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assimilation which I will presently prove.
During 1869 after much agitation mainly through the influence of the late Dr. D. Einhorn, a conference of rabbis was convened in Philadelphia, at which the following principles of Reform Judaism was enunciated:
1. Israel's Messianic goal is not the restoration of a Jewish State and its seclusion from other nations, but the union of all peoples in the knowledge of the One Supreme God, the unification of all mankind, and their elevation to purity and holiness.
2. The destruction of Israel's independence is not to be considered as the punishment for Israel's sinfulness, but as the fulfilment of the divine purpose in sending Israel forth into the world upon its priestly mission, to lead men to a correct knowledge of God and to the performance of His will.
3. The Aaronic priesthood and the sacrificial services in the Temple were but preparatory and temporary steps to the better fitting of Israel for this world-wide task. They have therefore disappeared now forever; and all references to them in our prayers should be in the way of historical mention only.
4. The belief in a resurrection of the body has no religious foundation in Judaism: the belief in the immortality of the soul is the proper formulation for our belief in this connection.
5. The employment in worship of the Hebrew languages, in which the priceless treasures of divine revelation have been preserved and the immortal monuments of a literature dominating all civilization have been handed down, must be regulated by the knowledge or ignorance of that language by the people for whom the ritual is arranged.
