“The Law of the Land and Jewish Law” 81

excursions were interesting, but in reality the people had already decided that the borders were looser. Civil marriage and civil divorce followed by appropriate Jewish rites rapidly became the norm as did acceptance of Gentile witnesses to the death of an individual, particularly in wartime. The rabbis could exercise some authority there, but nothing akin to what they had pos­sessed as long as the Jewish community was an autonomous unit. Now Jews could simply walk away from a decision which they did not like.

Despite some semblance of centralization, the Jewish com­munities were independent, as was clearly indicated by the numerous local prayer book editions which appeared during the nineteenth century throughout Central Europe . The Jewish citi­zen may have paid his religious taxes to the Jewish community, supported it and tacitly acknowledged its existence, but he did not need to follow its dictates. Communal pressure existed and was a factor, but not for those who truly wished to rebel. For those who were more traditional, the Jewish communities and the rabbinate of the lands of Eastern Europe in which Emancipa­ tion did not take place or only to a limited degree, remained a Pressure point. Yet the Eastern European rabbinate was less effective as the rabbinic pronouncements usually appeared in Hebrew and in closely argued legalistic writings neither seen nor understood by the general Jewish public.

The Reform movement took dina demalkhuta dina into a New sphere mainly through Abraham Geiger '’s efforts to deal with the issues raised by divorce. Compliance with the state’s Tegulations had already been agreed since the Austrian Ehep­atent of 1782, now Geiger carried matters further and stated that civil divorce alone should be recognized.’® Abraham Geiger understood divorce as a purely civil act without any moral con­tent; in Judaism it was not accompanied by any religious cere­mony, so it had no religious standing.” In America a decision Was reached at the Philadelphia Conference of the American Rabbis in 1869 5 whereas in Germany a religious divorce which acknowledged the equality of men and women and prevented the man from withholding the divorce, was adopted in 1912 at a conference in Posen.” Family law was now included in dina demalkhuta dina, as were some ritual laws, so Jewish children Were permitted to attend school on Saturday.