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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News First Woman To Lead An American Rabbinical Association Stepping Down
Rabbi Julie Schonfeld, who has lead the professional organization for Conservative Judaism’s rabbis since 2009, announced Friday morning that she would leave her post at the end of the year. In a letter to members of the Rabbinical Assembly, the chairman of the group’s board, Rabbi Philip Scheim, wrote that Schonfeld had informed the leadership…
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Fast Forward Conservative Rabbis Call On Israel To Admit Kenyan Convert
(JTA) — Conservative rabbis have called on Israel to allow a Kenyan convert to study at its yeshiva in Jerusalem. A visa application submitted by Yehudah Kimani last week was rejected by the country’s Interior Ministry. It is the second time that Kimani has been denied entrance to the country. “Kimani is a Jew, converted…
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News This Jewish Couple Overcame Infertility. Do Their Twins Have To Convert?
The Jewish parents of infant twin boys drove last summer from their home in the Washington, D.C., area to a summer camp in Pennsylvania to perform a conversion for their babies. It was a slightly embellished version of the traditional conversion ceremony: Since both boys were already circumcised, they simply recited a prayer, the Sh’ma,…
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Community What Is The Debate Over Intermarriage Really About?
About twenty five years ago, I attended my sister-in-law’s marriage to a non-Jew. In other words, I broke a rule of the Rabbinical Assembly, the governing body of Conservative Judaism, thus risking expulsion from the group and professional suicide. A few nights ago, I asked my wife, “Did I know back then that I was…
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News After A Teen Tour Turned Into An Abuse Nightmare, Waiting On An Apology
Jimmy Cohen was a legend to the 47 Jewish teenagers who rode a big tour bus across the United States together in the summer of 1997. The bus trip, officially Bus B of USY on Wheels, Conservative Judaism’s official teen tour, was a six-week-long excuse for the 16-year-olds to hang out, make friends, make out,…
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News Why Did Conservative Rabbis Redo Their Intermarriage Ban — In Secrecy?
A little more than a year ago, a young rabbi revealed to colleagues that he had discovered that the Conservative movement never officially adopted one of its signature rules: the ban on rabbis blessing intermarriages. Conservative rabbis are also forbidden from even attending intermarriages on pain of expulsion from the movement, and the likely job…
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Fast Forward 100s Of Conservative Jews Oppose Movement’s Support For Trump’s Jerusalem Move
(JTA) — Hundreds of Conservative Jews have signed an open letter opposing their movement’s support for U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. The letter, first published Sunday night, has garnered some 250 signatures in its first 36 hours online. All of the signatories are affiliates or alumni of the Jewish Theological Seminary, the movement’s…
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Fast Forward Conservative Jewish Cemetery Opens Section for Interfaith Families
Interfaith families may now be buried together in a cemetery plot belonging to Congregation B’nai Israel, a Conservative synagogue in the coastal New Jersey town of Toms River. “There are always questions about burial of non-Jewish spouses in our cemetery,” Glenn Jacobs, a member of the synagogue’s cemetery committee told the website Patch.com, “and some…
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