of these paths was suggested by Adler and was made part of his proposal for a basic review of the position of women as one can see through a quick review of his essay, reprinted as an appendix to this volume.
The essay of Samuel Adler is thoroughly argued; it knowingly took liberties with the halakhah. which has always been a way of expanding the halakhah. At the subsequent meeting in Breslau (1846) a similar paper in German was given by J. Auerbach(1810-1887); it provided many parallel citations.*® This time a discussion of biblical and talmudic texts could not be avoided. Adler then proposed a far reaching resolution on feminism. He read a six point program was read to the Conference; it was the most thorough statement on the rights of women to be suggested at these meeting:
We recommend that the rabbinical conference declare woman to be entitled to the same religious rights and subject to the same religious duties as man and in accordance herewith make the following pronouncements:
1. That woman are obliged to perform such religious acts as depend on a fixed time, in-as-far as such acts have significance for our religious consciousness.
2. That women must perform all duties toward children in the same measure as mar.
3. That neither the husband nor the father has the right to release from her vow a daughter or a wife who has reached her religious majority.
4. That the benediction shelo asani ishah(Praised be You, O| Lord, our God who has not made me a woman), which owed|
its origin to the belief in the religious inferiority of women be
abolished. 5. That the female sex is obligated from youth up to
participate in religious instruction and the public religious|