The Case of Feminism— Mechanisms of Change 11 Innovation through an authoritative voice, responsa in Judaism , represents the oldest method. It justifies or rejects an action,. This was widely used initially, but failed as too conservative, too slow and too mired in the past. Furthermore it depended on personal authority, often rejected in the name of personal autonomy. Reborn as the function of a committee, it has a bright future as it combines the voices of democracy with those of authority.

Innovation created by a gifted charismatic leader acting entirely alone has always been important, frequently within the halakhic framework. In the modern period it proved to be most useful at the beginning whether through Israel Jacobson in Germany or Isaac Mayer Wise in America . After the community had reconstructed itself and established other avenues, it played a smaller role. In the contemporary highly organized Jewish world it is a less likely to be as effective as in the past.

Through each of these ways modern Jewish life has been reconstructed and established on a firm footing in all the lands where Jews now reside. The community is vastly different from that of the eighteenth century, yet in many ways stronger and more resilient. The unsettled atmosphere of the early nineteenth century gave way with Surprising rapidity to new forms of organization. It created contemporary voluntary world in which Judaism depends entirely on internal discipline along with perhaps social pressure, as no external Mechanisms are available. Personal autonomy works for some but ‘ommunity demands voluntary discipline. This can be and is established through any and all of the mechanisms that have evolved.

hey have created a new type of Jewish community that functions in an entirely different manner. It forms a continuum with the past despite the extraordinary differences. Judaism is narrower as many raditional tasks and functions belong to the nation states in which we