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Conservative Judaism

It was a popular error to suppose that all Jews hold the same form of faith and practice, or that all believe in the coming of a personal Messiah, in a bodily resurrection, or in the establishment of a Palestinian kingdom. Modern Judaism is divided into Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, and Radical. Orthodox Judaism believes in carrying out the letter of the ancient Mosaic code as expounded by the Talmud. Reformed Judaism seeks to retain the spirit only of the ancient Law, discarding the absolute authority of both Bible and Talmud, making reason and modern demands paramount. Conservative Judaism is a moderate reform. Radical Judaism declares itself independent of established forms, clinging mainly to the ethical basis of the religion.

The gradual emancipation of the Jews in Germany, which, however, did not become, final anywhere until 1848, and which was rendered complete in Bavaria so recently as 1866, insensibly diminished the influence of Talmudical studies and of Rabbinical lore as the paramount obligation of life. Compelled, happily, to bear their own share in their deliverance from oppression, the Jews became more and more attached to the land of their nativity, and more and more estranged from the traditional allegiance to the kingdom of Israel. Their love for Palestine, intense and impassioned as ever, has assumed a different form. Their union and fellowship no longer represented a nationality yearning to be released from captivity, but settled down into the indissoluble affection of race and a common faith, not inconsistent with ties of citizenship in the world.

By around 1900 Conservative Judaism was paramount in Belgium and Italy, and held its own in some parts of Austria also. The great Rapoport of Prague, one of the finest scholars of his time, may be regarded as the type of the intelligent Conservative Jew, who loved the Judaism of the past with fervor and intensity, but recognised as the duty of the present hour the preparation of his brethren for their place in the world at length grudgingly accorded them.

The Judaism of Poland and Russia, as of Palestine and the other Asiatic and the African countries, could scarcely be denominated Conservative. Between 1880 and 1920, a vast flood of Eastern European Jews, primarily Russians and Poles, transformed American Jewish demographics. About three million Jewish refugees reached American shores. They brought with them a form of Judaism that was deeply rooted in fundamentalist traditions. Conservative Judaism had no history in these countries.

At the end of the 19th Century Reform Judaism seemed to have triumphed all along the line. Its rabbis spoke with confident decorum for American Jewry. The professionals and the bigger business men, with rare exceptions, attended the fashionable Temples. But a newcomer from England, originally of Roumania, would soon start the reverse process by challenging the fundamental principles of Reform. A sage steeped in rabbinical lore, Solomon Schechter was also a 19th century scholar with extensive knowledge of theology, of English literature, of German Biblical criticism. On coming to America in 1901, Schechter's object was in his own words: "to take charge of the Seminary ... to establish a training school for Rabbis which, adopting what is best in modern thought but at the same time teaching traditional Judaism in such a manner as to awaken fresh interest in our glorious past." The Jewish Theological Seminary of America, under his stimulating direction, became the generating force of Conservative Judaism, the fountainhead that continued to exert vast influence throughout world Jewry. Schechter accomplished for the Conservative wing what Wise did for Reform.

Conservative Judaism is a midway house. Arriving later on the American scene, it sought to avoid the extremes of the Reformers, reconciling tradition to American conditions without compromising its integrity. By the 1940's, Conservative Judaism became the undeniable dominant American Jewish movement. The immigrant generation was supplanted by their Americanized children. The new generation had grown up with the echoes of their European parents' traditions and found comfort in the compromises that Conservative Jewry represented. By the 1950's Conservative Jewry had almost universally done away with sex separated seating and the bidding for synagogue honors. They instituted shorter services with sermons being given in English.

The conservative attitude was a determination to preserve the historic continuity of the Jewish people by permitting such changes in religious customs and institutions as appear to be necessary for preserving this continuity. It emphasizes the more permanent and more universal in Jewish law and custom, and tends to neglect intentionally the local and the temporary. Thus, conservative Jews observe the Jewish Sabbath as a day of rest, worship and study, but do not necessarily follow the biblical and rabbinic prohibitions concerning the carrying of objects, or the kindling of lights, on that day. They obey the Jewish dietary laws, but are not very scrupulous in following the many injunctions connected with the complete separation of milk and meat with regard to the use of dishes, etc. They pray in the synagogue on Sabbaths and holidays, but may forego the three daily prayers on some of the week days.

This attitude is not merely negative, not a mere compromise. It is the "evolutionary" attitude in Judaism. It refuses to break with the past, but instead, gradually discards those customs and laws which are felt to be no longer tenable or necessary. It is a "functional" conception of Judaism. For, as in the natural evolution of organisms, so also in conservative Judaism, use and disuse, rather than intellectual recognition, determine the development of new forms or the abrogation of old ones. It is an "organic" attitude. It refuses to make the distinction between the spiritual, or the religious phases of Jewish life, and the corporate or national aspects. It claims that Jewish spirituality has meaning only with reference to Jewish group life.

Thus, it may be said, without fear of successful contradiction, that the conservative class, more than either the orthodox, or the reform, looks to the practical upbuilding of a Jewish life in Palestine, as a necessary element in its religious philosophy. It does not consider Jewish religious life as having ceased its development. It seeks new values, new laws, and new customs; but these must be the natural expression of a normal Jewish people living on its own land and developing its group life in accordance with the ideals of its past. As distinguished from the orthodox, who place the codified law at the center of Jewish religious life, and from the reform Jews, who emphasize Jewish ideas of life as the guide of their religious thinking, the conservative attitude seems to look to the Jewish people as the perpetual source of its religious life, and would therefore consider the welfare, continuity and development of the Jewish group as an essential in its religious outlook.

In 2003, close to half the rabbis ordained by the Reform, Reconstructionist, and Conservative movements were women. Conservative Judaism, unlike Reform and the smaller Reconstructionist movement, neither ordains openly gay rabbis nor officially sanctions same-sex marriages.