 He called his approach towards Judaism 'Positive-Historical', which meant that one should accept Jewish law and tradition as normative, yet one must be open to changing and developing the law in the same historical fashion that Judaism has always historically developed.About this time in North America, the Reform movement was growing at a rapid pace, alarming more traditional (halakhic) Jews.Sabato Morais, rabbi of Philadelphia's Mikveh Israel, championed the reaction to American Reform.