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187-425: Carl Edward Sagan ( / ˈ s eɪ ɡ ən / ; SAY -gən ; November 9, 1934 – December 20, 1996) was an American astronomer , planetary scientist and science communicator . His best known scientific contribution is his research on the possibility of extraterrestrial life , including experimental demonstration of the production of amino acids from basic chemicals by exposure to light. He assembled

374-476: A Jewish activities club , a means to demonstrate some affinity to one's heritage in which even rabbinical students do not have to believe in any specific theology or engage in any particular practice, rather than a defined belief system. In regard to God, the Reform movement has always officially maintained a theistic stance, affirming the belief in a personal God . Despite this official position, some voices among

561-402: A Pulitzer Prize in 1977, he was asked to write and narrate the show. It was targeted to a general audience of viewers, who Sagan felt had lost interest in science, partly due to a stifled educational system. Each of the 13 episodes was created to focus on a particular subject or person, thereby demonstrating the synergy of the universe. They covered a wide range of scientific subjects including

748-582: A full professor at Cornell in 1970 and directed the Laboratory for Planetary Studies there. From 1972 to 1981, he was associate director of the Center for Radiophysics and Space Research (CRSR) at Cornell. In 1976, he became the David Duncan Professor of Astronomy and Space Sciences, a position he held for the remainder of his life. Sagan was associated with the U.S. space program from its inception. From

935-484: A 'b ' ", in order to distinguish the word from "millions") made him a favorite target of comic performers, including Johnny Carson , Gary Kroeger , Mike Myers , Bronson Pinchot , Penn Jillette , Harry Shearer , and others. Frank Zappa satirized the line in the song "Be in My Video", noting as well "atomic light." Sagan took this all in good humor, and his final book was titled Billions and Billions , which opened with

1122-459: A 16-year-old. Its chancellor, Robert Maynard Hutchins , had recently retooled the undergraduate College of the University of Chicago into an "ideal meritocracy" built on Great Books , Socratic dialogue , comprehensive examinations , and early entrance to college with no age requirement. As an honors-program undergraduate , Sagan worked in the laboratory of geneticist H. J. Muller and wrote

1309-490: A career goal: "That was a splendid day—when I began to suspect that if I tried hard I could do astronomy full-time, not just part-time." Sagan graduated from Rahway High School in 1951. Before the end of high school, Sagan entered an essay writing contest in which he explored the idea that human contact with advanced life forms from another planet might be as disastrous for people on Earth as Native Americans' first contact with Europeans had been for Native Americans. The subject

1496-428: A conceptual framework for reconciling the acceptance of critical research with the maintenance of a belief in some form of divine communication, thus preventing a rupture among those who could no longer accept a literal understanding of revelation. No less importantly, it provided the clergy with a rationale for adapting, changing and excising traditional mores and bypassing the accepted conventions of Jewish Law, rooted in

1683-646: A conference of like-minded young rabbis in Wiesbaden . He told the assembled that the " Talmud must go". In 1841, the Hamburg Temple issued a second edition of its prayerbook, the first Reform liturgy since its predecessor of 1818. Orthodox response was weak and quickly defeated. Most rabbinic posts in Germany were now manned by university graduates susceptible to rationalistic ideas, which also permeated liberal Protestantism led by such figures as Leberecht Uhlich . They formed

1870-877: A conservative Jewish majority had to be accommodated. Most Liberal communities in Germany maintained dietary standards and the like in the public sphere, both due to the moderation of their congregants and threats of Orthodox secession. A similar pattern characterizes the Movement for Reform Judaism in Britain, which attempted to appeal to newcomers from the United Synagogue , or to the Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism (IMPJ) in Israel. Its philosophy of continuous revelation made Progressive Judaism, in all its variants, much more able to embrace change and new trends than any of

2057-499: A degree that made it hard to formulate a clear definition of it. Early and "Classical" Reform were characterized by a move away from traditional forms of Judaism combined with a coherent theology; "New Reform" sought, to a certain level, the reincorporation of many formerly discarded elements within the framework established during the "Classical" stage, though this very doctrinal basis became increasingly obfuscated. Critics, like Rabbi Dana Evan Kaplan , warned that Reform became more of

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2244-611: A few hours a month to stargazing and reading the latest developments in research. However, amateurs span the range from so-called "armchair astronomers" to the highly ambitious people who own science-grade telescopes and instruments with which they are able to make their own discoveries, create astrophotographs , and assist professional astronomers in research. Reform Judaism The origins of Reform Judaism lie in mid-19th-century Germany , where Rabbi Abraham Geiger and his associates formulated its early principles, attempting to harmonize Jewish tradition with modern sensibilities in

2431-438: A few weeks per year. Analysis of observed phenomena, along with making predictions as to the causes of what they observe, takes the majority of observational astronomers' time. Astronomers who serve as faculty spend much of their time teaching undergraduate and graduate classes. Most universities also have outreach programs, including public telescope time and sometimes planetariums , as a public service to encourage interest in

2618-422: A flashlight shining on a photoelectric cell , which created a crackling sound, and another showed how the sound from a tuning fork became a wave on an oscilloscope . He also saw an exhibit of the then-nascent medium known as television. Remembering it, he later wrote: "Plainly, the world held wonders of a kind I had never guessed. How could a tone become a picture and light become a noise?" Sagan also saw one of

2805-584: A full understanding of itself and the divine, manifested in moral progress towards perfection. This highly rationalistic view virtually identified human reason and intellect with divine action, leaving little room for direct influence by God. Geiger conceived revelation as occurring via the inherent "genius" of the People Israel, and his close ally Solomon Formstecher described it as the awakening of oneself into full consciousness of one's religious understanding. The American theologian Kaufmann Kohler also spoke of

2992-415: A general hope for salvation . This was later refined when the notion of a personal Messiah who would reign over Israel was officially abolished and replaced by the concept of a Messianic Age of universal harmony and perfection. The considerable loss of faith in human progress around World War II greatly shook this ideal, but it endures as a precept of Reform. Another key example is the reinterpretation of

3179-523: A greater stress on community and tradition. Though by no means declaring that members were bound by a compelling authority of some sort – the notion of an intervening, commanding God remained foreign to denominational thought. The "New Reform" approach to the question is characterized by an attempt to strike a mean between autonomy and some degree of conformity, focusing on a dialectic relationship between both. The movement never entirely abandoned halachic (traditional jurisprudence) argumentation, both due to

3366-662: A growing, man-made danger and likened it to the natural development of Venus into a hot, life-hostile planet through a kind of runaway greenhouse effect . He testified to the US Congress in 1985 that the greenhouse effect would change the Earth's climate system. Sagan and his Cornell colleague Edwin Ernest Salpeter speculated about life in Jupiter's clouds , given the planet's dense atmospheric composition rich in organic molecules. He studied

3553-495: A higher and better understanding of divine will, and they can and should unwaveringly change and refashion religious precepts. In the decades around World War II , this rationalistic and optimistic theology was challenged and questioned. It was gradually replaced, mainly by the Jewish existentialism of Martin Buber and Franz Rosenzweig , centered on a complex, personal relationship with

3740-505: A hub for like-minded intellectuals, interested in the betterment of religious experience. Though the prayerbook used in Berlin did introduce several deviations from the received text, it did so without an organizing principle. In 1818, Jacobson's acquaintance Edward Kley founded the Hamburg Temple . Here, changes in the rite were eclectic no more and had severe dogmatic implications: prayers for

3927-445: A library card. He wanted to learn what stars were, since none of his friends or their parents could give him a clear answer: "I went to the librarian and asked for a book about stars [...] and the answer was stunning. It was that the Sun was a star, but really close. The stars were suns, but so far away they were just little points of light. The scale of the universe suddenly opened up to me. It

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4114-399: A matter of personal choice for the individual and not an authoritative obligation. Circumcision or Letting of Blood for converts and newborn babies became virtually mandated in the 1980s; ablution for menstruating women gained great grassroots popularity at the turn of the century, and some synagogues built mikvehs (ritual baths). A renewed interest in dietary laws (though by no means in

4301-428: A means to engage congregants, abandoning the sanitized forms of the "Classical". Another key aspect of Reform doctrine is the personal autonomy of each adherent, who may formulate their own understanding and expression of their religiosity. Reform is unique among all Jewish denominations in placing the individual as the authorized interpreter of Judaism. This position was originally influenced by Kantian philosophy and

4488-450: A meeting held in London. Originally carrying the provisional title "International Conference of Liberal Jews", after deliberations between "Liberal", "Reform" and "Modern", it was named World Union for Progressive Judaism on 12 July, at the conclusion of a vote. The WUPJ established further branches around the planet, alternatively under the names "Reform", "Liberal" and "Progressive". In 1945,

4675-400: A non-threatening object towards Earth, creating an immensely destructive weapon. In a 1994 paper he co-authored, he ridiculed a three-day-long " Near-Earth Object Interception Workshop " held by Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in 1993 that did not, "even in passing" state that such interception and deflection technologies could have these "ancillary dangers." Sagan remained hopeful that

4862-592: A particularly radical stance, arguing that the halachic Law of the Land is Law principle must be universally applied and subject virtually everything to current norms and needs, far beyond its weight in conventional Jewish Law. While Reform rabbis in 19th-century Germany had to accommodate conservative elements in their communities, at the height of "Classical Reform" in the United States, halakhic considerations could be virtually ignored and Holdheim's approach embraced. In

5049-495: A rabbi is the norm and can take anywhere from several months to several years. The process focuses on participation in congregational activities and observation of holidays and Halakha. Conversions are finalized with a meeting of the Beit Din and usually a Brit Milah and a Tevilah, though the extent to which the practice of Brit Milah is observed varies from country to country. Furthermore, the acceptance of Reform converts by other sects

5236-551: A rabbinical seminary, and the second formally ordained female rabbi in Jewish history, after Regina Jonas. Reform also pioneered family seating, an arrangement that spread throughout American Jewry but was only applied in continental Europe after World War II. Egalitarianism in prayer became universally prevalent in the WUPJ by the end of the 20th century. Religious inclusion for LGBT people and ordination of LGBT rabbis were also pioneered by

5423-478: A renewed stress on Jewish particular identity, regarding it as better suiting popular sentiment and need for preservation. One major expression of that, which is the first clear Reform doctrine to have been formulated, is the idea of universal Messianism . The belief in redemption was unhinged from the traditional elements of return to Zion and restoration of the Temple and the sacrificial cult therein, and turned into

5610-619: A role, but only in deference to tradition, and opposed analysis of the Pentateuch ; and up to Abraham Geiger , who rejected any limitations on objective research or its application. He is considered the founding father of Reform Judaism. Geiger wrote that at seventeen already, he discerned that the late Tannaim and the Amoraim imposed a subjective interpretation on the Oral Torah , attempting to diffuse its revolutionary potential by linking it to

5797-617: A school for gifted children, he has something really remarkable." However, his parents could not afford to do so. Sagan became president of the school's chemistry club, and set up his own laboratory at home. He taught himself about molecules by making cardboard cutouts to help him visualize how they were formed: "I found that about as interesting as doing [chemical] experiments." He was mostly interested in astronomy, learning about it in his spare time. In his junior year of high school, he discovered that professional astronomers were paid for doing something he always enjoyed, and decided on astronomy as

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5984-460: A scientific viewpoint, nuclear winter was a low point for Sagan, although, politically speaking, it popularized his image among the public. The adult Sagan remained a fan of science fiction, although disliking stories that were not realistic (such as ignoring the inverse-square law ) or, he said, did not include "thoughtful pursuit of alternative futures." He wrote books to popularize science, such as Cosmos , which reflected and expanded upon some of

6171-481: A steady belief difficult for some. Nevertheless, we ground our lives, personally and communally, on God's reality." The 1999 Pittsburgh Statement of Principles declared the "reality and oneness of God". British Liberal Judaism affirms the "Jewish conception of God: One and indivisible, transcendent and immanent, Creator and Sustainer". The basic tenet of Reform theology is a belief in a continuous, or progressive, revelation , occurring continuously and not limited to

6358-560: A thesis on the origins of life with physical chemist Harold Urey . He also joined the Ryerson Astronomical Society. In 1954, he was awarded a Bachelor of Arts with general and special honors in what he quipped was "nothing." In 1955, he earned a Bachelor of Science in physics. He went on to do graduate work at the University of Chicago, earning a Master of Science in physics in 1956 and a Doctor of Philosophy in astronomy and astrophysics in 1960. His doctoral thesis, submitted to

6545-409: A tongue-in-cheek discussion of this catchphrase, observing that Carson was an amateur astronomer and that Carson's comic caricature often included real science. As a humorous tribute to Sagan and his association with the catchphrase "billions and billions", a sagan has been defined as a unit of measurement equivalent to a very large number of anything. Sagan's number is the number of stars in

6732-592: A total of 1.5 million presumed to have affinity, since updated to 2.2 million – both registered synagogue members and non-affiliates who identify with it. Worldwide, the movement is mainly centered in North America. The largest WUPJ constituent by far is the Union for Reform Judaism (until 2003: Union of American Hebrew Congregations) in the United States and Canada. As of 2013, a Pew Research Center survey calculated it represented about 35% of all 5.3 million Jewish adults in

6919-486: A tremendous increase in the respectability of a then-controversial field. Sagan also helped Frank Drake write the Arecibo message , a radio message beamed into space from the Arecibo radio telescope on November 16, 1974, aimed at informing potential extraterrestrials about Earth. Sagan was chief technology officer of the professional planetary research journal Icarus for 12 years. He co-founded The Planetary Society and

7106-952: A woman and wife, and Jewish ethnicity . Davidson suggested she "worshipped her only son, Carl" because "he would fulfill her unfulfilled dreams." Sagan believed that he had inherited his sense of wonder from his father, who spent his free time giving apples to the poor or helping soothe tensions between workers and management within New York City's garment industry. Although awed by his son's intellectual abilities, Sagan's father also took his inquisitiveness in stride, viewing it as part of growing up. Later, during his career, Sagan would draw on his childhood memories to illustrate scientific points, as he did in his book Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors . Describing his parents' influence on his later thinking, Sagan said: "My parents were not scientists. They knew almost nothing about science. But in introducing me simultaneously to skepticism and to wonder, they taught me

7293-482: Is certainly not Law giving" and that it did not contain any "finished statements about God", but, rather, that human subjectivity shaped the unfathomable content of the Encounter and interpreted it under its own limitations. The senior representative of postwar Reform theology, Eugene Borowitz , regarded theophany in postmodern terms and closely linked it with quotidian human experience and interpersonal contact. He rejected

7480-502: Is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30 second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance. Carl Sagan , from Demon-Haunted World (1995) Long before the ill-fated tenure process, Cornell University astronomer Thomas Gold had courted Sagan to move to Ithaca, New York , and join

7667-588: Is political, basically a mirror of the most radically leftist components of the Democratic Party platform, causing many to say that Reform Judaism is simply 'the Democratic Party with Jewish holidays'." In Israel, the Religious Action Center is very active in the judicial field, often using litigation both in cases concerning civil rights in general and the official status of Reform Judaism within

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7854-483: Is rare, with many Orthodox and Masorti temples rejecting Reform Converts. The term "Reform" was first applied institutionally – not generically, as in "for reform" – to the Berlin Reformgemeinde (Reform Congregation), established in 1845. Apart from it, most German communities that were oriented in that direction preferred the more ambiguous "Liberal", which was not exclusively associated with Reform Judaism. It

8041-492: Is strongly identified with progressive and liberal agendas in political and social terms, mainly under the traditional Jewish rubric tikkun olam ("repairing of the world"). Tikkun olam is a central motto of Reform Judaism, and acting in its name is one of the main channels for adherents to express their affiliation. The movement's most significant center today is in North America . Various regional branches exist, including

8228-671: The Voyager Golden Record précis. During World War II , Sagan's parents worried about the fate of their European relatives, but he was generally unaware of the details of the ongoing war. He wrote, "Sure, we had relatives who were caught up in the Holocaust . Hitler was not a popular fellow in our household... but on the other hand, I was fairly insulated from the horrors of the war." His sister, Carol, said that their mother "above all wanted to protect Carl... she had an extraordinarily difficult time dealing with World War II and

8415-528: The Betty and Barney Hill abduction . To mark the tenth anniversary of Sagan's death, David Morrison , a former student of Sagan, recalled "Sagan's immense contributions to planetary research, the public understanding of science, and the skeptical movement" in Skeptical Inquirer . Following Saddam Hussein 's threats to light Kuwait 's oil wells on fire in response to any physical challenge to Iraqi control of

8602-766: The CIS and Baltic States , with 61 affiliates in Russia , Ukraine and Belarus and several thousands of regular constituents; and many other, smaller ones. With the advent of Jewish emancipation and acculturation in Central Europe during the late 18th century, and the breakdown of traditional Jewish life, the proper response to the changed circumstances became a heated concern. Radical, second-generation Berlin maskilim (Enlightened), like Lazarus Bendavid and David Friedländer , proposed to reduce Judaism to little above Deism , or allow it to dissipate entirely. A more palatable course

8789-623: The Conservative or the Orthodox . Outside North America and Britain, patrilineal descent was not accepted by most. As in other fields, small WUPJ affiliates are less independent and often have to deal with more conservative Jewish denominations in their countries, such as vis-à-vis the Orthodox rabbinate in Israel or continental Europe. Conversion within Reform Judaism has been seen as controversial by

8976-603: The International Astronomical Union 's commission on "Physical Studies of Planets and Satellites" throughout the 1950s. In 1958, Sagan and Kuiper worked on the classified military Project A119 , a secret United States Air Force plan to detonate a nuclear warhead on the Moon and document its effects. Sagan had a Top Secret clearance at the Air Force and a Secret clearance with NASA . In 1999, an article published in

9163-480: The International Space Station at the expense of further robotic missions. Former student David Morrison described Sagan as "an 'idea person' and a master of intuitive physical arguments and ' back of the envelope ' calculations", and Gerard Kuiper said that "Some persons work best in specializing on a major program in the laboratory; others are best in liaison between sciences. Dr. Sagan belongs in

9350-590: The Peabody Award , and the Hugo Award . He married three times and had five children. After developing myelodysplasia , Sagan died of pneumonia at the age of 62 on December 20, 1996. Carl Edward Sagan was born on November 9, 1934, in the Bensonhurst neighborhood of New York City's Brooklyn borough. His mother, Rachel Molly Gruber (1906–1982), was a housewife from New York City; his father, Samuel Sagan (1905–1979),

9537-557: The Public Welfare Medal , the highest award of the National Academy of Sciences for "distinguished contributions in the application of science to the public welfare." He was denied membership in the academy, reportedly because his media activities made him unpopular with many other scientists. As of 2017, Sagan is the most cited SETI scientist and one of the most cited planetary scientists. In 1980 Sagan co-wrote and narrated

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9724-613: The Saducees who had their own pre- Mishnaic halakha . Having concluded the belief in an unbroken tradition back to Sinai or a divinely dictated Torah could not be maintained, he began to articulate a theology of progressive revelation, presenting the Pharisees as reformers who revolutionized the Saducee-dominated religion. His other model were the Prophets, whose morals and ethics were to him

9911-676: The Union for Reform Judaism (URJ) in the United States and Canada, the Movement for Reform Judaism (MRJ) and Liberal Judaism in the United Kingdom, the Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism (IMPJ) in Israel, and the UJR-AmLat in Latin America; these are united within the international World Union for Progressive Judaism (WUPJ). Founded in 1926, the WUPJ estimates it represents at least 1.8 million people in 50 countries, about 1 million of which are registered adult congregants, and

10098-701: The Union progressiver Juden in Deutschland , which had some 4,500 members in 2010 and incorporates 25 congregations, one in Austria; the Nederlands Verbond voor Progressief Jodendom , with 3,500 affiliates in 10 communities; the 13 Liberal synagogues in France; the Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism (5,000 members in 2000, 35 communities); the Movement for Progressive Judaism (Движение прогрессивного Иудаизма) in

10285-516: The catchphrase "billions and billions", although he never actually used the phrase in the Cosmos series. He rather used the term "billions upon billions." Richard Feynman , a precursor to Sagan, used the phrase "billions and billions" many times in his " red books ." However, Sagan's frequent use of the word billions and distinctive delivery emphasizing the "b" (which he did intentionally, in place of more cumbersome alternatives such as "billions with

10472-558: The election of Israel . The movement maintained the idea of the Chosen People of God, but recast it in a more universal fashion: it isolated and accentuated the notion (already present in traditional sources) that the mission of Israel was to spread among all nations and teach them divinely-inspired ethical monotheism, bringing them all closer to the Creator. One extreme "Classical" promulgator of this approach, Rabbi David Einhorn , substituted

10659-453: The immortality of the soul , while the founding thinkers of Reform Judaism, like Montefiore, all shared this belief, the existence of a soul became harder to cling to with the passing of time. In the 1980s, Borowitz could state that the movement had nothing coherent to declare in the matter. The various streams of Reform still largely, though not always or strictly, uphold the idea. The 1999 Pittsburgh Statement of Principles , for example, used

10846-476: The observable universe . This number is reasonably well defined, because it is known what stars are and what the observable universe is, but its value is highly uncertain. Sagan's ability to convey his ideas allowed many people to understand the cosmos better—simultaneously emphasizing the value and worthiness of the human race, and the relative insignificance of the Earth in comparison to the Universe . He delivered

11033-462: The origin of life and a perspective of humans' place on Earth. The show won an Emmy , along with a Peabody Award , and transformed Sagan from an obscure astronomer into a pop-culture icon. Time magazine ran a cover story about Sagan soon after the show broadcast, referring to him as "creator, chief writer and host-narrator of the show." In 2000, "Cosmos" was released on a remastered set of DVDs. After Cosmos aired, Sagan became associated with

11220-517: The restoration of sacrifices by the Messiah and Return to Zion were quite systematically omitted. The Hamburg edition is considered the first comprehensive Reform liturgy. While Orthodox protests to Jacobson's initiatives had been scant, dozens of rabbis throughout Europe united to ban the Hamburg Temple . The Hamburg reformers, still attempting to play within the limits of rabbinic tradition, cited canonical sources in defence of their actions; they had

11407-628: The theophany at Sinai , the defining event in traditional interpretation. According to this view, all holy scripture of Judaism, including the Torah , were authored by human beings who, although under divine inspiration , inserted their understanding and reflected the spirit of their consecutive ages. All the People of Israel are a further link in the chain of revelation, capable of reaching new insights: religion can be renewed without necessarily being dependent on past conventions. The chief promulgator of this concept

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11594-410: The "special insight" of Israel, almost fully independent from direct divine participation, and English thinker Claude Montefiore , founder of Liberal Judaism , reduced revelation to "inspiration", according intrinsic value only to the worth of its content, while "it is not the place where they are found that makes them inspired". Common to all these notions was the assertion that present generations have

11781-400: The 1810s and 1820s, the circles ( Israel Jacobson , Eduard Kley and others) that gave rise to the movement introduced confirmation ceremonies for boys and girls, in emulation of parallel Christian initiation rite. These soon spread outside the movement, though many of a more traditional leaning rejected the name "confirmation". In the "New Reform", Bar Mitzvah largely replaced it as part of

11968-625: The 1930s and onwards, Rabbi Solomon Freehof and his supporters reintroduced such elements, but they too regarded Jewish Law as too rigid a system. Instead, they recommended that selected features will be readopted and new observances established in a piecemeal fashion, as spontaneous minhag (custom) emerging by trial and error and becoming widespread if it appealed to the masses. The advocates of this approach also stress that their responsa are of non-binding nature, and their recipients may adapt them as they see fit. Freehof's successors, such as Rabbis Walter Jacob and Moshe Zemer , further elaborated

12155-558: The 1950s onward, he worked as an advisor to NASA , where one of his duties included briefing the Apollo astronauts before their flights to the Moon . Sagan contributed to many of the robotic spacecraft missions that explored the Solar System , arranging experiments on many of the expeditions. Sagan assembled the first physical message that was sent into space: a gold-plated plaque , attached to

12342-468: The 1977 series of Royal Institution Christmas Lectures in London. Sagan was a proponent of the search for extraterrestrial life. He urged the scientific community to listen with radio telescopes for signals from potential intelligent extraterrestrial life-forms . Sagan was so persuasive that by 1982 he was able to get a petition advocating SETI published in the journal Science , signed by 70 scientists, including seven Nobel Prize winners. This signaled

12529-475: The Associated British Synagogues (later Movement for Reform Judaism ) joined as well. In 1990, Reconstructionist Judaism entered the WUPJ as an observer. Espousing another religious worldview, it became the only non-Reform member. The WUPJ claims to represent a total of at least 1.8 million people – these figures do not take into account the 2013 PEW survey, and rely on the older URJ estimate of

12716-471: The Burroughs novels. That same year, mass hysteria developed about the possibility that extraterrestrial visitors had arrived in flying saucers , and the young Sagan joined in the speculation that the flying "discs" people reported seeing in the sky might be alien spaceships. Sagan attended David A. Boody Junior High School in his native Bensonhurst and had his bar mitzvah when he turned 13. In 1948, when he

12903-452: The CCAR headed by Rabbi Denise Eger . The next in size, by a wide margin, are the two British WUPJ-affiliates. In 2010, the Movement for Reform Judaism and Liberal Judaism respectively had 16,125 and 7,197 member households in 45 and 39 communities, or 19.4% and 8.7% of British Jews registered at a synagogue. Other member organizations are based in forty countries around the world. They include

13090-564: The Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, was entitled Physical Studies of the Planets . During his graduate studies , he used the summer months to work with planetary scientist Gerard Kuiper , who was his dissertation director , as well as physicist George Gamow and chemist Melvin Calvin . The title of Sagan's dissertation reflected interests he had in common with Kuiper, who had been president of

13277-405: The Earth but to forestall or postpone developing the technological methods that would be needed to defend against them. He argued that all of the numerous methods proposed to alter the orbit of an asteroid , including the employment of nuclear detonations , created a deflection dilemma : if the ability to deflect an asteroid away from the Earth exists, then one would also have the ability to divert

13464-557: The English translation (though not in the original), a measure that was condemned by several Reform rabbis as a step toward religious humanism . During its formative era, Reform was oriented toward lesser ceremonial obligations. In 1846, the Breslau rabbinical conference abolished the second day of festivals ; during the same years, the Berlin Reform congregation held prayers without blowing

13651-546: The Holocaust." Sagan's book The Demon-Haunted World (1996) included his memories of this conflicted period, when his family dealt with the realities of the war in Europe, but tried to prevent it from undermining his optimistic spirit. Soon after entering elementary school, Sagan began to express his strong inquisitiveness about nature. He recalled taking his first trips to the public library alone, at age five, when his mother got him

13838-444: The Jewish people to be its priests. It was grounded on a wholly theistic understanding, although the term "God-idea" was excoriated by outside critics. So was the 1937 Columbus Declaration of Principles, which spoke of "One, living God who rules the world". Even the 1976 San Francisco Centenary Perspective, drafted at a time of great discord among Reform theologians, upheld "the affirmation of God... Challenges of modern culture have made

14025-419: The Jewish public in general, before and during the rise of Reform) in the early stages of the movement. It was a major characteristic during the "Classical" period, when Reform closely resembled Protestant surroundings. Later, it was applied to encourage adherents to seek their own means of engaging Judaism. "New Reform" embraced the criticism levied by Rosenzweig and other thinkers at extreme individualism, laying

14212-476: The MRJ allows its clergy to participate in celebration of civil marriage, though none allow a full Jewish ceremony with chupah and the like. In American Reform, 17% of synagogue-member households have a converted spouse, and 26% an unconverted one. Its policy on conversion and Jewish status led the WUPJ into conflict with more traditional circles, and a growing number of its adherents are not accepted as Jewish by either

14399-590: The Orthodox and Masorti sects. Due to the Reform movement's progressive views on what it means to be a Jew, the conversion process has been criticized and often unrecognized by more conservative sects, yet conversions through the Reform movement are legally recognized by the Israeli government and thus entitled to citizenship under the Law of Return. Converts through Reform Judaism are accepted based on their sincerity, regardless of their background or previous beliefs. Studying with

14586-458: The Orthodox, they insisted that the People Israel was created by divine election alone, and existed solely as such. The 1999 Pittsburgh Platform and other official statements affirmed that the "Jewish people is bound to God by an eternal B'rit , covenant". As part of its philosophy, Reform Judaism anchored reason in divine influence, accepted scientific criticism of hallowed texts and sought to adapt Judaism to modern notions of rationalism. Judaism

14773-542: The PhD level and beyond (as of 2024). Contrary to the classical image of an old astronomer peering through a telescope through the dark hours of the night, it is far more common to use a charge-coupled device (CCD) camera to record a long, deep exposure, allowing a more sensitive image to be created because the light is added over time. Before CCDs, photographic plates were a common method of observation. Modern astronomers spend relatively little time at telescopes, usually just

14960-511: The Ram's Horn , phylacteries , mantles or head covering , and held its Sabbath services on Sunday. In the late 19th and early 20th century, American "Classical Reform" often emulated Berlin on a mass scale, with many communities conducting prayers along the same style and having additional services on Sunday. An official rescheduling of Sabbath to Sunday was advocated by Kaufmann Kohler for some time, though he retracted it eventually. Religious divorce

15147-504: The U.S., making it the single most numerous Jewish religious group in the country. Steven M. Cohen deduced there were 756,000 adult Jewish synagogue members – about a quarter of households had an unconverted spouse (according to 2001 findings), adding some 90,000 non-Jews and making the total constituency roughly 850,000 – and further 1,154,000 "Reform-identified non-members" in the United States. There are also 30,000 in Canada. Based on these,

15334-569: The URJ claims to represent 2.2 million people. It has 845 congregations in the U.S. and 27 in Canada, the vast majority of the 1,170 affiliated with the WUPJ that are not Reconstructionist. Its rabbinical arm is the Central Conference of American Rabbis , with some 2,300 member rabbis, mainly trained in Hebrew Union College . As of 2015, the URJ was led by President Rabbi Richard Jacobs , and

15521-424: The United States and in Britain and the rest of the world, is characterized by larger affinity to traditional forms and diminished emphasis on harmonizing them with prevalent beliefs. Concurrently, it is also more inclusive and accommodating, even towards beliefs that are officially rejected by Reform theologians, sometimes allowing alternative differing rites for each congregation to choose from. Thus, prayerbooks from

15708-407: The age of emancipation . Brought to America by German-trained rabbis, the denomination gained prominence in the United States , flourishing from the 1860s to the 1930s in an era known as "Classical Reform". Since the 1970s, the movement has adopted a policy of inclusiveness and acceptance, inviting as many as possible to partake in its communities rather than adhering to strict theoretical clarity. It

15895-480: The ages. However, practices were seen as a means to elation and a link to the heritage of the past, and Reform generally argued that rituals should be maintained, discarded or modified based on whether they served these higher purposes. This stance allowed a great variety of practice both in the past and the present. In "Classical" times, personal observance was reduced to little beyond nothing. The postwar "New Reform" lent renewed importance to practical, regular action as

16082-465: The award-winning 13-part PBS television series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage , which became the most widely watched series in the history of American public television until 1990. The show has been seen by at least 500 million people across 60 countries. The book, Cosmos , written by Sagan, was published to accompany the series. Because of his earlier popularity as a science writer from his best-selling books, including The Dragons of Eden , which won him

16269-573: The backbone of the nascent Reform rabbinate. Geiger intervened in the Second Hamburg Temple controversy not just to defend the prayerbook against the Orthodox, but also to denounce it, stating the time of mainly aesthetic and unsystematic reforms has passed. In 1842, the power of progressive forces was revealed again: when Geiger's superior Rabbi Solomon Tiktin attempted to dismiss him from the post of preacher in Breslau , 15 of 17 rabbis consulted by

16456-470: The belief that all religions would unite into one, and it later faced the challenges of the Ethical movement and Unitarianism . Parallel to that, it sought to diminish all components of Judaism that it regarded as overly particularist and self-centered: petitions expressing hostility towards gentiles were toned down or excised, and practices were often streamlined to resemble surrounding society. "New Reform" laid

16643-521: The biblical text . Believing that Judaism became stale and had to be radically transformed if it were to survive modernity, he found little use in the legal procedures of halakha , arguing that hardline rabbis often demonstrated they will not accept major innovations anyway. His venture into higher criticism led him to regard the Pentateuch as reflecting power struggles between the Pharisees on one hand, and

16830-406: The board stated his unorthodox views were congruous with his post. He himself differentiated between his principled stance and quotidian conduct. Believing it could be implemented only carefully, he was moderate in practice and remained personally observant. Second only to Geiger, Rabbi Samuel Holdheim distinguished himself as a radical proponent of change. While the former stressed continuity with

17017-677: The book The Cold and the Dark: The World after Nuclear War and in 1990 the book A Path Where No Man Thought: Nuclear Winter and the End of the Arms Race , which explains the nuclear-winter hypothesis and advocates nuclear disarmament . Sagan received a great deal of skepticism and disdain for the use of media to disseminate a very uncertain hypothesis. A personal correspondence with nuclear physicist Edward Teller around 1983 began amicably, with Teller expressing support for continued research to ascertain

17204-628: The book's 1997 motion-picture adaptation , which starred Jodie Foster and won the 1998 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation. On it, everyone you ever heard of... The aggregate of all our joys and sufferings, thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilizations, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every hopeful child, every mother and father, every inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every superstar, every supreme leader, every saint and sinner in

17391-407: The central venue for active participation for many affiliates, even leading critics to negatively describe Reform as little more than a means employed by Jewish liberals to claim that commitment to their political convictions was also a religious activity and demonstrates fealty to Judaism. Dana Evan Kaplan stated that " Tikkun Olam has incorporated only leftist, socialist-like elements. In truth, it

17578-502: The ceremonial ones. Reform thinkers often cited the Prophets ' condemnations of ceremonial acts, lacking true intention and performed by the morally corrupt, as testimony that rites have no inherent quality. Geiger centered his philosophy on the Prophets' teachings (he had already named his ideology "Prophetic Judaism" in 1838), regarding morality and ethics as the stable core of a religion in which ritual observance transformed radically through

17765-548: The children of two Jewish parents. This decision was taken by the British Liberal Judaism in the 1950s. The North American Union for Reform Judaism (URJ) accepted it in 1983, and the British Movement for Reform Judaism affirmed it in 2015. The various strands also adopted a policy of embracing the intermarried and their spouses. British Liberals offer "blessing ceremonies" if the child is to be raised Jewish, and

17952-419: The civil ones ( memonot ), where the Law of the Land applied. Another measure he offered, rejected almost unanimously by his colleagues in 1846, was the institution of a "Second Sabbath" on Sunday, modeled on Second Passover , as most people desecrated the day of rest. The pressures of the late Vormärz era were intensifying. In 1842, a group of radical laymen determined to achieve full acceptance into society

18139-421: The core sciences, a competency examination, experience with teaching undergraduates and participating in outreach programs, work on research projects under the student's supervising professor, completion of a PhD thesis , and passing a final oral exam . Throughout the PhD training, a successful student is financially supported with a stipend . While there is a relatively low number of professional astronomers,

18326-424: The creator, and a more sober and disillusioned outlook. The identification of human reason with Godly inspiration was rejected in favour of views such as Rosenzweig's, who emphasized that the only content of revelation is it in itself, while all derivations of it are subjective, limited human understanding. However, while granting higher status to historical and traditional understanding, both insisted that "revelation

18513-456: The credibility of the winter hypothesis. However, Sagan and Teller's correspondence would ultimately result in Teller writing: "A propagandist is one who uses incomplete information to produce maximum persuasion. I can compliment you on being, indeed, an excellent propagandist, remembering that a propagandist is the better the less he appears to be one." Biographers of Sagan would also comment that from

18700-481: The data) or theoretical astronomy . Examples of topics or fields astronomers study include planetary science , solar astronomy , the origin or evolution of stars , or the formation of galaxies . A related but distinct subject is physical cosmology , which studies the Universe as a whole. Astronomers usually fall under either of two main types: observational and theoretical . Observational astronomers make direct observations of celestial objects and analyze

18887-903: The data. In contrast, theoretical astronomers create and investigate models of things that cannot be observed. Because it takes millions to billions of years for a system of stars or a galaxy to complete a life cycle, astronomers must observe snapshots of different systems at unique points in their evolution to determine how they form, evolve, and die. They use this data to create models or simulations to theorize how different celestial objects work. Further subcategories under these two main branches of astronomy include planetary astronomy , astrobiology , stellar astronomy , astrometry , galactic astronomy , extragalactic astronomy , or physical cosmology . Astronomers can also specialize in certain specialties of observational astronomy, such as infrared astronomy , neutrino astronomy , x-ray astronomy , and gravitational-wave astronomy . Historically , astronomy

19074-489: The effects of nuclear war , when Paul Crutzen 's "Twilight at Noon" concept suggested that a substantial nuclear exchange could trigger a nuclear twilight and upset the delicate balance of life on Earth by cooling the surface. In 1983 he was one of five authors—the "S"—in the follow-up "TTAPS" model (as the research article came to be known), which contained the first use of the term " nuclear winter ", which his colleague Richard P. Turco had coined. In 1984 he co-authored

19261-506: The fair's most publicized events: the burial at Flushing Meadows of a time capsule , which contained mementos from the 1930s to be recovered by Earth's descendants in a future millennium. Davidson wrote that this "thrilled Carl." As an adult, inspired by his memories of the World's Fair, Sagan and his colleagues would create similar time capsules to be sent out into the galaxy: the Pioneer plaque and

19448-469: The field is popular among amateurs . Most cities have amateur astronomy clubs that meet on a regular basis and often host star parties . The Astronomical Society of the Pacific is the largest general astronomical society in the world, comprising both professional and amateur astronomers as well as educators from 70 different nations. As with any hobby , most people who practice amateur astronomy may devote

19635-489: The field. Those who become astronomers usually have a broad background in physics, mathematics , sciences, and computing in high school. Taking courses that teach how to research, write, and present papers are part of the higher education of an astronomer, while most astronomers attain both a Master's degree and eventually a PhD degree in astronomy, physics or astrophysics . PhD training typically involves 5-6 years of study, including completion of upper-level courses in

19822-636: The first physical messages sent into space, the Pioneer plaque and the Voyager Golden Record , which were universal messages that could potentially be understood by any extraterrestrial intelligence that might find them. He argued in favor of the hypothesis, which has since been accepted, that the high surface temperatures of Venus are the result of the greenhouse effect . Initially an assistant professor at Harvard , Sagan later moved to Cornell University , where he spent most of his career. He published more than 600 scientific papers and articles and

20009-494: The focus of controversy. Its proponents vacillated whether and to what degree it should be applied against the contemporary plight. Opinions ranged from the strictly Orthodox Azriel Hildesheimer , who subjugated research to the predetermined sanctity of the texts and refused to allow it practical implication over received methods; via the Positive-Historical Zecharias Frankel , who did not deny Wissenschaft

20196-481: The gentiles. The short-lived community employed fully traditional ("orthodox") argumentation to legitimize its actions, but is often regarded a harbinger by historians. A relatively thoroughgoing program was adopted by Israel Jacobson , a philanthropist from the Kingdom of Westphalia . Faith and observance were eroded for decades both by Enlightenment criticism and apathy, but Jacobson himself did not bother with those. He

20383-433: The great weight it lent to personal judgement and free will. This highly individualistic stance also proved one of the movement's great challenges, for it impeded the creation of clear guidelines and standards for positive participation in religious life and definition of what was expected from members. The notion of autonomy coincided with the gradual abandonment of traditional practice (largely neglected by most members, and

20570-503: The grudging support of one liberal-minded rabbi, Aaron Chorin of Arad , though even he never acceded to the removal of prayers for the sacrifices. The massive Orthodox reaction halted the advance of early Reform, confining it to the port city for the next twenty years. As acculturation and resulting religious apathy spread, many synagogues introduced mild aesthetic changes, such as vernacular sermons or somber conduct, yet these were carefully crafted to assuage conservative elements (though

20757-444: The hands of the merchants and the artisans. This tendency found its most effective advocate in a follower of Pythagoras named Plato" and Astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth . Astronomers observe astronomical objects , such as stars , planets , moons , comets and galaxies – in either observational (by analyzing

20944-504: The history of our species, lived there on a mote of dust, suspended in a sunbeam. ... Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Carl Sagan, Cornell lecture in 1994 Sagan wrote a sequel to Cosmos , Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space , which

21131-441: The ideas of others for little more than self-promotion. An advisor from his years as an undergraduate student, Harold Urey , wrote a letter to the tenure committee recommending strongly against tenure for Sagan. Science is more than a body of knowledge; it is a way of thinking. I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time – when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all

21318-562: The institution. Sagan instead asked to be made an assistant professor, and eventually Whipple and Menzel were able to convince Harvard to offer Sagan the assistant professor position he requested. Sagan lectured, performed research, and advised graduate students at the institution from 1963 until 1968, as well as working at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory , also located in Cambridge, Massachusetts . In 1968, Sagan

21505-479: The journal Nature revealed that Sagan had included the classified titles of two Project A119 papers in his 1959 application for a scholarship to University of California, Berkeley . A follow-up letter to the journal by project leader Leonard Reiffel confirmed Sagan's security leak. From 1960 to 1962 Sagan was a Miller Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley . Meanwhile, he published an article in 1961 in

21692-479: The journal Science on the atmosphere of Venus, while also working with NASA 's Mariner 2 team, and served as a "Planetary Sciences Consultant" to the RAND Corporation . After the publication of Sagan's Science article, in 1961 Harvard University astronomers Fred Whipple and Donald Menzel offered Sagan the opportunity to give a colloquium at Harvard and subsequently offered him a lecturer position at

21879-586: The key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness... The dumbing down of America

22066-465: The lamentation on the Ninth of Av for a celebration, regarding the destruction of Jerusalem as fulfilling God's scheme to bring his word, via his people, to all corners of the earth. Highly self-centered affirmations of Jewish exceptionalism were moderated, although the general notion of "a kingdom of priests and a holy nation" retained. On the other hand, while embracing a less strict interpretation compared to

22253-498: The latter group." Sagan's contributions were central to the discovery of the high surface temperatures of the planet Venus . In the early 1960s no one knew for certain the basic conditions of Venus' surface, and Sagan listed the possibilities in a report later depicted for popularization in a Time Life book Planets . His own view was that Venus was dry and very hot as opposed to the balmy paradise others had imagined. He had investigated radio waves from Venus and concluded that there

22440-632: The majority of their time working on research, although they quite often have other duties such as teaching, building instruments, or aiding in the operation of an observatory. The American Astronomical Society , which is the major organization of professional astronomers in North America , has approximately 8,200 members (as of 2024). This number includes scientists from other fields such as physics, geology , and engineering , whose research interests are closely related to astronomy. The International Astronomical Union comprises about 12,700 members from 92 countries who are involved in astronomical research at

22627-623: The mid–20th century onwards incorporated more Hebrew, and restored such elements as blessing on phylacteries . More profound changes included restoration of the Gevorot benediction in the 2007 Mishkan T'filah , with the optional "give life to all/revive the dead" formula. The CCAR stated this passage did not reflect a belief in Resurrection, but Jewish heritage. On the other extreme, the 1975 Gates of Prayer substituted "the Eternal One" for "God" in

22814-503: The more contentious issues to the vernacular translation, treating the original text with great care and sometimes having problematic passages in small print and untranslated. When institutionalized and free of such constraints, it was able to pursue a more radical course. In American "Classical" or British Liberal prayerbooks, a far larger vernacular component was added and liturgy was drastically shortened, and petitions in discord with denominational theology eliminated. "New Reform", both in

23001-637: The movement. Intercourse between consenting adults was declared as legitimate by the Central Conference of American Rabbis in 1977, and openly gay clergy were admitted by the end of the 1980s. Same-sex marriage was sanctioned by the year 2000. In 2015, the URJ adopted a Resolution on the Rights of Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming People, urging clergy and synagogue attendants to actively promote tolerance and inclusion of such individuals. American Reform, especially, turned action for social and progressive causes into an important part of religious commitment. From

23188-405: The natural NEO impact threat and the intrinsically double-edged essence of the methods to prevent these threats would serve as a "new and potent motivation to maturing international relations." Later acknowledging that, with sufficient international oversight, in the future a "work our way up" approach to implementing nuclear explosive deflection methods could be fielded, and when sufficient knowledge

23375-494: The need for precedent to counter external accusations and the continuity of heritage. Instead, the movement had largely made ethical considerations or the spirit of the age the decisive factor in determining its course. The German founding fathers undermined the principles behind the legalistic process, which was based on a belief in an unbroken tradition through the ages merely elaborated and applied to novel circumstances, rather than subject to change. Rabbi Samuel Holdheim advocated

23562-523: The notion of "Progressive Halakha " along the same lines. Reform sought to accentuate and greatly augment the universalist traits in Judaism, turning it into a faith befitting the Enlightenment ideals ubiquitous at the time it emerged. The tension between universalism and the imperative to maintain uniqueness characterized the movement throughout its entire history. Its earliest proponents rejected Deism and

23749-401: The notion of "progressive revelation" in the meaning of comparing human betterment with divine inspiration, stressing that past experiences were "unique" and of everlasting importance. Yet he stated that his ideas by no means negated the concept of ongoing, individually experienced revelation by all. Reform Judaism emphasizes the ethical facets of the faith as its central attribute, superseding

23936-413: The observed color variations on Mars' surface and concluded that they were not seasonal or vegetational changes as most believed, but shifts in surface dust caused by windstorms . Sagan is also known for his research on the possibilities of extraterrestrial life , including experimental demonstration of the production of amino acids from basic chemicals by radiation . He is also the 1994 recipient of

24123-521: The oil assets, Sagan together with his "TTAPS" colleagues and Paul Crutzen , warned in January 1991 in The Baltimore Sun and Wilmington Morning Star newspapers that if the fires were left to burn over a period of several months, enough smoke from the 600 or so 1991 Kuwaiti oil fires "might get so high as to disrupt agriculture in much of South Asia ..." and that this possibility should "affect

24310-487: The only true, permanent core of Judaism. He was not alone: Solomon Formstecher argued that Revelation was God's influence on human psyche, rather than encapsulated in law; Aaron Bernstein was apparently the first to deny inherent sanctity to any text when he wrote in 1844 that, "The Pentateuch is not a chronicle of God's revelation, it is a testimony to the inspiration His consciousness had on our forebears." Many others shared similar convictions. In 1837, Geiger hosted

24497-401: The orthodox concept of the explicit transmission of both scripture and its oral interpretation . While also subject to change and new understanding, the basic premise of progressive revelation endures in Reform thought. In its early days, this notion was greatly influenced by the philosophy of German idealism , from which its founders drew much inspiration: belief in humanity marching toward

24684-439: The other major denominations. Reform Judaism is considered to be the first major Jewish denomination to adopt gender equality in religious life . As early as 1846, the Breslau conference announced that women must enjoy identical obligations and prerogatives in worship and communal affairs, though this decision had virtually no effect in practice. Lily Montagu , who served as a driving force behind British Liberal Judaism and WUPJ,

24871-400: The past and described Judaism as an entity that gradually adopted and discarded elements along time, Holdheim accorded present conditions the highest status, sharply dividing the universalist core from all other aspects that could be unremittingly disposed of. Declaring that old laws lost their hold on Jews as it were and the rabbi could only act as a guide for voluntary observance, his principle

25058-510: The personal spiritual experience and communal participation. This shift was not accompanied by a distinct new doctrine or by the abandonment of the former, but rather with ambiguity. The leadership allowed and encouraged a wide variety of positions, from selective adoption of halakhic observance to elements approaching religious humanism . The declining importance of the theoretical foundation, in favour of pluralism and equivocalness, drew large crowds of newcomers. It also diversified Reform to

25245-438: The possibility of life on Mars and other planets. According to biographer Ray Spangenburg, Sagan's efforts in his early years to understand the mysteries of the planets became a "driving force in his life, a continual spark to his intellect, and a quest that would never be forgotten." In 1947, Sagan discovered the magazine Astounding Science Fiction , which introduced him to more hard science fiction speculations than those in

25432-633: The prayerbooks and have them express the movement's theology. Blessings and passages referring to the coming of the Messiah, return to Zion, renewal of sacrificial practices, resurrection of the dead, reward and punishment and overt particularism of the People Israel were replaced, recast or excised altogether. In its early stages, when Reform Judaism was more a tendency within unified communities in Central Europe than an independent movement, its advocates had to practice considerable moderation, lest they provoke conservative animosity. German prayerbooks often relegated

25619-473: The re-traditionalization, but many young congregants in the United States still perform one, often at Shavuot . Confirmation for girls eventually developed into the Bat Mitzvah , now popular among all except strictly Orthodox Jews. Some branches of Reform, while subscribing to its differentiation between ritual and ethics, chose to maintain a considerable degree of practical observance, especially in areas where

25806-414: The recently hired astronomer Frank Drake among the faculty at Cornell. Following the denial of tenure from Harvard, Sagan accepted Gold's offer and remained a faculty member at Cornell for nearly 30 years until his death in 1996. Unlike Harvard, the smaller and more laid-back astronomy department at Cornell welcomed Sagan's growing celebrity status. Following two years as an associate professor, Sagan became

25993-412: The recognition of patrilineal descent : all children born to a couple in which a single member was Jewish, whether mother or father, was accepted as a Jew on condition that they received corresponding education and committed themselves as such. Conversely, offspring of a Jewish mother only are not accepted if they do not demonstrate affinity to the faith. A Jewish status is conferred unconditionally only on

26180-414: The reformers were laymen, operating in a country with little rabbinic presence. In the 1820s and 1830s, philosophers like Solomon Steinheim imported German idealism into the Jewish religious discourse, attempting to draw from the means it employed to reconcile Christian faith and modern sensibilities. But it was the new scholarly, critical Science of Judaism ( Wissenschaft des Judentums ) that became

26367-600: The rest are unaffiliated but identify with the movement. This makes Reform the second-largest Jewish denomination worldwide, after Orthodox Judaism . Its inherent pluralism and the importance it places on individual autonomy impedes any simplistic definition of Reform Judaism; its various strands regard Judaism throughout the ages as a religion that was derived from a process of constant evolution. They warrant and obligate further modifications and reject any fixed, permanent set of beliefs, laws or practices. A clear description of Reform Judaism became particularly challenging since

26554-471: The restoration of the Jerusalem Temple; during his inaugural address on 21 November 1825, Harby stated their native country was their only Zion, not "some stony desert", and described the rabbis of old as "Fabulists and Sophists... Who tortured the plainest precepts of the Law into monstrous and unexpected inferences". The Society was short-lived, and they merged back into Beth Elohim in 1833. As in Germany,

26741-503: The same direction as Hamburg's, was taken across the ocean in 1824. The younger congregants in the Charleston synagogue " Beth Elohim " were disgruntled by present conditions and demanded change. Led by Isaac Harby and other associates, they formed their own prayer group, "The Reformed Society of Israelites". Apart from strictly aesthetic matters, like having sermons and synagogue affairs delivered in English, rather than Middle Spanish (as

26928-644: The search for extraterrestrial intelligent life ( SETI ). He spent most of his career as a professor of astronomy at Cornell University, where he directed the Laboratory for Planetary Studies . Sagan and his works received numerous awards and honors, including the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal , the National Academy of Sciences Public Welfare Medal , the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction (for his book The Dragons of Eden ), and (for Cosmos: A Personal Voyage ) two Emmy Awards ,

27115-399: The second half of the 20th century, it employed the old rabbinic notion of Tikkun Olam , "repairing the world", as a slogan under which constituents were encouraged to partake in various initiatives for the betterment of society. The Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism became an important lobby in service of progressive causes such as the rights of minorities. Tikkun Olam has become

27302-572: The smoke did not produce continental-sized cooling. Sagan later conceded in The Demon-Haunted World that the prediction did not turn out to be correct: "it was pitch black at noon and temperatures dropped 4–6 °C over the Persian Gulf , but not much smoke reached stratospheric altitudes and Asia was spared." In his later years, Sagan advocated the creation of an organized search for asteroids/ near-Earth objects (NEOs) that might impact

27489-452: The somewhat ambiguous formula "the spirit within us is eternal". The first and primary field in which Reform convictions were expressed was that of prayer forms. From its beginning, Reform Judaism attempted to harmonize the language of petitions with modern sensibilities and what the constituents actually believed in. Jakob Josef Petuchowski , in his extensive survey of Progressive liturgy, listed several key principles that defined it through

27676-513: The space probe Pioneer 10 , launched in 1972. Pioneer 11 , also carrying another copy of the plaque, was launched the following year. He continued to refine his designs; the most elaborate message he helped to develop and assemble was the Voyager Golden Record , which was sent out with the Voyager space probes in 1977. Sagan often challenged the decisions to fund the Space Shuttle and

27863-403: The spiritual leadership have approached religious and even secular humanism . This tendency has grown since the mid-20th century among both clergy and constituents, leading to broader, dimmer definitions of the concept. Early Reform thinkers in Germany clung to this precept; the 1885 Pittsburgh Platform described the "One God... The God-Idea as taught in our sacred Scripture" as consecrating

28050-413: The state, in particular. While opposed to interfaith marriage in principle, officials of the major Reform rabbinical organisation, the Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR), estimated in 2012 that about half of their rabbis partake in such ceremonies. The need to cope with this phenomenon – 80% of all Reform-raised Jews in the United States wed between 2000 and 2013 were intermarried – led to

28237-678: The staunchly Orthodox opposed them anyhow; secular education for rabbis, for example, was much resisted). One of the first to adopt such modifications was Hamburg's own Orthodox community, under the newly appointed modern Rabbi Isaac Bernays . The less strict but still traditional Isaac Noah Mannheimer of the Vienna Stadttempel and Michael Sachs in Prague , set the pace for most of Central and Western Europe. They significantly altered custom, but wholly avoided dogmatic issues or overt injury to Jewish Law. An isolated, yet much more radical step in

28424-421: The strict sense) also surfaced at the same decades, as were phylacteries, prayer shawls and head coverings. Reform is still characterized by having the least service attendance on average: for example, of those polled by Pew in 2013, only 34% of registered synagogue members (and only 17% of all those who state affinity) attend services once a month and more. The Proto-Reform movement did pioneer new rituals. In

28611-550: The themes of A Personal Voyage and became the best-selling science book ever published in English; The Dragons of Eden : Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence , which won a Pulitzer Prize ; and Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science . Sagan also wrote the best-selling science fiction novel Contact in 1985, based on a film treatment he wrote with his wife, Ann Druyan, in 1979, but he did not live to see

28798-440: The traditional one, Reform also held to this tenet against those who sought to deny it. When secularist thinkers like Ahad Ha'am and Mordecai Kaplan forwarded the view of Judaism as a civilization , portraying it as a culture created by the Jewish people, rather than a God-given faith defining them, Reform theologians decidedly rejected their position – although it became popular and even dominant among rank-and-file members. Like

28985-523: The turn toward a policy that favored inclusiveness ("Big Tent" in the United States) over a coherent theology in the 1970s. This transition largely overlapped with what researchers termed the transition from "Classical" to "New" Reform Judaism in America, paralleled in the other, smaller branches of Judaism that exist across the world. The movement ceased stressing principles and core beliefs, focusing more on

29172-574: The two uneasily cohabiting modes of thought that are central to the scientific method." He recalled that a defining moment in his development came when his parents took him, at age four, to the 1939 New York World's Fair . He later described his vivid memories of several exhibits there. One, titled America of Tomorrow , included a moving map, which, as he recalled, "showed beautiful highways and cloverleaves and little General Motors cars all carrying people to skyscrapers, buildings with lovely spires, flying buttresses—and it looked great!" Another involved

29359-497: The war plans"; these claims were also the subject of a televised debate between Sagan and physicist Fred Singer on January 22, aired on the ABC News program Nightline . In the televised debate, Sagan argued that the effects of the smoke would be similar to the effects of a nuclear winter , with Singer arguing to the contrary. After the debate, the fires burnt for many months before extinguishing efforts were complete. The results of

29546-534: The worst years of the Depression , his father worked as a movie theater usher. According to biographer Keay Davidson, Sagan experienced a kind of "inner war" as a result of his close relationship with both his parents, who were in many ways "opposites." He traced his analytical inclinations to his mother, who had been extremely poor as a child in New York City during World War I and the 1920s, and whose later intellectual ambitions were sabotaged by her poverty, status as

29733-567: The years and many transformations it underwent. The prayers were abridged, whether by omitting repetitions, excising passages or reintroducing the ancient triennial cycle for reading the Torah; vernacular segments were added alongside or instead of the Hebrew and Aramaic text, to ensure the congregants understood the petitions they expressed; and some new prayers were composed to reflect the spirit of changing times. But chiefly, liturgists sought to reformulate

29920-400: Was Abraham Geiger , generally considered the founder of the movement. After critical research led him to regard scripture as a human creation, bearing the marks of historical circumstances, he abandoned the belief in the unbroken perpetuity of tradition derived from Sinai and gradually replaced it with the idea of progressive revelation. As in other liberal denominations , this notion offered

30107-556: Was "never accepted" as Rachel's mother because Rachel "knew she [Rose] wasn't her birth mother." Sagan's family lived in a modest apartment in Bensonhurst. He later described his family as Reform Jews , the most liberal of Judaism's four main branches. He and his sister agreed that their father was not especially religious, but that their mother "definitely believed in God, and was active in the temple [...] and served only kosher meat." During

30294-417: Was 14, his father's work took the family to the older semi-industrial town of Rahway, New Jersey , where he attended Rahway High School . He was a straight-A student but was bored because his classes did not challenge him and his teachers did not inspire him. His teachers realized this and tried to convince his parents to send him to a private school, with an administrator telling them, "This kid ought to go to

30481-509: Was a Ukrainian-born garment worker who had emigrated from Kamianets-Podilskyi (then in the Russian Empire ). Sagan was named in honor of his maternal grandmother, Chaiya Clara, who had died while giving birth to her second child; she was, in Sagan's words, "the mother she [Rachel] never knew." Sagan's maternal grandfather later married a woman named Rose, who Sagan's sister, Carol, would later say,

30668-725: Was a better epithet. When the movement was institutionalized in Germany between 1898 and 1908, its leaders chose "Liberal" as self-designation, founding the Vereinigung für das Liberale Judentum. In 1902, Claude Montefiore termed the doctrine espoused by his new Jewish Religious Union as "Liberal Judaism", too, though it belonged to the more radical part of the spectrum in relation to the German one. In 1926, British Liberals, American Reform and German Liberals consolidated their worldwide movement – united in affirming tenets such as progressive revelation, supremacy of ethics above ritual and so forth – at

30855-650: Was a kind of religious experience. There was a magnificence to it, a grandeur, a scale which has never left me. Never ever left me." When he was about six or seven, he and a close friend took trips to the American Museum of Natural History , in Manhattan . While there, they visited the Hayden Planetarium and walked around exhibits of space objects, such as meteorites , as well as displays of dinosaur skeletons and naturalistic scenes with animals. As Sagan later wrote, "I

31042-1002: Was a member of the SETI Institute Board of Trustees. Sagan served as Chairman of the Division for Planetary Science of the American Astronomical Society , as President of the Planetology Section of the American Geophysical Union , and as Chairman of the Astronomy Section of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). At the height of the Cold War , Sagan became involved in nuclear disarmament efforts by promoting hypotheses on

31229-596: Was a surface temperature of 500 °C (900 °F). As a visiting scientist to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory , he contributed to the first Mariner missions to Venus, working on the design and management of the project. Mariner 2 confirmed his conclusions on the surface conditions of Venus in 1962. Sagan was among the first to hypothesize that Saturn 's moon Titan might possess oceans of liquid compounds on its surface and that Jupiter 's moon Europa might possess subsurface oceans of water. This would make Europa potentially habitable. Europa's subsurface ocean of water

31416-415: Was adopted by the movement worldwide as its foundation date. The Seesen temple – a designation quite common for prayerhouses at the time; "temple" would later become, somewhat misleadingly (and not exclusively), identified with Reform institutions via association with the elimination of prayers for the Jerusalem Temple – closed in 1813. Jacobson moved to Berlin and established a similar synagogue, which became

31603-493: Was author, co-author or editor of more than 20 books. He wrote many popular science books, such as The Dragons of Eden , Broca's Brain , Pale Blue Dot and The Demon-Haunted World . He also co-wrote and narrated the award-winning 1980 television series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage , which became the most widely watched series in the history of American public television : Cosmos has been seen by at least 500 million people in 60 countries. A book, also called Cosmos ,

31790-424: Was considered controversial, but his rhetorical skill won over the judges and they awarded him first prize. When he was about to graduate from high school, his classmates voted him "most likely to succeed" and put him in line to be valedictorian . He attended the University of Chicago because, despite his excellent high school grades, it was one of the very few colleges he had applied to that would consider accepting

31977-459: Was customary among Western Sephardim ), they had almost their entire liturgy solely in the vernacular, in a far greater proportion compared to the Hamburg rite. And chiefly, they felt little attachment to the traditional Messianic doctrine and possessed a clearly heterodox religious understanding. In their new prayerbook, authors Harby, Abram Moïse and David Nunes Carvalho unequivocally excised pleas for

32164-483: Was declared redundant and the civil one recognized as sufficient by American Reform in 1869, and in Germany by 1912; the laws concerning dietary and personal purity, the priestly prerogatives, marital ordinances and so forth were dispensed with, and openly revoked by the 1885 Pittsburgh Platform , which declared all ceremonial acts binding only if they served to enhance religious experience. From 1890, converts were no longer obligated to be circumcised. Similar policy

32351-414: Was denied academic tenure at Harvard. He later indicated that the decision was very unexpected. The denial has been blamed on several factors, including that he focused his interests too broadly across a number of areas (while the norm in academia is to become a renowned expert in a narrow specialty), and perhaps because of his well-publicized scientific advocacy, which some scientists perceived as borrowing

32538-800: Was founded in Frankfurt, the "Friends of Reform". They abolished circumcision and declared that the Talmud was no longer binding. In response to pleas from Frankfurt, virtually all rabbis in Germany, even Holdheim, declared circumcision obligatory. Similar groups sprang in Breslau and Berlin. These developments, and the need to bring uniformity to practical reforms implemented piecemeal in the various communities, motivated Geiger and his like-minded supporters into action. Between 1844 and 1846, they convened three rabbinical assemblies, in Braunschweig , Frankfurt am Main and Breslau respectively. Those were intended to implement

32725-469: Was gained, to use them to aid in mining asteroids . His interest in the use of nuclear detonations in space grew out of his work in 1958 for the Armour Research Foundation 's Project A119 , concerning the possibility of detonating a nuclear device on the lunar surface. Sagan was a critic of Plato , having said of the ancient Greek philosopher: "Science and mathematics were to be removed from

32912-490: Was interested in decorum, believing its lack in services was driving the young away. Many of the aesthetic reforms he pioneered, like a regular vernacular sermon on moralistic themes, would be later adopted by the modernist Orthodox . On 17 July 1810, he dedicated a synagogue in Seesen that employed an organ and a choir during prayer and introduced some German liturgy. While Jacobson was far from full-fledged Reform Judaism, this day

33099-413: Was later indirectly confirmed by the spacecraft Galileo . The mystery of Titan's reddish haze was also solved with Sagan's help. The reddish haze was revealed to be due to complex organic molecules constantly raining down onto Titan's surface. Sagan further contributed insights regarding the atmospheres of Venus and Jupiter , as well as seasonal changes on Mars . He also perceived global warming as

33286-498: Was more concerned with the classification and description of phenomena in the sky, while astrophysics attempted to explain these phenomena and the differences between them using physical laws . Today, that distinction has mostly disappeared and the terms "astronomer" and "astrophysicist" are interchangeable. Professional astronomers are highly educated individuals who typically have a PhD in physics or astronomy and are employed by research institutions or universities. They spend

33473-437: Was more prevalent as an appellation for the religiously apathetic majority among German Jews, and also to all rabbis who were not clearly Orthodox (including the rival Positive-Historical School ). The title "Reform" became much more common in the United States, where an independent denomination under this name was fully identified with the religious tendency. However, Isaac Meyer Wise suggested in 1871 that "Progressive Judaism"

33660-456: Was published to accompany the series. Sagan also wrote a science-fiction novel, published in 1985, called Contact , which became the basis for the 1997 film Contact . His papers, comprising 595,000 items, are archived in the Library of Congress . Sagan was a popular public advocate of skeptical scientific inquiry and the scientific method ; he pioneered the field of exobiology and promoted

33847-568: Was pursued by Claude Montefiore 's Jewish Religious Union, established at Britain in 1902. The Vereinigung für das Liberale Judentum in Germany, which was more moderate, declared virtually all personal observance voluntary in its 1912 guidelines. "New Reform" saw the establishment and membership lay greater emphasis on the ceremonial aspects, after the former sterile and minimalist approach was condemned as offering little to engage in religion and encouraging apathy. Numerous rituals became popular again, often after being recast or reinterpreted, though as

34034-467: Was selected as a notable book of 1995 by The New York Times . He appeared on PBS's Charlie Rose program in January 1995. Sagan also wrote the introduction for Stephen Hawking 's bestseller A Brief History of Time . Sagan was also known for his popularization of science, his efforts to increase scientific understanding among the general public, and his positions in favor of scientific skepticism and against pseudoscience , such as his debunking of

34221-481: Was that the concept of " the Law of the Land is the Law " was total. He declared mixed marriage permissible – almost the only Reform rabbi to do so in history; his contemporaries and later generations opposed this – for the Talmudic ban on conducting them on Sabbath, unlike offering sacrifice and other acts, was to him sufficient demonstration that they belonged not to the category of sanctified obligations ( issurim ) but to

34408-456: Was the first woman in recorded history to deliver a sermon at a synagogue in 1918, and set another precedent when she conducted a prayer two years later. Regina Jonas , ordained in 1935 by later chairman of the Vereinigung der liberalen Rabbiner Max Dienemann, was the earliest known female rabbi to officially be granted the title. In 1972, Sally Priesand was ordained by Hebrew Union College , which made her America's first female rabbi ordained by

34595-475: Was the reform of worship in synagogues, making them more attractive to a generation whose aesthetic and moral taste became attuned to that of Christian surroundings. The first considered to have implemented such a course was the Amsterdam Ashkenazi congregation, "Adath Jessurun", In 1796. Emulating the local Sephardic custom, it omitted the " Father of Mercy " prayer, beseeching God to take revenge upon

34782-627: Was transfixed by the dioramas—lifelike representations of animals and their habitats all over the world. Penguins on the dimly lit Antarctic ice [...] a family of gorillas, the male beating his chest [...] an American grizzly bear standing on his hind legs, ten or twelve feet tall, and staring me right in the eye." Sagan's parents nurtured his growing interest in science, buying him chemistry sets and reading matter. But his fascination with outer space emerged as his primary focus, especially after he had read science fiction by such writers as H. G. Wells and Edgar Rice Burroughs , stirring his curiosity about

34969-520: Was viewed by Enlightenment thinkers both as irrational and an import from ancient middle-eastern pagans. The only perceived form of retribution for the wicked, if any, was the anguish of their soul after death, and vice versa, bliss was the single accolade for the spirits of the righteous. Angels and heavenly hosts were also deemed a foreign superstitious influence, especially from early Zoroastrian sources, and denied. Notions of afterlife according to Enlightenment thinkers were given to be reduced merely to

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