Questions about Judaism by Rabbi Zelizer -- July 9, 2009

Frequent questions to the Rabbi about Judaism. His answers will be appearing as Cyberthoughts over time.

QUESTION #1:

Q. Why is the Conservative Movement in trouble and what can be done about it? (Two parts)

A. Firstly, it is more accurate to say that although the Conservative Movement has serious problems, Conservative Judaism - the approach - is healthy. We should distinguish between the two. The Conservative Movement consists of institutions of Conservative Judaism, nationally and the local synagogues. The institutions do have demographic problems, Conservative Judaism that is an overall approach to Judaism of tradition and change which is very much alive and well.

Consider here in the United States those splinter movements - those Havurot synagogues which are growing within New York and Boston and Los Angeles where you have former Conservative Jews in 'rabbiless' synagogues which do not call themselves Conservative. But what is their behavior? 1. Egalitarianism, 2. Traditional Davening, 3. Complete reading of the Torah without interruption. They may not call themselves Conservative, but their behavior echoes very much the religious behavior of our finest summer camp, Camp Ramah. So I think we have to distinguish between institutions of Conservative Judaism - which do have a problem and decline in population, and the philosophy of Conservative Judaism which is alive and well.

Consider for example, that even though Orthodoxy is the official Judaism of the State of Israel, Conservative Judaism is the unofficial Judaism of the Embassy of Israel in Washington. The new Ambassador Michael Oren grew up as a Conservative Jew and calls himself this in Israel. The Ambassadors of Israel celebrate the bar mitzvah of their children in Congregation Adas Israel in Washington. Golda Meir attended Adas Israel. So even with Israel the unofficial government religion is Conservative.

Also, the leading demographer of Judaism is a Jew named Sergio Della Pergola of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He says that it is Orthodox Judaism which has had the greatest trouble in retaining its members - obviously because it is harder to be Orthodox. Only 13% of those who define themselves as Jewish in America are Orthodox - that represents a significant demographic decline. Yet data shows that most Jews in America identify themselves as modern yet traditional in a religious sense. That is exactly the Conservative way. (To be continued in next cyberthought)