continues to provide it through his halakhic writings. They are based ona century and a half of such efforts in North America and Europe and have been expanded by Moshe to provide the Israeli movement with a strong foundation. His voice along with a handful of others has demonstrated the historic diversity of the halakhah. He has fought for pluralism in the Israeli halakhic realm. Moshe’s editorials and short pieces which were published in Ha-aretz, Davar, and other papers brought Reform halakhah to a broader reading public. These pieces stressed the flexibility of the halakhah through the centuries from the beginning and showed that the halakhah could accommodate major changes in the contemporary world.
During these years, Moshe proceeded with formal halakhic studies as he worked for a doctorate, which he received from the Hebrew Union College in 1991. At the same time he lectured in rabbinics at the Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem . This enabled him to meet with both the Israeli students preparing for the Reform rabbinate in Israel and with the American students who spend their first year of study in Israel , and he gained disciples.
In the late 1980s, Moshe at the same time as I sought to widen the interest in halakhah within the Reform movement. He came to Pittsburgh with the idea of some kind of halakhic setting that would meet the needs of Israel and perhaps the United States . We were both very much on the same track because I, after a decade and a half as chair of the Responsa Committee of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, had just proposed a new committee or commission that would provide a halakhic foundation for the practical issues facing us.
We decided that an independent institute would be the proper route as it could move quickly, with a minimum of structure and no bureaucracy. As Solomon B. Freehof , who had done so much for Reform halakhah had just died, we sought and received permission to use his name for the institute, founded in 1989 with its initial meeting in London . We have sponsored one or two seminars subsequently
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