism was unique because of its monotheism and ethics. He began to identify less with the "rigidity of Talmudic legalism, developed over centuries of ghettoization inflicted by Christian Intolerance ... in medieval Christendom",{{sfn|Heschel|2007}} that defined and confined the existence of [[Orthodox Judaism]] in the 19th century in Germany. He believed that, "the Torah, as well as the Talmud, should be studied critically and from the point of view of the historian, that of evolution [and] development".{{sfn|Singer|Hirsch|1906}} As Geiger grew into his adolescence and young adulthood, he began to establish a more liberal approach to, and understanding of, Judaism than his traditional Orthodox Jewish background dictated. He thus rejected Orthodox Jewish tradition in favor of a liberal outlook.

===Conservative Judaism's rejection of Geiger===
In 1837, Geiger arranged a meeting of reform-minded rabbis in Wiesbaden for the purpose of discussing measures of concern to Judaism,{{sfn|Singer|Hirsch|1906}} and continued to be a leader of liberal German rabbinical thought through 1846. When he was nominated as a finalist for the position of Chief Rabbi in [[Breslau]] in 1838, it ignited a heated controversy between conservative and liberal factions within the Jewish community. Orthodox factions accused Geiger of being a [[Karaite Judaism|Karaite]] or [[Sadducee]], and therefore prevented him from being appointed Chief Rabbi. In 1840, however, the Orthodox Rabbi of Breslau died, leading to the secession of the Orthodox faction and the appointment of Geiger as Chief Rabbi.{{sfn|Heschel|2007}}

Throughout his time in Breslau as Chief Rabbi and after, the Positive-Historical School of Rabbi [[Zecharias Frankel]] continued to reject Geiger's philosophies. In 1841, he and Frankel clashed at the [[Hamburg Temple disputes|second Hamburg Temple dispute]]. When the [[Jewish Theological Seminary of Breslau|Jewish Theological Seminary]] was founded there in 1854, thanks in part to Geiger's efforts, he was not appointed to its faculty, though he had long been at the forefront of attempts to establish a faculty of Jewish theology. More conservatives regarded Geiger's theological stance as too liberal. Therefore, in 1863, Geiger left Breslau to become a Rabbi of liberal communities in Frankfurt and, later, Berlin. "Ultimately, in 1871, he was appointed to the faculty of the newly founded Reform rabbinical college in Berlin, [[Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums]], where he spent his final years."{{sfn|Heschel|2007}}

===A new approach to Reform Judaism===
Initially, Reform Judaism grew out of some Jews being uninterested in the "strict observances required of Orthodoxy", and an attempt to alter the appearance and ritual of Judaism to mimic German Protestantism. Geiger, however, turned to a more "coherent ideological framework to justify innovations in the liturgy and religious practice".{{sfn|Heschel|2007}} Geiger argued that, "Reform Judaism was not a rejection of earlier Judaism, but a recovery of the Pharisaic halakhic tradition, which is nothing other than the principle of continual further development in accord with the times, the principle of not being slaves to the letter of the Bible, but rather to witness over and over its spirit and its authentic faith-consciousness."{{sfn|Heschel|2007}}