More than 560 delegates are meeting in Boston at the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism’s biennial. On Monday night, Rabbi Neil Gillman, a professor of Jewish philosophy at the Jewish Theological Seminary, proposed that the movement stop calling itself a “halachic movement” and focus instead on finding strength and intellectual honesty in “living with ambiguity and tension.” On Tuesday afternoon, Rabbi Jerome Epstein, the USCJ’s executive vice president, will unveil a new keruv, or outreach, initiative that posits a more pro-active approach to welcoming intermarried families into Conservative synagogue life. Two hot topics absent from the agenda at the Dec. 4-8 meeting are the ordination of gays and lesbians and the selection of a new JTS chancellor. The conference concludes Thursday morning with an address by the outgoing JTS chancellor, Rabbi Ismar Schorsch.
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