Viewing the communal effort to promote Jewish continuity as flawed, the Conservative movement has launched its own campaign to strengthen Jewish identity.
“Anything that focuses on the future without building in the present can’t work,” said Jerome Epstein, executive vice president of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism and author of its “Jewish Living Now” campaign.
The campaign was introduced at the movement’s recent biennial convention here.
Although the Conservative movement has been promoting “Jewish continuity,” the movement’s leaders now view that approach as flawed because, they say, it placed too much of its emphasis on the future, and not enough on Jewish living in the present.
“Jewish continuity depends not on some commission, not on some institution, but on each and every one of us, and it depends on what we do now – not some day, not later, but what we do now,” said Ron Wolfson, director of the University of Judaism’s Whizin Institute.
“It’s our turn to step up, it’s our turn to make the commitment to our own personal Jewish journeys.”
Central to the “Jewish Living Now” campaign is the belief that investing resources and energy into Jewish life today will create a strong, vibrant based for Jewish life tomorrow.
“When we choose to live Jewishly, not only do we enrich our own lives, but we help to create meaningful Jewish memories for our children and grandchildren,” said Alan Ades, international president of the United Synagogue. “And by creating those memories, hopefully we’re guaranteeing that there will be future Jewish generations.”
The United Synagogue likens the new approach to climbing a ladder – one rung at a time, if necessary. The rungs, as defined in the “Jewish Living Now” campaign, consist of six areas of Jewish living: Shabbat, kashrut, the synagogue, study, tzedakah and outreach.
Rather than presenting Jewish commitment as an all- or-nothing proposition, the movement’s leadership is encouraging Jews to pick one area of Jewish living in order to climb onto the ladder. They hope that as Jews learn and feel more comfortable with Jewish observance, they can slowly ascend the ladder of commitment.
Conservative Jews attending the conference expressed enthusiasm for adopting new approaches that may make Judaism more accessible.
Madeline Dunn, president of B’nai Israel in Albuquerque, N.M., said creating a sense of comfort and bringing a “feeling of joy in the celebration of Judaism” to her community remains her overarching goal.
She said she intends to ask her synagogue’s congregants to try the one-rung-at- a-time approach.
“I’m going to ask them to do one Shabbat thing – to light candles if they don’t already, bless their children, buy a challah, have Shabbat dinner with family, invite someone to Shabbat dinner,” Dunn said.
“It may not feel comfortable the first time,” she added, “but when they do something for the third time, I’m hoping they’ll find themselves in a comfort zone.”
Bette Novick of Portland, Maine, sees assimilation as the most pressing issue facing the Conservative movement today. For that reason, she agrees that making Jews “feel comfortable coming to synagogue and sharing family and social times with Jewish friends” is critical to maintaining a lasting sense of Jewish identity.
She added that with “more and more things pulling at our time,” Jews today “have to work harder to make the time in their family life to keep everybody remembering what tradition is.”
Although Conservative practice varies widely from community to community – often to a greater extent than the other Jewish denominations – many of those attending the United Synagogue conference said they were struck more by the similarities in their experiences than by differences.
“I’ve been talking to people who discuss similar problems like getting a minyan together when they have a congregation of thousands and I have a congregation of 35 families,” said Alan Turner, a lay leader who, in the absence of a rabbi, leads his congregation in Putnam, Conn.
Kitty Calhoon of Nashville, who converted from Christianity to Conservative Judaism 13 years ago, said she is encouraged by what she sees as the movement’s increasing willingness to grapple with “modern-day issues,” such as the role of women and fundamental questions about “who we are.”
“Before,” she said, “the movement as a whole was kind of afraid to deal with that, perhaps for fear of creating a schism or alienating people within.”
Wolfson hopes members of the Conservative Jewish community can bring the “Jewish Living Now” theme back to their communities, serve as mentors and commit themselves to helping others live Jewish lives.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
