About a year ago, I wrote a series on the history and beliefs of non-Orthodox groups. If there is interest, I can post it here as well. My intention in this article is not to bash or condemn, but rather to learn from history.
The Conservative movement was born in the last decades of the nineteenth century.At that time, there were few Orthodox Jews in America. Reform had taken a sharp turn away from tradition and halachah since the 1870s. A new "American Orthodoxy" was felt to be necessary.Conservatism was, from the beginning, an uneasy cohabitation of two philosophies. On the one hand, there were essentially Reform rabbis and scholars who believed that Reform had gone too far. Reform synagogue services, at that time, seemed modeled more after Protestant services than Jewish (this, happily, reversed itself later). Many East Coast Reform synagogues even instituted a Sunday Sabbath! (The last of these switched back only in the 1970s). So, many Reform Jews felt disenfranchised. Another group was essentially Orthodox, but believed compromises were necessary to bring back a rapidly assimilating community. This would be accomplished, they thought, not by violating halachah, but rather by giving it a more liberal interpretation.This group was heavily influenced by "the Historical School" (Wissenscaft), that sought an understanding of Judaism in its historical context. This idea was already popular in Germany, and also resonated with many Jews originating from the Iberian peninsula. Traditional Orthodoxy really only began to take hold in America in the 1920s. Conservatism perceived itself, and was perceived by many others, as being a form of Orthodoxy. In the 1930s,, an important shift took place. One of the leaders of Conservatism argued that, if we are seeing Judaism as an historical development, why can't we further that development? If something is in the Talmud, or even the Torah, which no longer fits modern sensibilities, we can, and should, change that idea or practice. One Conservative leader in the 1960s even went so far as to call several Biblical laws "immoral". To be sure, most Conservative leaders objected to these ideas, but both were represented among the faculty of the Conservative Jewish Theological Seminary, as well as the Committee on Law and Standards. Several leading Orthodox rabbis in the 1950s and '60s branded the Conservative movement as heretical, although the majority of its rabbis were, for all intents and purposes, Orthodox. One hears today speculation as to whether those Orthodox rabbis foresaw the future direction of the movement, or, whether, they had inadvertently pushed the Right Wing to the Left. Until the 1980s, Orthodox rabbis were still taking positions in Conservative synagogues. The Israeli Chief Rabbinate, although on record as opposing the movement, still recognized conversions done by Conservative rabbis who were known to be at the Right Wing of the movement. Today, Conservative rabbis who strictly follow halachah are exceedingly rare, but they do exist. These men are very brave, as they are seen as an anomaly in their own movement, and generally shunned by Orthodoxy as well.
Everything changed in about 1980. Feminism had taken hold in the American Jewish community. Women demanded the right to be ordained as rabbis. They also wanted full, or at least fuller, participation in synagogue services. Even in more liberal Orthodox circles, rabbis were experimenting with feminist innovations. But Conservative women wanted more than that. Virtually the entire leadership of the movement was sympathetic to the needs of these women. The Right Wing said, essentially, "OK. We will study the issue. We will publish peer reviewed studies based on sources. We will see how far we can go without doing violence to halachah." The Left wing said "OK, The community's values have changed. Halachah needs to change with it." The Rabbinical Assembly of the Conservative movement was ready to discuss these issues, find a consensus, and hold a vote. The lay organization, the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism told them "No. The community demands full equality of women in every sphere. You must permit this immediately!". The usual way that voting on issues was held was radically altered in order to insure passage.Several leaders who had initially supported the idea now felt that the halachic process had not only been subverted, but essentially ignored. Some resigned their teaching positions at JTS and left the movement. (Some of these are personal friends of mine). Many remained, trying to influence from within. (I have friends in this group as well.) The Left had the day. This would continue until the present, expressing itself in many ways on many issues. It was expected that the Conservative movement, already the largest of the three "denominations", would completely win over American Jewry by demonstrating this vibrancy and activism.. Instead, affiliation plummeted. Why did this happen? What can be learned from this experience? That will be my next post.