page_title: Conservative Judaism
section_title: A third movement
hierarchical_section_title: Conservative Judaism / History / A third movement
caption_attribution_description: English: Congregation Shaarey Zedek in Southfield, Michigan
context_page_description: Conservative Judaism is a Jewish religious movement that regards the authority of Jewish law and tradition as emanating primarily from the assent of the people and the community through the generations, more than from divine revelation. It therefore views Jewish law, or halakha, as both binding and subject to historical development. The Conservative rabbinate employs modern historical-critical research, rather than only traditional methods and sources, and lends great weight to its constituency when determining its stance on matters of practice. The movement considers its approach as the authentic and most appropriate continuation of halakhic discourse, maintaining both fealty to received forms and flexibility in their interpretation. It also eschews strict theological definitions, lacking a consensus in matters of faith and allowing great pluralism.
  While regarding itself as the heir of Rabbi Zecharias Frankel's 19th-century Positive-Historical School in Europe, Conservative Judaism fully institutionalized only in the United States during the mid-20th century.
context_section_description: The boundaries between Orthodox and Conservative Judaism in America were institutionalized only in the aftermath of World War II. The 1940s saw the younger generation of JTS graduates less patient with the prudence of the CJL and Talmud faculty in face of popular demand. Kaplan's Reconstructionism, while its fully committed partisans were few, had much influence. The majority among recent alumni eschewed the epithet "Orthodox" and tended to employ "Conservative" exclusively. Succeeding Schechter's direct disciples who headed the RA, JTS and United Synagogue in the interwar period, a new strata of activist leaders was rising. Rabbi Robert Gordis, RA president in 1944–1946, represented the junior members in advocating more flexibility; Rabbi Jacob Agus, a RIETS graduate who joined the body only in 1945, clamored that "we need a law making body, not a law interpreting committee." Agus argued that the breach between the Jewish public and tradition was too wide to be bridged conventionally, and that the RA would always remain inferior to the Orthodox as long as it retained its policy of merely adopting lenient precedents in rabbinic literature. He offered to extensively apply the tool of takkanah, rabbinic ordinance.
  In 1946, a committee chaired by Gordis issued the Sabbath and Festival Prayerbook, the first clearly Conservative liturgy: references to the sacrificial cult were in the past tense instead of a petition for restoration, and it rephrased blessings such as "who hast made me according to thy will" for women to "who hast made me a woman". During the movement's national conference in Chicago, held 13–17 May 1948, the pulpit rabbis in the RA gained the upper hand. Spurned by Gordis, Agus and fellow leaders, They voted to reorganize the CJL into a Committee of Jewish Law and Standards, enfranchised to issue takkanot by a majority. Membership was conditioned on having experience as a congregational rabbi, and unseasoned JTS faculty were thus denied entrance. While the RA was asserting a Conservative distinctive identity, the seminary remained more cautious. Finkelstein opposed sectarianism and preferred the neutral epithet "traditional", later commenting that "Conservative Judaism is a gimmick to get Jews back to real Judaism". He and the very right-wing Talmud professor Saul Lieberman, who maintained ties with the Orthodox while also viewing them as obstructionist and ossified, dominated the JTS, providing a counterweight to the liberals in the Assembly. Kaplan, meanwhile, spent more time on consolidating his Society for Advancement of Judaism. Abraham Joshua Heschel, who espoused a mysticist understanding of Jewish religion, also became an important figure among the faculty.
  The CJLS now proceeded to demonstrate its independence. Sabbath was widely desecrated by a large majority of Jews, and the board believed arrival at synagogues should be encouraged. They therefore enacted an ordinance that allowed driving on the Sabbath (for worship alone) and the use of electricity. The driving responsum was later severely criticized by Conservative rabbis, and was charged with imparting the movement was overly keen to condone the laxity of congregants. It also signified the final break with the Orthodox, who were themselves being bolstered by more strictly observant immigrants from Europe. In 1954, the RCA reverted its 1948 ruling that allowed the use of microphones on Sabbath and festivals and declared that praying without a partition between sexes was banned. Though enforced slowly—in 1997, there were still seven OU congregations with no physical barrier, and so-called "Conservadox" remain extant—these two attributes became a demarcation line between Orthodox and Conservative synagogues. RA converts were denied ablution in Orthodox ritual baths, and rabbis from one movement would gradually cease serving in the other's communities.
  Rather than a force within American Judaism, the JTS-centered movement emerged as a third movement. The historicist and critical approach to halakha, as well as other features, were emphasized by lead
caption: The Conservative Congregation Shaarey Zedek, Southfield, Michigan. The synagogue was built in 1962, after the migration to suburbia
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