This is 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
The Latest
-
Community What It’s Like To Be A Queer Female Cantor
When you hear the word ‘Cantor’ or the Hebrew word chazzan, the image in your mind might be a man in a miter or top hat, wearing a tallit (prayer shawl), with a beard, or perhaps the iconic Yossele Rosenblatt, the famous tenor from the Golden Age of Cantors, or a clean-shaven Israeli man in…
-
News How Rabbis Are Trying To Make The Conservative Movement More Gay-Friendly
The Jewish coming-of-age ceremony known as a bar mitzvah is always challenging. It happens at the awkward age of the early teen years, and requires the child to chant, before family, friends and congregation, from the archaic Hebrew of the Torah. For Amichai Lau-Lavie, the Israeli-born scion of an Eastern European rabbinical dynasty, it was…
-
Community 5 Steps and an Unlikely Outsider Can ‘Save’ Conservative Judaism
Recently Dr. Roberta Kwall wrote an article entitled “Saving Conservative Judaism” for Commentary Magazine. Kwall writes “In short, the Conservative movement needs to return to [Solomon] Schechter’s mission of conserving Jewish tradition by focusing its educational and spiritual energies on enlarging and strengthening a root group of Conservative Jews who are drawn to tradition.” Kwall’s…
-
Fast Forward Conservative Rabbi: Let Clergy Officiate Intermarriages
As Conservative religious leaders continue to debate whether the movement should bless intermarriages, one rabbi is adding his voice to a growing group that wants to officiate such ceremonies. Rabbi Steven Abraham of Beth El Synagogue in Omaha penned an op-ed in The Times of Israel this week calling on the movement to change its…
-
Fast Forward Activists Protest Non-Union Construction At Jewish Theological Seminary
Activists held a protest on Monday outside the Jewish Theological Seminary in Manhattan against the contractor that the rabbinical school hired to manage a massive construction project on campus. JTS, the flagship seminary of Conservative Judaism, hired the contractor Gilbane to build a new library and residence hall as part of a major refiguring of…
-
Fast Forward Gay Rabbi Leads Conservative Effort To ‘Radically Reimagine’ Traditions
Gil Steinlauf, the prominent Washington, D.C. rabbi who made waves when he came out three years ago to his congregation, will leave his post as senior rabbi at Adas Israel to head up a new “innovation lab” for the Conservative movement. Steinlauf described the initiative as “far reaching” and “designed to radically reimagine the ancient…
-
Fast Forward It’s Jew Vs. Jew As Conservative Pol’s Popularity Rises In Rio
RIO DE JANEIRO (JTA) – A few days before they read from the Passover Haggadah about how God split the Red Sea waters, Brazilian Jews have never felt so split between right and left. At the center of the divide, although hardly in the Moses role, is Jair Bolsonaro, a 61-year-old conservative lawmaker who appears…
-
News Conservatives Welcome Non-Jews — But Will They Be Second-Class Citizens In Synagogue?
When Holly first kissed Jeff on a dance floor back in the 1990s, she was a college freshman from Staten Island and he was a frat brother from Long Island. They both had New York accents. He thought the petite brunette was Jewish. But Holly Rizzuto was and still is an Italian Catholic, named Holly…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
Opinion New York’s Israel Day parade was a shanda — but not because of Mamdani
- 2
Opinion How can I live freely as a Jew in a world where strangers rip my mezuzah off my doorframe?
- 3
News Floyd Mayweather showered cash on Jewish causes — and now he’s suing their ‘Robin Hood’ alleging $175 million got diverted
- 4
Opinion Israeli and diaspora Jews live in different realities. The Israel Day parade proved it
In Case You Missed It
-
News In the race for Jerry Nadler’s seat, much talk on Israel but little disagreement
-
Film & TV A Hasidic wedding entertainer tries to keep up with the times — if his ego will let him
-
Yiddish חיים בארס נײַ בוך דרייט זיך אַרום אָפּאַטאָשוס נאָוועלע „אַ טאָג אין רעגענסבורג“Chaim Beer’s new book revolves around J. Opatoshu’s novella ‘A Day in Regensburg’
„לווייתן ברוח“ באַקענט דעם לייענער מיט באַקאַנטע ייִדישע פֿיגורן, ווי י. ל. פּרץ, ש. אַנ-סקי און חנא שמערוק
-
Fast Forward The Jewish Brigade fought fascism in Italy. Now its flags spark protests.