Shalom!
I am Rabbi Jonathan Ginsberg. This video is about The Conservative Movement of Judaism. I have other videos on the reform and the orthodox.
First of all my credentials. I grew up and was in the first graduating class of the Salmage After-day School in Chicago. I have attended conservative synagogues all of my life. I was involved with Camp Roman for seven summers. I was an officer in the United Synagogue Jewish Youth Group and so I have been part of the conservative movement for all my life. I was trained with the Jewish Theological Seminary.
So what are the issues of The Conservative Movement? First of all, the word conservative has to do with not a political orientation but a sense that one must conserve Jewish practice. It is a term over and against the reform movement’s idea that you have to Reform Judaism. This is more as conserved traditional principles and amends Jewish law as is necessary.
The theory of the conservative movement is that normative Judaism that it classically and historically Judaism is always changed somewhat, that the Judaism of Rabbi Akiva, of the second century is different than Moses from 1700 years before that. And so, Judaism continues to grow and change, but slowly and it is the people who are most knowledgeable, the Rabbis who, in effect determine what Jewish law should be for the day.
There are plenty of sources in the Bible and in the Talmud which indicate that this should be. Belief that orthodoxy is strong and vibrant and beautiful, as it is, it is ossified in some extend and has failed to grow and modify the way that organic with Judaism should have. Of course, the problem is that most Jews that belong to Conservative Judaism do not live their lives according to Jewish law. They want a sense of tradition, but in their own personal lives. They can choose what Jewish observances to accept. For example, Conservative Judaism teaches the importance of Kashrud, observance of the Sabbath, daily prayer, and most conservative Jews do not do all those things. At the same time, we have a strong sense of Jewish community and loyalty that the conservative Jews have been at the forefront of Jewish communal institutions and Jewish life. Conservative Judaism has lost a significant market share of the affiliated Jews.
In the last time they took a survey of American Judaism until the current time, there were four movements greatly surpassed that of the conservative movement. Conservative Jews are the oldest ethnic demography of any Jewish denomination today so those are issues of great concern. One new note of optimism is that there is a new chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary, Arnold Icer, who was a professor at Stanford. Hopefully he will inject some new blood and excitement into the movement. Judaism is organized, like some of the other denominations that has rabbinical, several rabbinical schools, The Jewish Theological Seminary and there is a school in Los Angeles that ordains conservative Rabbis in Israel and in South America. It has got a late person’s organization called The United Synagogue Conservative Judaism, there is a rabbinical association for the Rabbis called the rabbinical assembly, Kansas’s Association Youth, the records association, the camping movement is called Camp Rama. The school system that is affiliated with it is called the Psalm and Chapter School System. There is a men’s club and a national federation. There is the sisterhood and National Woman’s League. Lots and lots of organizations. There is a world movement of conservative about strong assured as definitely in the United States. Their issues of lack of funding for non-orthodox Judaism in Israel, and despite that, there is about a hundred and fifty conservative Rabbis there, about fifty religious organizations like synagogues and a lot of effort to grow the conservative movement there.
So those are some of the main issues and main concerns, the strengths and challenges of the conservative movement and hope that this is informative and helpful.
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