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The male child of a Jewish mother is by the fact of its birth, just as much as the female child, a member of the Jewish community, even without circumcision.
With the lapse of time, men begin to grow more thirsty and hungry for changes and reform. Let us continue to make changes, was the order of the day. What need we care? We are living in a free country and anything that savours Jewishness should be tabooed. Therefore another Conference was convened at Pittsburg in 1885, at which the following resolutions were unanimously adopted:
Art. 1 declares that Judaism conveys the highest conception of God of His relation to man; that God is the Creator and Ruler of the World, Father and Educator of the human race.
Art. 2 treasures the Holy Scriptures as the record of divine Revelation, and of the consecration of the Jewish people as the missionaries of the One God. In composition and literary arrangement, the Scriptures are only the work of men, with the unavoidable limitations of their age.
Art. 3 welcomes the result of natural science as the best help to the understanding of the working of divine Law in the world, the Bible serving as guide to illustrate the Divine Power working within us.
Art. 4 regards the Mosaic laws as intended for the training of the Jews of Palestine in their former surroundings: that only the moral laws are divine; and that all social, political, and priestly statutes, inconsistent with our modern habits and views, are to be rejected.
Art. 5 declares that the Mosaic-rabbinical laws on diet, purity, and dress fail to imbue modern Jews with the spirit of priestly holiness; and that their observance to day would obstruct rather than enhance moral and spiritual elevation.
