Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of Conservative Judaism, one of the three major streams of U.S. Judaism. Conservative Jews are generally more observant than Reform Jews but less so than Orthodox Jews. The movement is led by the…
Conservative Judaism
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Fast Forward Conservative Rabbinical Group Appoints Rabbi Jacob Blumenthal As Its New Head
(JTA) — The Conservative movement’s Rabbinical Assembly appointed Rabbi Jacob Blumenthal as its new chief executive. Blumenthal, the spiritual leader at Shaare Torah in Gaithersburg, Maryland, will start in July, the organization announced Thursday. He succeeds Rabbi Julie Schonfeld, the first woman to serve as chief executive of a major rabbinical organization. She announced in March 2018 that…
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Fast Forward Reform, Conservative Movements Ask Trump To Oppose Netanyahu Annexing West Bank
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Nine Jewish groups, including five associated with the Reform and Conservative movements, wrote to President Donald Trump asking him to preserve the two-state solution in the face of a pledge by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to annex West Bank territory. The letter is unusual, if not unprecedented, in mainstream Jewish groups…
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Fast Forward Jerusalem’s Orthodox Deputy Mayor Refuses To Speak At Conservative Jewish Venue
JERUSALEM (JTA) — A deputy mayor of Jerusalem refused to attend a real estate conference because it was held in a facility owned by the Conservative movement. Eliezer Rauchberger, who represents the haredi Orthodox Degel Hatorah party and holds the building and planning portfolio, had committed to being a keynote speaker Monday at the national…
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Culture Modern Judaism’s Approach To Sex Is Still Creepy And Medieval
I had sex for the first time at a Jewish youth program. It was a positive experience for me, like having an elective surgery performed by a newly licensed family friend and waking up afterward to find that all your limbs still work. I am sure there are as many people who give up their…
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News Jews Of Uganda Are Torn Apart Over A Bitter Sibling Rivalry
During a recent Shabbat service here, Rabbi Gershom Sizomu led dozens of worshippers in a prayer for unity. Women sang psalms. Children clapped. Men wearing yarmulkes played drums and guitars. Locally known in Uganda as Abayudaya or “the people of Judah,” they practice Conservative Judaism with an African flair — and right now, need exactly…
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News Conservative Rabbis Can Get Kicked Out For Breaking These Four Rules
Once you’re a rabbi, you’re good for life — unlike a law or medical license, no central professional body can take the title away. And while you can get the title from a Jewish seminary, such as Hebrew Union College (Reform), Yeshiva University (Orthodox) or the Jewish Theological Seminary (Conservative), there are thousands of rabbis…
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Life I Got Disinvited From A Hanukkah Party — Because I’m Politically Conservative
I’ve been left off the Solomons’ Hanukkah party list. You know the Solomons* – that large, loving, trans-generational family of educated, cultured, politically active writers, lawyers, professors, and psychotherapists. It was one of the great fortunes of my life that I was “adopted” into the family. And for fifty years now, I have been going…
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Fast Forward Israel Chief Rabbi Won’t Call Pittsburgh Shooting Site ‘Synagogue’ — Because It’s Not Orthodox
Israel’s Ashkenazi chief rabbi came under fire on Sunday for refusing to acknowledge in a newspaper interview that the massacre in Pittsburgh was carried out in a synagogue. The country’s ultra-Orthodox newspapers, in reporting on the event, have also refused to acknowledge that it took place in a Jewish house of prayer because Tree of…
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