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Conservative Judaism
A dynamic account of the creation and evolution of the Conservative movement over the last 100 years. The concerns, changes, and achievements of Conservative belief and practice since the turn of the century, and how the movement is confronting today's most challenging issues, including:
*The role of women in the synagogue
*Homosexuality
*Patrilineal descent
*The State of Israel
Historical and contemporary photographs illustrate the growth of the movement.
*The role of women in the synagogue
*Homosexuality
*Patrilineal descent
*The State of Israel
Historical and contemporary photographs illustrate the growth of the movement.
1 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 1993
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
October 10, 2021
Conservative Judaism
Neil Gillman
5/5 stars
"How NOT to run a mass movement"
*******
Eric Hoffer Quote: "Mass movements can rise and spread without belief in a God, but never without belief in a devil."
At first I had thought that this easy-to-read book would merely be recapitulation of a lot of interesting information about Conservative Judaism in a single place.
And yes, that is *some* of the book: there are lots of familiar names both within and without Masorti Judaism (Sampson Hersh/Moses Mendelssohn/ Zachariah Frankel/ Alexander Kohut/ Sabato Morais) along with details of their contributions.
But, the book more properly serves as a field experiment in service of answering the question "If you have a mass movement, is it better served by finding a common enemy to hate (Haredi Judaism) OR by intellectual consistency (Masorti/Conservative)?"
Posterity has proven unequivocally that the Haredi path has been most successful.
And that, the author's optimism notwithstanding (p.197), there is no comparison.
-In the last several decades, Masorti have lost 75% of their membership. (That is consistent with what I see here: There are 27 Orthodox synagogues in this city and 1 Conservative that might have 25 People for Shabbat morning services with an average age of 95 years old.)
-Meanwhile, a quick look at the Avi Chai population survey shows that just in a 5-year period, the increase for various Haredi groups has been between 18 and 34%. (With losses of -7% for some parts of Modern Orthodoxy and gains of 8% for other parts.)
It is quite clear that the more right-wing elements of Orthodoxy have chosen hatred (of anything and everything) as a unifying strategy: Each other/ modernity/ Left-wing Orthodoxy / Secular Jews/ liberal denominations/black people/converts / Mexicans/ Israel/ The Outside World, etc.
You name it, and I can guarantee you that in any given week there is at least one Black Hat somewhere giving a shiur/drasha and foaming at the mouth about any / all of these topics.
Modern Orthodoxy is focused on a positive symbol (the State of Israel) and is intellectually honest.
But they don't have anything like the growth of the more right-wing sectors (some books have been written that assert that even just a half century ago modern Orthodoxy was 2/3 of the Orthodox world).
And so that is how you can know that the observations contained in this book have mass.
°°°To be fair, Moribund Masorti Judaism does have sound intellectual/logical underpinnings: Halacha is and always has been what everybody agrees to believe and can be anything at any time (minute to minute, and year to year). Here (p. 23), the authors give a great example of Hillel's creating the legal fiction of the Prozbul in order to circumvent biblical law. (They could have equally appropriately chosen the annual Pesach sale of chometz. Or, made the heretical observation that the Torah was not handed out a couple of hundred years ago in Eastern Europe.)
°°°To be fair, Reform Judaism is completely intellectually consistent in that they worship at the altar of Social Justice. And so *that* is their emotional commitment.
And those two facts are necessary / sufficient to explain why they are a vibrant movement and have not lost people.
°°°To be fair, Haredi Judaism is an awesomely corrupt entity, and especially with respect to Jewish law. (The sexual abuse scandals are NEVER ending and NEVER dealt with.)
My own experience with fluctuant halacha is abundant-- specifically with respect to conversion law. (I'm an Orthodox convert.)
So, if all-12-of-the-remaining Conservative Jews attest to the shifting/EXTREME provisional nature of halacha, they are 100% intellectually honest.
Bear with me for these examples:
Geirut has not been resolved with respect to the state of Israel and the Diaspora in at least 3/4 of a century.
And it has not been resolved in the 28 years since the publication of this book.
Nor does it look to be resolved/resolvable in the foreseeable future. (Lest you think that's an overstatement: it took every bit of 3 centuries to to arrive at the standardized hechsherim used in the US)
All the oldest sources from 500- 2000 years ago (BT, Mishneh Torah, Shulchan Aruch) suggest/pasken that all that is necessary to complete a conversion is 3 Sabbath-observant Jewish men to witness the immersion of a circumcised gentile and his acceptance of the commandments.
A few years later, that wasn't enough (the issue came up in how to standardize conversion law between Eretz Israel and the Diaspora).
Then a few years after *that* R'Feinstein decided that it had to be 3 rabbis. And that was enough. (At least for that moment.)
Then a few years after *that* it was decided by the RCA that the 3 rabbis had to be heads of a synagogue.
That agreement has just recently fallen apart this year-2021. (Big surprise there!)
Recently, there was complicated morass in the state of Israel because the Chief Rabbinate's conversion of large number of number of black Ethiopians (for purposes of stringency), but one local court decided that it did not recognize the State Rabbanut.
And therefore that their conversions were invalid.
And therefore that any wine that was/is touched by converted-for-stringency-black-people is not kosher when certified under the Barkan label.
Meanwhile.......Masorti Judaism has stuck with the oldest sources with respect to geirut (which is that it only takes three kosher Jews to effectuate and it is once-and-done), and it didn't do them a damn bit of good.
Again, an enemy is more helpful to unify a mass movement than logical consistency.
*******
10 interesting factoids learned from reading this book:
Masorti Judaism:
1. Was a reaction against Reform Judaism, and for most of the century they saw themselves as on the left wing of Orthodoxy.
2. Did not even have a position statement until 1987.
3. Did have a good mix/number of serious scholars and Talmudists (who taught courses at seminaries that were organized into modules) and there was a lot of interdisciplinary contact with various universities.
4. Is a movement where the only person in the shul that is Orthodox or keeps kosher is The Rabbi.
5. Does have a Commission on Jewish Law and Standards to legislate for the whole movement. (Not that anybody pays attention to it.)
6. (p. 121) was aptly and succinctly chastised because of its "failure to develop a coherent ideology, its theological evasiveness, and its apparent inability to articulate a clear religious program for its laity." The Conservative movement was also described as "having Orthodox seminaries that trained Conservative rabbis that ministered to Reform Jews."
7. The present/future is the past: People have been lamenting about the decline of Jewish birth rate /intermarriage / Jewish ignorance even as far back as the time of Maimonides (p.139).
8. Did build a very scholarly case for the ordination of women as rabbis. (p.142, Joel Roth of Detroit is shown to be a very forceful advocate strictly by his referencing of classic texts.)
9. Was not a successful movement in Israel because the cultural idiosyncrasies of the United States were/are not the same as those of israel.
10. Has had the central, persistent problem of not being able to define itself and therefore create a message and therefore justify its existence as a movement in contradistinction to competitors.
And a lot of ink has been spilled and a lot of words have been spoken for no ultimate result.
Second order questions:
1. My choice has been to go with Modern Orthodoxy because of their acceptance, positivity and intellectual honesty.
And yet: we saw how that worked out with Conservative Judaism.
Will Modern Orthodoxy go the way of the dodo / Conservative Judaism? (Remembering that at one point they had a 2/3 share of Orthodoxy.)
Or, will it remain a stable minority?
2. Two Minutes of Hate can be expanded into a life's mission, and that is sufficient to explain the existence and persistence of the Haredim.
But, if you don't want to make a life out of hatred and intellectual corruption...... Is there *nothing* available to you except for the minor (20%) fraction of Modern Orthodoxy?
3. Given that is it so much harder to define a movement positively (by saying who you are) rather than negatively (by saying who you aren't), can a Modern Orthodox life be sustained simply as being "Not Haredi"?
4. Is there a sustainable middle way to engage with Jewish practice *other* than being a social justice warrior OR a venal, venomous, jobless enclavist? (Let's remember that Conservative was started against a reaction to/against Reform. But, Reform has kept its market share.)
Of the book:
207 pages of prose over 11 chapters. (19 pps/chapter)
Although I'm usually extremely grudging to believe anything in books written that describe social currents of sometime, this one is well done enough to be believed.
Verdict: This book is worth the time and worth the second hand price. (≈$5).
Neil Gillman
5/5 stars
"How NOT to run a mass movement"
*******
Eric Hoffer Quote: "Mass movements can rise and spread without belief in a God, but never without belief in a devil."
At first I had thought that this easy-to-read book would merely be recapitulation of a lot of interesting information about Conservative Judaism in a single place.
And yes, that is *some* of the book: there are lots of familiar names both within and without Masorti Judaism (Sampson Hersh/Moses Mendelssohn/ Zachariah Frankel/ Alexander Kohut/ Sabato Morais) along with details of their contributions.
But, the book more properly serves as a field experiment in service of answering the question "If you have a mass movement, is it better served by finding a common enemy to hate (Haredi Judaism) OR by intellectual consistency (Masorti/Conservative)?"
Posterity has proven unequivocally that the Haredi path has been most successful.
And that, the author's optimism notwithstanding (p.197), there is no comparison.
-In the last several decades, Masorti have lost 75% of their membership. (That is consistent with what I see here: There are 27 Orthodox synagogues in this city and 1 Conservative that might have 25 People for Shabbat morning services with an average age of 95 years old.)
-Meanwhile, a quick look at the Avi Chai population survey shows that just in a 5-year period, the increase for various Haredi groups has been between 18 and 34%. (With losses of -7% for some parts of Modern Orthodoxy and gains of 8% for other parts.)
It is quite clear that the more right-wing elements of Orthodoxy have chosen hatred (of anything and everything) as a unifying strategy: Each other/ modernity/ Left-wing Orthodoxy / Secular Jews/ liberal denominations/black people/converts / Mexicans/ Israel/ The Outside World, etc.
You name it, and I can guarantee you that in any given week there is at least one Black Hat somewhere giving a shiur/drasha and foaming at the mouth about any / all of these topics.
Modern Orthodoxy is focused on a positive symbol (the State of Israel) and is intellectually honest.
But they don't have anything like the growth of the more right-wing sectors (some books have been written that assert that even just a half century ago modern Orthodoxy was 2/3 of the Orthodox world).
And so that is how you can know that the observations contained in this book have mass.
°°°To be fair, Moribund Masorti Judaism does have sound intellectual/logical underpinnings: Halacha is and always has been what everybody agrees to believe and can be anything at any time (minute to minute, and year to year). Here (p. 23), the authors give a great example of Hillel's creating the legal fiction of the Prozbul in order to circumvent biblical law. (They could have equally appropriately chosen the annual Pesach sale of chometz. Or, made the heretical observation that the Torah was not handed out a couple of hundred years ago in Eastern Europe.)
°°°To be fair, Reform Judaism is completely intellectually consistent in that they worship at the altar of Social Justice. And so *that* is their emotional commitment.
And those two facts are necessary / sufficient to explain why they are a vibrant movement and have not lost people.
°°°To be fair, Haredi Judaism is an awesomely corrupt entity, and especially with respect to Jewish law. (The sexual abuse scandals are NEVER ending and NEVER dealt with.)
My own experience with fluctuant halacha is abundant-- specifically with respect to conversion law. (I'm an Orthodox convert.)
So, if all-12-of-the-remaining Conservative Jews attest to the shifting/EXTREME provisional nature of halacha, they are 100% intellectually honest.
Bear with me for these examples:
Geirut has not been resolved with respect to the state of Israel and the Diaspora in at least 3/4 of a century.
And it has not been resolved in the 28 years since the publication of this book.
Nor does it look to be resolved/resolvable in the foreseeable future. (Lest you think that's an overstatement: it took every bit of 3 centuries to to arrive at the standardized hechsherim used in the US)
All the oldest sources from 500- 2000 years ago (BT, Mishneh Torah, Shulchan Aruch) suggest/pasken that all that is necessary to complete a conversion is 3 Sabbath-observant Jewish men to witness the immersion of a circumcised gentile and his acceptance of the commandments.
A few years later, that wasn't enough (the issue came up in how to standardize conversion law between Eretz Israel and the Diaspora).
Then a few years after *that* R'Feinstein decided that it had to be 3 rabbis. And that was enough. (At least for that moment.)
Then a few years after *that* it was decided by the RCA that the 3 rabbis had to be heads of a synagogue.
That agreement has just recently fallen apart this year-2021. (Big surprise there!)
Recently, there was complicated morass in the state of Israel because the Chief Rabbinate's conversion of large number of number of black Ethiopians (for purposes of stringency), but one local court decided that it did not recognize the State Rabbanut.
And therefore that their conversions were invalid.
And therefore that any wine that was/is touched by converted-for-stringency-black-people is not kosher when certified under the Barkan label.
Meanwhile.......Masorti Judaism has stuck with the oldest sources with respect to geirut (which is that it only takes three kosher Jews to effectuate and it is once-and-done), and it didn't do them a damn bit of good.
Again, an enemy is more helpful to unify a mass movement than logical consistency.
*******
10 interesting factoids learned from reading this book:
Masorti Judaism:
1. Was a reaction against Reform Judaism, and for most of the century they saw themselves as on the left wing of Orthodoxy.
2. Did not even have a position statement until 1987.
3. Did have a good mix/number of serious scholars and Talmudists (who taught courses at seminaries that were organized into modules) and there was a lot of interdisciplinary contact with various universities.
4. Is a movement where the only person in the shul that is Orthodox or keeps kosher is The Rabbi.
5. Does have a Commission on Jewish Law and Standards to legislate for the whole movement. (Not that anybody pays attention to it.)
6. (p. 121) was aptly and succinctly chastised because of its "failure to develop a coherent ideology, its theological evasiveness, and its apparent inability to articulate a clear religious program for its laity." The Conservative movement was also described as "having Orthodox seminaries that trained Conservative rabbis that ministered to Reform Jews."
7. The present/future is the past: People have been lamenting about the decline of Jewish birth rate /intermarriage / Jewish ignorance even as far back as the time of Maimonides (p.139).
8. Did build a very scholarly case for the ordination of women as rabbis. (p.142, Joel Roth of Detroit is shown to be a very forceful advocate strictly by his referencing of classic texts.)
9. Was not a successful movement in Israel because the cultural idiosyncrasies of the United States were/are not the same as those of israel.
10. Has had the central, persistent problem of not being able to define itself and therefore create a message and therefore justify its existence as a movement in contradistinction to competitors.
And a lot of ink has been spilled and a lot of words have been spoken for no ultimate result.
Second order questions:
1. My choice has been to go with Modern Orthodoxy because of their acceptance, positivity and intellectual honesty.
And yet: we saw how that worked out with Conservative Judaism.
Will Modern Orthodoxy go the way of the dodo / Conservative Judaism? (Remembering that at one point they had a 2/3 share of Orthodoxy.)
Or, will it remain a stable minority?
2. Two Minutes of Hate can be expanded into a life's mission, and that is sufficient to explain the existence and persistence of the Haredim.
But, if you don't want to make a life out of hatred and intellectual corruption...... Is there *nothing* available to you except for the minor (20%) fraction of Modern Orthodoxy?
3. Given that is it so much harder to define a movement positively (by saying who you are) rather than negatively (by saying who you aren't), can a Modern Orthodox life be sustained simply as being "Not Haredi"?
4. Is there a sustainable middle way to engage with Jewish practice *other* than being a social justice warrior OR a venal, venomous, jobless enclavist? (Let's remember that Conservative was started against a reaction to/against Reform. But, Reform has kept its market share.)
Of the book:
207 pages of prose over 11 chapters. (19 pps/chapter)
Although I'm usually extremely grudging to believe anything in books written that describe social currents of sometime, this one is well done enough to be believed.
Verdict: This book is worth the time and worth the second hand price. (≈$5).
December 25, 2010
Gillman's book is a well-laid out, step-by-step examination of the history and current status of the Conservative Movement. Each chapter has multiple sub-sections that enables the reader to clearly see where Gillman is going and Gillman's writing, though not dry by any means, is to-the-point and (often) as succinct as possible. Though Gillman is an unabashedly partisan Conservative Jew, this book is not meant to sway anyone but rather explain the historical background, internal tensions, major developments, and unique perspective of the Movement. This book has little theology/philosophy in it, other than the briefest amount that serves to explain the Conservative viewpoint and history. I felt at times that Gillman relied on just a few sources upon which he would base entire chapters upon but if so, that may be due to the lack of resources on this relatively new Movement in Judaism. (Or I may be mistaken!) I would recommend this book as a fast, easy to follow primer on Conservative Judaism.
January 2, 2022
A lot missing - Canada, UK, etc. and the relationship between Talmudic rabbis and the CJLS, among other things.
September 29, 2013
It is one thing to grow up in a specific religious movement, but it is another thing to learn about its history. I'm not sure if I knew that Conservative Judaism actually came out of Reform Judaism, or that Reform Jews were major funders of the Jewish Theological Seminary.
March 20, 2014
A very good description of conservative Judaism. It does what a resource book should do in very clear and understandable terms.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews