Contemporary discourse tends to severely minimize the role of Sephardic Jews in the birth of the Reform Movement. The first two cantors of the Hamburg "Mother Temple" were Sephardim-David Meldola and Joseph de Mose Piza. In some communities, the effort was as much or more of a Sephardic one than an Ashkenazi one. In the case of London. Written by David Phillipson within living memory of the event:At a meeting held on April 15, 1840, by twenty-four gentlemen, eighteen of whom were Sephardim and only six Ashkenazim, a reform congregation was organized. The reasons for doing so were set forth by the founders in the following declaration: " We, the undersigned, regarding public worship as highly conducive to the interests of religion, consider it a matter of deep regret that it is not more frequently attended by members of our religious persuasion. We are perfectly sure that this circumstance is not owing to any want of conviction of the fundamental truths of our religion, but ascribe it to the distance of the existing synagogues from our place of residence, to the length and imperfections of the order of service, to the inconvenient hours at which it is appointed, and to the absence of religious instruction in our synagogue. To these evils we believe that a remedy may be applied by the establishment of a synagogue at the western part of the metropolis, where a revised service may be performed at hours more suited to our habits and in a manner more calculated to inspire feelings of devotion, where religious instruction may be afforded by competent persons, and where, to effect these purposes, Jews generally may form a united congregation under the denomination of British Jews."- The Reform Movement in Judaism. III Author: David Philipson Source: The Jewish Quarterly Review , Apr., 1904, Vol. 16, No. 3 (Apr., 1904), pp. 485- 524