Focus on Issues: Study on Conservative Jews Finds the ‘center is Holding’

For decades, Conservative Judaism was caught between Orthodoxy and Reform, defined more by what it wasn’t than by what it was.

More recently, it has been caught between divergent religious and cultural trends that have pulled many religious movements further to the left or the right.

But the Conservative movement has held firm to its unique position of having one foot planted firmly in modernity and another rooted in tradition.

Those principles permit the ordination of women but not of gay or lesbian rabbis, and emphasize integration with secular culture but not interfaith marriage.

In the tricky position of trying to mediate the tension between seemingly contradictory goals, the movement has been more successful in some ways than others, according to the findings of a new study of the movement.

For many Conservative Jews, these dichotomies are part of the denomination’s appeal.

“The philosophy of Conservative Judaism vis-a-vis halachah (Jewish law) is complex, but it’s real,” said sociologist and lifelong Conservative Jew Rela Geffen.

“The Conservative movement allows me to be a traditional Jew and a modern person at the same time,” said Geffen, a professor of sociology at Gratz College in Philadelphia and a visiting scholar at Harvard University’s Center for Jewish Studies.

When Michelle Rosenthol was preparing to convert to Judaism 14 years ago, she thought long and hard about the branch of Judaism with which she wanted to affiliate.

The Philadelphia resident said she was interested in being as observant as Orthodox Jews, but felt turned off by what she described as their “dogmatic” approach. She felt that complete egalitarianism, a central tenet of Reform Judaism, was essential, but that the movement was too far removed from Jewish tradition.

So Rosenthol chose the Conservative movement.

“I’m Conservative because there’s no reason that I can’t do anything someone Orthodox does or wishes to do; it’s just that all the opportunities are open to me as a female,” she said in a telephone interview.

Rosenthol and her husband are in the process of adopting a baby girl from China. She said they are so committed to their religious ideals that they will have her converted to Judaism under Conservative auspices even though they are planning to immigrate to Israel, where their daughter’s conversion will not be recognized by the Orthodox rabbinate, which controls matters of personal status in the Jewish state.

The study combined data from four sources: a survey of Conservative congregations — 378 of 760 affiliates of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism responded; a survey of more than 1,700 Conservative synagogue members; a survey of nearly 1,500 recent Bar and Bat Mitzvah teens from Conservative synagogues; and the 1990 National Jewish Population Study.

Jack Wertheimer, a professor of American Jewish history at the movement’s Jewish Theological Seminary, directed the study. He worked with nine other demographers and sociologists affiliated with a range of universities and research institutions.

According to the study, some 1.8 million American Jews identify themselves as Conservative Jews.

The survey focused primarily on the half of that number who are affiliated with synagogues.

It shows a shrinking, but increasingly religiously committed and educated membership.

The survey found that while more Jews identified as Conservative than Reform 20 years ago, now the reverse is true. Yet more synagogue members are aligned with the Conservative movement than with any other.

Of adult Jews who lived in entirely Jewish families in 1990, 41 percent were members of synagogues. Nearly half of them — 47 percent — belonged to Conservative synagogues.

Thirty-six percent of synagogue members were Reform and 11 percent were Orthodox.

Between 1971 and 1990, the movement experienced a net loss of 110,000 people, according to the National Jewish Population studies from those years.

But “those who do stay intensify their observance, education and participation,” said Wertheimer.

For Rabbi Ismar Schorsch, chancellor of the seminary, the study’s findings vindicate the positions he has long held dear.

“The center is holding,” he proclaimed at a news conference last week unveiling the study. “The Conservative movement has stubbornly held on to its ideals.”

While the religious ideology of Conservative Jews is close to that of the movement’s leaders, by many measures, their religious practices often fall short of the ideal.

The study found that:

Most Conservative synagogue members — 62 percent — say they are “obligated to obey Jewish law,” but a minority actually participate in some of the basic halachic practices.

Just under one-quarter — 24 percent — of Conservative synagogue members keep kosher, and 37 percent light Shabbat candles.

“The remark of a traditional Jew is that when they eat shrimp, they feel guilty,” Geffen, a lifelong Conservative Jew, said jokingly.

She also said that 20 years ago, a study found that even fewer Conservative Jews — 10 percent — kept kosher.

Many Conservative Jews who belong to a synagogue are not all that fond of attending.

A plurality — 35 percent — attend services “a few times a year.” Twenty-nine percent attend at least twice a month, and about equal numbers — 16 percent and 15 percent, respectively — attend about once a month and only on the High Holidays. Six percent of members never attend synagogue services at all.

A majority — 54 percent — of Conservative synagogue members agree with the movement’s policy of not allowing rabbis to perform intermarriages. But 28 percent agreed with the statement that “my rabbi should be willing to perform intermarriages.”

More than two-thirds of Conservative synagogue members disagree with the movement’s position on patrilineal descent.

The Conservative movement has formally rejected the position taken by the Reform movement, which breaks with Jewish tradition and defines as Jewish anyone with one Jewish parent as long as he or she is raised in the faith.

Another area in which the divergences within the Conservative movement are reflected is egalitarianism.

By most measures, Conservative congregations have overwhelmingly — but not completely — embraced equal religious and ritual roles for women and men, according to the study.

Eighty-three percent of American and Canadian Conservative congregations count women in a minyan;

Eighty-two percent of Conservative congregations allow women to read Torah in the synagogue;

Seventy-eight percent allow women to lead services.

Schorsch said in an interview that he is “surprised that egalitarianism has taken hold so quickly.”

Others, however, are not.

“This was a case in which the leadership was more hesitant than the community,” Geffen said, noting that once the movement decided to allow women to be counted in the minyan, “the synagogues implemented it instantly.”

At the same time, just 70 percent of the Conservative synagogue members surveyed said they would be willing to hire a woman as their rabbi. Thirty percent were not.

The study also found that young Conservative Jews are much more Jewishly educated, and somewhat more religiously committed, than earlier generations.

Conservative Jews younger than 35 are much more likely than their parents to have attended Hebrew school, gone to a Conservative summer camp or participated in a Conservative youth group.

These findings show that “investment in young people is paying off,” Wertheimer said.

“This is a movement of people who are on their way” to greater religious commitment and observance, he said. “The Conservative movement tries to move people up that ladder.”