The head of the Conservative movement’s congregational arm wants Conservative Jews to observe Jewish law. “The sad truth is that halachah,” or Jewish law, “which is a foundation block of our ideology, is irrelevant to most Conservative Jews,” Rabbi Jerome Epstein, executive vice president of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, told the group’s 2003 biennial in Dallas this week. Conservative Judaism believes halachah is binding though evolving, but Epstein said there is a “chasm between what we say and what we do.”
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.