Editing Jewish eschatology (section)

===In contemporary Judaism===
[[File:YitzGreenberg.jpg|thumb|Irving Greenberg]]
[[Irving Greenberg]], representing an [[Open Orthodox]] viewpoint, describes the afterlife as a central Jewish teaching deriving from the belief in reward and punishment. According to Greenberg, suffering [[History of European Jews in the Middle Ages|medieval Jews]] emphasized the world to come as a counterpoint to the difficulties of this life, while early Jewish modernizers portrayed Judaism as interested only in this world as a counterpoint to "otherworldly" Christianity. Greenberg sees each of these views as leading to an undesired extreme—overemphasizing the afterlife leads to asceticism while devaluing the afterlife deprives Jews of the consolation of eternal life and justice—and calls for a synthesis, in which Jews can work to perfect this world, while also recognizing the immortality of the soul.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Do+Jews+believe+in+an+afterlife%3F-a0262507004|title = Do Jews believe in an afterlife? – Free Online Library}}</ref>

Conservative Judaism both affirms belief in the world beyond (as referenced in the ''[[Amidah]]'' and Maimonides's [[Jewish principles of faith|principles of faith]]) while recognizing that human understanding is limited and we cannot know exactly what the world beyond consists of. Reform and Reconstructionist Judaism affirm belief in the afterlife, though they downplay the theological implications in favor of emphasizing the importance of the "here and now" as opposed to reward and punishment. The [[Union for Reform Judaism]] believes the righteous of any faith have a place in heaven but does not believe in a concept of hell.<ref name="Reform Judaism 2019">{{cite web | title=Do Jews Believe in an Afterlife? | website=Reform Judaism | date=2019-03-25 | url=https://reformjudaism.org/beliefs-practices/lifecycle-rituals/death-mourning/do-jews-believe-afterlife | access-date=2023-04-05}}</ref>