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
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Opinion To Reach Diaspora, Make Israel Welcoming to All Jews
I am always delighted by the Sukkot tradition of ushpizin. We invite guests, ceremonially and literally, into our homes to celebrate the spirit of Jewish hospitality — a central theme of this festival. This year, I challenge Israel and world Jewry to ask themselves a question: How big is our people’s sukkah? This question came…
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News Welcoming Intermarried Couples Is New Priority for Jewish Institutions
When the nation’s largest Jewish federation convened its first-ever conference recently on engaging interfaith families, perhaps the most notable thing about it was the utter lack of controversy that greeted the event. There was a time when the stereotypical Jewish approach to intermarriage was to shun the offender and sit shiva. A generation ago, the…
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Fast Forward Schechter Schools Get $2M Avi Chai Grant
The AVI CHAI Foundation awarded nearly $2 million to support the Conservative movement’s Solomon Schechter network of Jewish day schools. Two grants, for the Solomon Schecter School Network and the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, include some $1.7 million in funding from AVI CHAI and a challenge grant from an anonymous foundation, according to a…
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News Conservative Umbrella Group Lays Off 12 Staffers as Fiscal Woes Bite
The Conservative movement’s umbrella group, the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, has laid off a total of 12 full-time and part-time employees, the Forward has learned. Rabbi Steven Wernick, CEO of the USCJ, said the reductions, about 10% of the staff, would save the organization about $1 million annually — about the size of its…
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Fast Forward Conservative Group Sticks to Balanced Budget Claim Despite Bulging Deficit
Despite a budget deficit twice what was expected, the leader of the Conservative movement’s synagogue umbrella group says the group will balance its budget within two years. Rabbi Steven Wernick, the CEO of the United Synagogue for Conservative Judaism, told JTA that his organization was anticipating a budget hole of more than $1 million in…
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Fast Forward Sweden Hosts First Jewish Gay Wedding
The Great Synagogue of Stockholm hosted Sweden’s first Jewish gay wedding. The couple, two men who had been living together for the past 28 years, was wed at the synagogue on Sunday at a ceremony conducted by Rabbi David Lazar and attended by some 50 people. “They only invited close friends because it was their…
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Fast Forward 7% of Israeli Jews Are Reform or Conservative
Some 7.1 percent of Israeli Jews define themselves as Reform or Conservative, according to the soon-to-be-released Israeli Democracy Index for 2013. This figure might sound surprisingly high, considering that there are only 110 Reform and Conservative synagogues in Israel. But it is actually slightly less than the figure found by a different survey published last…
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Opinion A Woman’s Place is at Prayer — at Kotel or Upper West Side
Nearly 20 years ago I was living on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, a haven for observant Conservative Jews. I had my choice of multiple minyanim to attend; even the crowded weekend city streets had an air of the Sabbath, and kosher food abounded. There were so many Conservative and egalitarian options that I rarely ventured…
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Opinion This German word explains Trump’s authoritarian impulses — and Hitler’s rise to power
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Opinion What Democrats fighting Trump should learn from Germany’s failure to stop Hitler
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Fast Forward 31st anniversary of AMIA bombing marked by ceremonies in Argentina, Israel and, for the first time, Congress
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Fast Forward Mike Huckabee to Israel: End hostile treatment of Christian allies
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Fast Forward Connie Francis, 20th-century star turned TikTok sensation, recorded an album of Jewish songs in 1960
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