Kol Nidre and Reform Jews
by
BarkinJ
10/07/2008, 12:43 PM #
The author of the article suggests that Reform Jews don't say Kol Nidre (or don't hear it recited in their synagogues):
A rabbinical conference in Brunswick in 1844 ruled unanimously that Kol Nidre
was superfluous and should be eliminated from the entire religious
tradition. This decision led numerous congregations in Western Europe
and many more Reform congregations in the United States to do just
that, or to replace the words of the prayer with a Hebrew psalm while
retaining its elegaic melody. Orthodox and Conservative congregations
still recite the words.
The suggestion is false. Though the description of the incident in question is historically accurate (and some Western European and American Reform congregations abandoned Kol Nidre), on Erev Yom Kippur you can hear Kol Nidre being sung in virtually every Reform congregation in the world.
Reform Jews have every reason to give up the prayer, since it largely deals with the halakhic (Jewish legal) system of vows. One tenet of Reform Judaism is a distancing from that legal tradition. The problem is that Kol Nidre is so important to Jewish culture and psyche that it cannot be removed, even if its actual meaning is ideologically inconsistant with what most people in the pews actually believe.