Conservative Judaism

Conservative Judaism, (also known as Masorti Judaism in Israel), is a modern stream that arose out of intellectual currents in Germany in the mid-19th century and took institutional form in the United States in the early 1900s.

The principles of Conservative Judaism include:

• A "dedication to Halakha... [as a] guide for our lives";
• A deliberately non-fundamentalist teaching of Jewish principles of faith;
• A positive attitude toward modern culture; and,
• An acceptance of both traditional rabbinic modes of study as well as modern critical scholarship when considering Jewish religious texts.

Terminology

Conservative Judaism has its roots in Positive-Historical Judaism, a school of thought in 1850s Germany. The Positive-Historical school reacted against the more liberal changes in practice and theology taken by Reform Judaism. The term conservative signified that Jews should conserve Jewish tradition, rather than reform or abandon it. The term 'conservative' is somewhat confusing and anachronistic; it does not imply that the movement's adherents are politically conservative. Accordingly, some Conservative Jews seek to rename the movement, and outside of the United States and Canada, such as Israel and England, it is today known as Masorti Judaism (Hebrew for "Traditional").

History

Like Reform Judaism, the Conservative movement developed in Europe and the United States in the 1800s, as Jews reacted to the changes brought about by the Enlightenment and Jewish emancipation. In Europe the movement was known as Positive-Historical Judaism, and it is still known as "the historical school."

Positive-historical Judaism

Positive-Historical Judaism, the intellectual forerunner to Conservative Judaism, was developed as a school of thought in the 1840s and 1850s in Germany. Its principal founder was Rabbi Zecharias Frankel, who had broken with the German Reform Judaism in 1845 over its rejection of the primacy of the Hebrew language in Jewish prayer. In 1854, Frankel became the head of the Jewish Theological Seminary of Breslau, Germany. At the seminary, Frankel taught that Jewish law was not static, but rather has always developed in response to changing conditions. He called his approach towards Judaism "Positive-Historical," which meant that one should have a positive attitude towards accepting Jewish law and tradition as normative, yet one should be open to developing the law in the same fashion that it has always historically developed. Frankel rejected the innovations of Reform Judaism as insufficiently based in Jewish history and communal practice. However, Frankel's use of modern methods of historical scholarship in analyzing Jewish texts and developing Jewish law set him apart from neo-Orthodox Judaism, which was concurrently developing under the leadership of Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch.

Conservative Judaism in America

In the latter half of the 19th century, the debates occurring in German Judaism were replicated in America. Conservative Judaism in America similarly began as a reaction to Reform Judaism's rejection of traditional Jewish law and practice. The differences between the more modern and traditional branches of American Judaism came to a head in 1883, at the "Trefa Banquet" - where shellfish and other non-kosher dishes were served at the celebration of the first graduating class of Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati. The adoption of the radical Pittsburgh Platform in 1885, which dismissed observance of the ritual commandments and Jewish peoplehood as "anachronistic" created a permanent wedge between the Reform movement and more traditional American Jews.

Jewish Theological Seminary

In 1886, Rabbis Sabato Morais and H. Pereira Mendes founded the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) in New York City as a more traditional alternative to HUC. The Seminary's brief affiliation with the traditional congregations that established the Orthodox Congregation Union of America in 1898 was severed due to the Orthodox rejection of the Seminary's academic approach to Jewish learning. At the turn of the century, the Seminary lacked a source of permanent funding and was ordaining on average no more than one rabbi per year.

The fortunes of Conservative Judaism underwent a dramatic turnaround when in 1902, the famed scholar Solomon Schechter accepted the invitation to become president of JTS. Under Schechter's leadership, JTS attracted a distinguished faculty and became a highly regarded center of Jewish learning. In 1913, the Conservative Movement founded its congregational arm, the United Synagogue of America.

Conservative Judaism enjoyed rapid growth in the first half of the 20th Century, becoming the largest American Jewish denomination. Its combination of modern innovation (such as mixed gender seating) and traditional practice particularly appealed to first and second-generation Eastern European Jewish immigrants, who found Orthodoxy too restrictive, but Reform Judaism foreign. After World War II, Conservative Judaism continued to thrive. The 1950s and early 1960s featured a boom in synagogue construction as upwardly-mobile American Jews moved to the suburbs. Conservative Judaism occupied an enviable middle position during a period where American society prized consensus.

Rise of Reconstructionism

The Conservative coalition splintered in 1963, when advocates of the Reconstructionist philosophy of Mordecai Kaplan seceded from the movement to form a distinct Reconstructionist Judaism. Kaplan had been a leading figure at JTS for 54 years, and had pressed for liturgical reform and innovations in ritual practice from inside of the framework of Conservative Judaism. Frustrated by the perceived dominance of the more traditionalist voices at JTS, Kaplan's followers decided that the ideas of Reconstructionism would be better served through the creation of separate denomination. In 1968, the split became formalized with the establishment of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College.

Modern Conservative Judaism

In the 1970s and early 1980s, Conservative Judaism was divided over issues of gender equality. In 1973, the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards voted, without adopting an explanatory responsum, to permit women to count in a minyan, but left the decision on whether to be egalitarian to individual congregations. After a further decade of debate, in 1983, JTS voted to admit women for ordination as Conservative rabbis, also without adopting an explanatory responsum. Certain opponents of this decision left the Conservative movement to form the Union for Traditional Judaism.

Ziegler School

In the 1990s, the University of Judaism in Los Angeles established the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies as an independent rabbinical school.

Concern About Movement Direction

At the time of the 1990 National Jewish Population Survey, Conservative Judaism remained the largest denomination in America, with 43 percent of Jewish households affiliated with a synagogue belonging to Conservative synagogues (compared to 35 percent for Reform and 16 percent for Orthodox). 10 years later, the NJPS showed that the Conservative movement had suffered serious attrition, with only 33 percent of synagogue-affiliated American Jews belonging to Conservative synagogue. For the first time in nearly a century, Conservative Judaism is no longer the largest denomination in America. At the same time, however, certain Conservative institutions, particular day schools, have shown significant growth. Conservative leaders agree that these contrasting trends indicate that the movement has reached a crossroads as it heads into the 21st century.

Beliefs

Template:Splitsection For much of the large movement's history, Conservative Judaism avoided publishing systematic explications of the Jewish principles of faith. This was a conscious attempt to hold together a wide coalition.

In 1988, the leadership council of Conservative Judaism finally issued an official statement of belief, Emet Ve-Emunah: Statement of Principles of Conservative Judaism. In accord with classical rabbinic Judaism, it agrees that Jews must hold certain beliefs. However, it holds that the Jewish community never developed any one binding catechism. Thus, it is difficult if not impossible to pick out only one person's formal creed and hold it as binding. Instead, Emet Ve-Emunah allows for a range of Jewish beliefs that Conservative rabbis believe are authentically Jewish and justifiable.

Thus, Emet Ve-Emunah affirms belief in God and in the divine inspiration of the Torah; however it also affirms the legitimacy of multiple interpretations of these issues. Atheism, Trinitarian views of God, and polytheism are all ruled out. Conservative Judaism explicitly rejects relativism, yet also rejects literalism and fundamentalism.

God

Conservative Judaism affirms monotheism. Its members have varied beliefs about the nature of God, and no one understanding of God is mandated. Among the beliefs affirmed are: Maimonidean rationalism; Kabbalistic mysticism; Hasidic panentheism (neo-Hasidism, Jewish Renewal); limited theism (as in Harold Kushner's "When Bad Things Happen to Good People"); organic thinking in the fashion of Alfred North Whitehead and Charles Hartshorne, also known as process theology (such as Rabbis Max Kaddushin and William E. Kaufman).

Mordecai Kaplan's religious naturalism (Reconstructionist Judaism) used to have an influential place in the movement, but since Reconstructionism developed as an independent movement, this influence has waned. Papers from a recent Rabbinical Assembly conference on theology were recently printed in a special issue of the journal Conservative Judaism (Winter 1999); the editors note that Kaplan's naturalism seems to have dropped from the movement's radar screen.

Revelation

In agreement with traditional Judaism, Conservative Judaism holds that God inspired prophets to write the Torah (five books of Moses) and the Hebrew Bible. However, for theological reasons most Conservative Jews reject the traditional Jewish idea that God dictated the words of the Torah to Moses at Mount Sinai in a verbal revelation. Divine revelation, however, while held to be real, is generally believed to be non-verbal -- that is, the revelation did not include the particular words of the divine texts. Conservative Judaism allows its adherents to hold to a wide array of views on the subject of revelation.

Conservative Jews are comfortable with the findings of higher criticism, including the documentary hypothesis, the idea that the current text of the Torah was redacted together from several earlier sources. They go further, and the movement's rabbinic authorities and official Torah commentary (Etz Hayim: A Torah Commentary) affirm that Jews should make use of modern critical literary and historical analysis to understand how the Bible developed.

Conservative Jews reconcile these beliefs by holding that God, in some way, did reveal his will to Moses and later prophets. However, records of revelation may have been passed down through the centuries in many ways, including written documents, folklores, epic poems, etc. These records were eventually redacted together to form the Torah, and later on, the other books of the Tanakh [Hebrew Bible].

Conservative Judaism holds that the current text of the Torah is a composite that was redacted together from earlier sources. Conservative Jews hold that it is possible to believe that God is real and that prophets like Moses really were inspired by God. However, the Conservative movement believes that whatever records and traditions relating to such events were apparently transmitted in various forms for many centuries. This says nothing about whether the Torah is based on God or not, and so Conservative Judaism does not regard this idea as a theological threat. This view accounts for the substantial diversity and disagreement in the Halakha, and asserts that all of the Halakha is a partnership between the Man and the Divine. Therefore, a Conservative Jew believes that while God has commanded that the Jews live according to the Halakha, at the same time God also established that Rabbis have the sole right and authority to decide and determine the actual laws, and hence the law has no immutable core. The Conservative Jew believes that no amount of accuracy and care will guarantee that human interpretation represents the "will of God," except in the sense that God wills that human beings interpret the halakha. As a consequence, Conservative Judaism teaches that one may make use of literary and historical analysis to understand how these texts developed, and to help them understand how they may be applied in our own day. Conservative Jews view the laws and customs from the various law codes as the basis for normative Jewish law. Solomon Schechter writes "however great the literary value of a code may be, it does not invest it with infallibility, nor does it exempt it from the student or the Rabbi who makes use of it from the duty of examining each paragraph on its own merits, and subjecting it to the same rules of interpretation that were always applied to Tradition". [Solomon Schechter].

Jewish law

Conservative Judaism views Jewish law as normative and binding. However, it takes the position that halakha can and should evolve to meet the changing reality of Jewish life. Conservative Judaism, therefore, views that traditional Jewish legal codes must be viewed through the lens of academic criticism. Conservative Judaism believes that its view of Jewish law as evolving and adaptable is indeed consistent with Jewish tradition.(See also, the various positions within contemporary Judaism as regards Halakha and the Talmud.)

In 2002, the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards adapted a responsum by Rabbi David Fine, Women and the Minyan (pdf), which provides an official religious-law foundation for its past actions and articulates the current Conservative approach to the Role of women in Judaism.

In December 2006 the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards approved the ordination of openly homosexual rabbis, and "commitment ceremonies" for openly homosexual laity and rabbis, maintaining the prohibition against sodomy (defined as anal sex between men) . A separate, diametrically opposed responsum, maintaining the traditional prohibition against ordinations and commitment ceremony, was also approved. Both the permitting and prohibiting responsa were enacted as majority opinions, with some members of the Committee voting for both. The result gives individual synagogues, rabbis, and rabbinical schools discretion to adopt either approach.

See also: Conservative responsa

Views of other Jewish denominations

Conservative Judaism contrasts itself with other denominations through two major areas of distinction:

Revelation of Torah

Concerning the degree of revelation of Torah Conservative Judaism assumes that Orthodox Jews accept direct verbal revelation of the Torah. (Many Orthodox philosophers do not agree with this characterization, see Breuer, Berkovits, Soloveitchik, Kook, or Fox) However, Conservative Judaism rejects the Reform view, that the Torah was not revealed but divinely inspired.Template:Fact In contrast to both, most Conservative positions affirm the divine but nonverbal revelation of written Torah as the authentic, historically correct Jewish view. In this view, Oral Torah is considered inspired by Torah, but not necessarily of a straightforward divine origin.

Interpretation of Halakha

• Concerning interpretation of Halakha (or Jewish law): because of Judaism's legal tradition, the fundamental differences between modern Jewish denominations also involve the relevance, interpretation, and application of Jewish law Jewish law and tradition. Conservative Judaism believes that its approach is the most authentic expression of Judaism as it was traditionally practiced. Conservative Jews believe that movements to its left, such as Reform and Reconstructionist Judaism, have erred by rejecting the traditional authority of Jewish law and tradition. They believe that the Orthodox Jewish movements, on the theological right, have erred by slowing down, or stopping, the historical development of Jewish law: "Conservative Judaism believes that scholarly study of Jewish texts indicates that Judaism has constantly been evolving to meet the needs of the Jewish people in varying circumstances, and that a central halakhic authority can continue the halakhic evolution today." (Soc. Culture. Jewish Usenet Newsgroup FAQ) The Conservative movement makes a conscious effort to use historical sources to determine what kind of changes to Jewish tradition have occurred, how and why they occurred, and in what historical context. With this information they believe that can better understand the proper way for rabbis to interpret and apply Jewish law to our conditions today. See also under Modern Orthodox Judaism.

Mordecai Waxman, a leading figure in the Rabbinical Assembly, writes that "Reform has asserted the right of interpretation but it rejected the authority of legal tradition. Orthodoxy has clung fast to the principle of authority, but has in our own and recent generations rejected the right to any but minor interpretations. The Conservative view is that both are necessary for a living Judaism. Accordingly, Conservative Judaism holds itself bound by the Jewish legal tradition, but asserts the right of its rabbinical body, acting as a whole, to interpret and to apply Jewish law." (Mordecai Waxman Tradition and Change: The Development of Conservative Judaism)

One of the leaders of the Conservative Movement has described the legal approaches of the movements by comparing halakha to a game of chess. In the 16th and 17th century (correlating to the publication of the Shulkhan Arukh and its commentaries), the Orthodox put a glass dome over the board. Conservative Jews merely took the dome off the board to begin moving the pieces once again according to the rules. Reform Judaism rejects the rules of the game (and is perhaps playing checkers)Template:Fact.

Conservative Judaism views the process by which Reform and Reconstructionist Judaism make changes to Jewish tradition as invalid Template:Fact. Thus, Conservative Judaism rejects patrilineal descent and would hold that a child of a non-Jewish mother who was raised as a Reform or Reconstructionist Jew is not legally Jewish and would have to undergo conversion to become a Jew. Similarly, while Reform and Reconstructionist services or other rituals are not inherently invalid, if they do not meet the requirements of halakha (e.g. a service that omitted a legally required prayer) they would not be recognized as legally significant. Despite the Conservative movement's disagreement with the more liberal movements, it is committed to Jewish pluralism and respects the right of Reform and Reconstructionist Jews to practise Judaism in their own way. Thus the Conservative movement recognizes their clergy as rabbis, even if it often does not accept their specific decisions as valid. Template:Fact

In contrast, while Conservative Judaism views the Orthodox approach to halakha as rigid and overly deferential to past precedent, they also view it as legally valid. Thus, a Conservative Jew could satisfy their halakhic obligations by participation in Orthodox rituals. Orthodox Judaism, however, views the Conservative approach to halakha as invalid Template:Fact. In particular, they criticize the Conservative position that Halakhic precedent is not binding and the use of minority positions in rabbinic literature as support for Conservative rulings. A deeper criticism is that the Conservative process is driven more by a desire to reach outcomes preferred by the movement's laity rather than by traditional Halakhic considerations Template:Fact. As a result, Orthodox Judaism does not recognize Conservative rituals, and some elements of Orthodox Judaism do not recognize Conservative rabbis as authentic rabbis Template:Fact.

Movement organization

In the more limited sense of the term, Conservative Judaism is a unified movement; the international body of Conservative rabbis is the Rabbinical Assembly (RA), the organization of synagogues is the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism (USCJ), and the primary seminaries are the Jewish Theological Seminary of America (JTS) in New York City and the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies at the University of Judaism in Los Angeles. Conservative Judaism outside the USA is often called Masorti Judaism; Masorti rabbis belong to the Rabbinical Assembly Template:Fact.

Affliated seminaries outside the USA include the Marshall Meyer Seminario Rabínico Latinoamericano in Argentina, and Machon Schechter (in Jerusalem.)

Many Jews both inside and outside of this formal Conservative movement identify Conservative Judaism as a worldview which is significantly larger than the USCJ and RA. Sociologically and religiously, there is social and religious overlap between the USCJ, the Union for Traditional Judaism, and much of the Chavurah movement.Template:Fact A growing number of congregations which are not affiliated, but which identify themselves as "post-denominational," practice traditional Judaism while emphasizing equal roles for women, for example as prayer leaders. Rabbis trained at JTS and the Ziegler School often serve these synagogues and chavurot, and members of these synagogues and chavurot often pray at, or are members of, USCJ synagogues Template:Fact.

Important figures

• Bradley Shavit Artson - Dean of the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies at the University of Judaism, author, theologian, and public speaker
• Elliot N. Dorff - Professor of philosophy at the University of Judaism professor, theologian, member of the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards
• Arnold Eisen - Chancellor-elect of the Jewish Theological Seminary
• Shya Finestone - Shaare Zion Congregation Religious Affairs Committee (Canada)
• Louis Finkelstein - Talmud scholar
• Zecharias Frankel - founder of positive-historical Judaism.
• Neil Gillman - Theologian, Philosophy Professor at Jewish Theological Seminary of America (JTS)
• Louis Ginzberg - Talmud scholar and halakhic expert, early member of the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards
• Robert Gordis - Rabbi, Theologian, Educator
• Judith Hauptman - JTS Talmud scholar
• Jules Harlow - Primary liturgist of the Conservative movement
• Abraham Joshua Heschel - Theologian and social activist
• Louis Jacobs - Rabbi, founder of Masorti Judaism in the United Kingdom
• Isaac Klein - Rabbi, expert in Jewish law, early member of the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards
• Sheldon Levin - Former President of the CA, also former member of the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards
• David Lieber- President Emeritus of the University of Judaism, past President of the Rabbinical Assembly, Editor of the Etz Hayim Humash
• Saul Lieberman - Talmud scholar at JTS
• Aaron L. Mackler - Rabbi, Professor of Theology at Duquesne University, member of the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards
• Mayer E. Rabinowitz - JTS Talmud scholar, former member of the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards
• Joel Roth - JTS Talmud scholar, former member of the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards
• Solomon Schechter - Researcher, early leader of JTS, creator of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism
• Mathilde Roth Schechter - Founder of the Women's League of Conservative Judaism and of Hadassah
• Ismar Schorsch - Former chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
• Harold Schulweis - Rabbi in Los Angeles, theologian, founder of the Havurah movement and the Jewish World Watch
• Gordon Tucker - Former Dean of Jewish Theological Seminary rabbinical school, part-time faculty member at JTS and member of Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, Senior Rabbi of Temple Israel Center in White Plains, NY
• David Wolpe - Rabbi, author, public speaker in Los Angeles, California.

Jewish identity

Conservative Judaism maintains the Rabbinic understanding of Jewish identity: A Jew is someone who was born to a Jewish mother, or who converts to Judaism in accordance with Jewish law and tradition. Conservatism thus rejects patrilineal descent, which is accepted by the Reform movement. Conservative Rabbis are not allowed to perform intermarriages (marriages between Jews and non-Jews). However, the Leadership Council of Conservative Judaism has a different sociological approach to this issue than does Orthodoxy, although agreeing religiously. In a press release it has stated:

"In the past, intermarriage...was viewed as an act of rebellion, a rejection of Judaism. Jews who intermarried were essentially excommunicated. But now, intermarriage is often the result of living in an open society....If our children end up marrying non-Jews, we should not reject them. We should continue to give our love and by that retain a measure of influence in their lives, Jewishly and otherwise. Life consists of constant growth and our adult children may yet reach a stage when Judaism has new meaning for them. However, the marriage between a Jew and non-Jew is not a celebration for the Jewish community. We therefore reach out to the couple with the hope that the non-Jewish partner will move closer to Judaism and ultimately choose to convert. Since we know that over 70 percent of children of intermarried couples are not being raised as Jews...we want to encourage the Jewish partner to maintain his/her Jewish identity, and raise their children as Jews."

Criticism

Conservative Judaism has come under a great deal of criticism from a wide-ranging variety of sources such as:

• Orthodox Jews who question the commitment of the movement to Halakha.
• Conservative Traditionalists who criticize the integrity of the Halakhic process when dealing with issues such as women in Judaism as well as Homosexuality. Template:Details
• Feminists who assert that the changes within the movement to promote full egalitarianism among men and women do not go far enough.

See also

• Committee on Jewish Law and Standards
• Keshet Rabbis
• Rabbinical Assembly
• Role of women in Judaism

External links

• Additional reading
• An intro to Conservative Judaism
• The Rabbinical Assembly
• The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism
• The Jewish Theological Seminary of America
• University of Judaism
• The Masorti Movement
• A Conservative Jewish view on Intermarriage
• Principles of Masorti Judaism
• The Core Principles of Conservative Judaism
• What is Masorti Judaism?
• Formulating Jewish Law For Our Time
• A Guide to Jewish Religious Practice - Official work on Jewish law
• The role of women in Conservative Judaism
• United Synagogue Youth

References

• Conservative Judaism: An American Religious Movement. Marshall Sklare. University Press of America (Reprint edition), 1985.
• Conservative Judaism: Our Ancestors To Our Descendants (Revised Edition), Elliot N. Dorff, United Synagogue New York, 1996
• The Conservative Movement in Judaism: Dilemmas and Opportunities, Daniel J. Elazar, Rela Mintz Geffen, SUNY Press, 2000
• Conservative Judaism: The New Century, Neil Gillman, Behrman House 1993
• Halakha For Our Time: A Conservative Approach To Jewish Law, David Golinkin, United Synagogue, 1991
• A Guide to Jewish Religious Practice, Isaac Klein, JTS Press, New York, 1992
• Conservative Judaism in America: A Biographical Dictionary and Sourcebook, Pamela S. Nadell, Greenwood Press, NY 1988
• Emet Ve-Emunah: Statement of Principles of Conservative Judaism, Ed. Robert Gordis, JTS, New York, 1988
• Etz Hayim: A Torah Commentary, Ed. David Lieber, Chaim Potok and Harold Kushner, The Jewish Publication Society, NY, 2001
• Jews in the Center: Conservative Synagogues and Their Members. Jack Wertheimer (Editor). Rutgers University Press, 2000.
• "The Conservative Lie", Avi Shafran, Moment, February 2001

Traditional-Egalitarian Judaism

• Beyond Dogma, Jerusalem Post Magazine
• Can anyone save Conservative Judaism from itself? The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles
• David Fine, Women and the Minyan, Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Rabbinical Assembly, OH 55:1, 2002 (pdf)

Observance of Conservative Jews

• Conservative Leader Takes Heat for Standards Stance, Forward, March 2002

• Eight Up: The College Years, Survey of Conservative Jewish youth from middle school to college. Ariela Keysar and Barry Kosmin
• Encouraging Trends Among Conservative Synagogue Members, Alan Silverstein, USCJ