Editing Orthodox Judaism (section)

== Definitions ==
{{Jews and Judaism sidebar |Denominations}}
The earliest known mention of the term ''Orthodox Jews'' was made in the ''[[Berlinische Monatsschrift]]'' in 1795. The word ''Orthodox'' was borrowed from the general German [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] discourse, and used to denote those Jews who opposed Enlightenment. During the early and mid-19th century, with the advent of the progressive movements among German Jews, and especially early [[Reform Judaism]], the title ''Orthodox'' became the epithet of traditionalists who espoused conservative positions on the issues raised by modernization. They themselves often disliked the name that was earlier adopted by eastern Christianity, preferring titles such as "Torah-true" (''gesetztreu''). They often declared they used it only as a convenience. German Orthodox leader Rabbi [[Samson Raphael Hirsch]] referred to "the conviction commonly designated as Orthodox Judaism"; in 1882, when Rabbi [[Azriel Hildesheimer]] became convinced that the public understood that his philosophy and Liberal Judaism were radically different, he removed the word ''Orthodox'' from the name of his [[Hildesheimer Rabbinical Seminary]]. By the 1920s, the term had become common and accepted even in Eastern Europe.<ref name="JB">{{cite journal |last1=Blutinger |first1=Jeffrey |title="'So-Called Orthodoxy': The History of an Unwanted Label". |journal=Modern Judaism |date=2007 |volume=27 |issue=3 |page=310 |doi=10.1093/mj/kjm005}}</ref>

Orthodoxy perceives itself as the only authentic continuation of Judaism as it was until the crisis of modernity. Its progressive opponents often shared this view, regarding it as a remnant of the past and lending credit to their own rival ideology.<ref name=srf>{{cite book |first1=Yosef |last1=Salmon |first2=Aviezer |last2=Ravitzky |first3=Adam |last3=Ferziger |title=Orthodox Judaism: New Perspectives |url=https://www.magnespress.co.il/en/book/%D7%90%D7%95%D7%A8%D7%AA%D7%95%D7%93%D7%95%D7%A7%D7%A1%D7%99%D7%99%D7%94_%D7%99%D7%94%D7%95%D7%93%D7%99%D7%AA-1911 |access-date=11 March 2024 |lang=he |publisher=The Hebrew University Magnes Press |year=2006}}</ref>{{rp|5–22}} Thus, the term ''Orthodox'' is often used generically to refer to traditional (even if only in the sense that it is unrelated to modernist movement) synagogues, rites, and observances.

Academic research noted that the formation of Orthodox ideology and organizations was itself influenced by modernity. This was brought about by the need to defend the very concept of tradition in a world where that was no longer self-evident. When secularization and the dismantlement of communal structures uprooted the old order of Jewish life, traditionalist elements united to form groups that had a specific self-understanding. This, and all that it entailed, constituted a notable change, for the Orthodox had to adapt to modern society no less than anyone else; they developed novel, sometimes radical, means of action and modes of thought. "Orthodoxization" was a contingent process, drawing from local circumstances and dependent on the threat sensed by its proponents: a sharply-delineated Orthodox identity appeared in Central Europe, in Germany and Hungary, by the 1860s; a less stark one emerged in Eastern Europe during the [[Interwar period]]. Among the [[History of the Jews under Muslim rule|Jews of the Muslim lands]], similar processes on a large scale began only around the 1970s, after they immigrated to Israel. Orthodoxy is often described as extremely conservative, ossifying a once-dynamic tradition due to the fear of legitimizing change. While this was sometimes true, its defining feature was not forbidding change and "freezing" Jewish heritage, but rather the need to adapt to the segment of Judaism in a modern world inhospitable to traditional practice. Orthodoxy often involved much accommodation and leniency. In the mid-1980s, research on Orthodox Judaism became a scholarly discipline, examining how the need to confront modernity shaped and changed its beliefs, ideologies, social structure, and ''halakhic'' rulings, separating it from traditional Jewish society.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |editor-last=Brown |editor-first=Benjamin |date=2 January 2006 |title=The Varieties of Orthodox Responses: Ashkenazim and Sephardim |url=https://www.academia.edu/5121180 |first=Aviezer |last=Ravitzky |journal=ש"ס - היבטים תרבותיים ורעיוניים |series=Shas: Cultural and Ideological Perspectives |publisher=[[Am Oved]]}}</ref>