Sh Sid Tod tam JE THIET TOW od

The Case of Feminism— Mechanisms of Change 59

service and be counted for minyan; and finally, 6. That the religious majority of both sexes begin with the thirteenth year.*

This resolution which went further than anything previously suggested was discussed briefly but then tabled for action at the next rabbinic meeting which did not materialize. Many of the same matters, however,— marriage, divorce, halitzah, Shabbat , holidays, and liturgy generally— were brought up again at the synod held in Leipzig in 1869. This meeting and the following synod included lay leaders along with rabbis. The second synod, which followed in Augsburg, continued to deal with some of these practical issues, but neither undertook a broad look at the status of women. The rabbis attending the Braunschweig Conference may have been prepared for a summary of the changes that they had already made but not for the concluding point five which went further but they but also did not Want to vote negatively, so it was tabled.

The disagreement between Adler and Holdheim was fundamental to the direction of the Reform movement. Holdheim, who was a talmudic scholar, was willing to review the rabbinic tradition but equally willing to make radical changes when necessary Outside that tradition. He had stated his position quite clearly at the beginning of the conference and sought numerous occasions to turn the debates to a broader discussion of principle.’ He felt sufficiently Strongly about Adler's essay to write a sixty-page pamphlet that discussed Adler's monograph point by point; it was published Separately in Schwerin in 1846.

This debate on the basis for change ran parallel to the rabbinic Conferences, but was not part of them, so that its divisive force would ot delay or possibly destroy the meetings. This very fact demonstrated that a new way of proceeding had quickly and quietly been adopted. There was enough feeling for the older path of