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| It may not be the end of their world. But can we see it from here? |
If they are idealistic they might have joined the ranks of
secular humanists and see the religion of their parents as irrelevant. Or even an
impediment to progressive thinking. Or they might just see Judaism as a cultural
identity with no inherent obligations – other than humanistic ones. Culture is not binding. They either embrace it
or reject it. And they surely have no problem marrying a person of another faith. Why
should that bother them? They probably consider it racist for a Jew to be forced
to marry only another Jew.
There are a variety of attempts to save their movement from
extinction. Which seems to be the direction they are going.
One of them was the silly notion of re-branding themselves to
make themselves more relevant and appealing to young people. As though you can sell
Judaism as a different brand than what it was heretofore. That is an insult to
the very nature of Judaism. The ‘brand’ of Judaism is constant and not subject
to a makeover. It is what it is. If one want to ‘sell’ it – one has to sell
what it is and not some sort of makeover.
Some have suggested creating a close knit Kehilla - by getting their members to
live in the same neighborhoods. The way we Orthodox Jews do. We do it so that we can walk
to Shul on Shabbos. They don’t have that limitation. Their rabbis have been
permitted them to drive to Shul on Shabbos. They can and do live wherever they
want without regard to having any Jewish neighbors at all. So… good luck with
that suggestion.
The Conservative movement is also trying to get a foothold
in Israel. They see its majority secular Jews as a rich target for membership –
since their rabbis do not emphasize observance of Halacha at all. Most Conservative
rabbis hardly ever talk about observing Halacha in their sermons or in their personal
interactions with members… unless they are asked. What they seem to care about most is membership, dues, and attendance.
Another thing that seems to be gaining some traction is to -
not only accept mixed marriages into the synagogue, but to actually perform
them. The movement has not gone that far yet, having expelled one of its rabbis,
Seymour Rosenbloom, who started doing them. But according to Rabbi
Rosenbloom, there are a lot of Conservative rabbis like him in the closet about
that. It won’t be long before they come out of the closet and start clamoring for it. They could eventually
vote to permit it.
Another thing they have done recently is to formally allow
non Jews to become members of their synagogues.
This really takes the cake. How desperate they must be to
enlarge their numbers if they are inviting non Jews to be members. They are
of course couching this in lofty terms:
We celebrate the diversity among and within our kehillot and encourage the engagement of all those who seek a spiritual and communal home in an authentic and dynamic Jewish setting. We call on all of our kehillot to open their doors wide to all who want to enter.”
Diversity? Is that what they are calling it? I call it ‘padding
the pews’. Their synagogue membership has dwindled to such an extent that many
of them now have long names. Long - because two or more of them have merged for
lack of sufficient membership by either of them. If they don’t pad their membership rolls - we
will see less Conservative synagogues with even longer names in the not too distant future.
I have no problem with teaching the world about the beauty
of Judaism. Part of our mandate is to be an Ohr LaGoyim – a light unto the nations.
But you don’t do that by inviting non Jews to become members of your Shul. This is little more than a naked attempt to stop the hemorrhaging by any means
necessary.
The sad thing is that the one thing that could have done to
save the movement is being more serious about observance – even if only to their own
standards. And the only way to have done that was through education. If they had established
a religious school system the way the Orthodox Jewish community has, they would
still be as strong as they were in their hey day. Maybe even stronger. If you don’t teach your kids how to be Jewish –
or what it really means to be Jewish, why would you expect them to stick
around? Their attempts to do so by establishing the Solomon Schechter School system have come very late in the game and have not been all that successful.
According to Rabbi Jack Wertheimer, one of their brightest leaders,
most of the rabbis in these synagogues never insisted their members follow Halacha
and have tolerated their lack of observance without comment. Their
sermons were filled with messages of Tikun Olam in areas like civil rights. A worthy
cause to be sure, but hardly exclusive to Jews. Or about supporting Israel
financially.
(Which they were pretty good at in the past. Not so sure now.
Their attempts at getting official recognition by the Israeli government is
running into many roadblocks. This surely has dampened their enthusiasm for the
Jewish state. Not to mention the differences as mostly politically liberal
Jews they have with Israel’s current right wing government. But I digress.)
I take no joy in these observations. Conservative Jews
are a source of successful outreach by Orthodox organizations that seek to return as
many Jews as they can to their heritage. The parents of many of the young
people in organizations like NCSY are members of Conservative synagogues.
Rabbis in some of those Shuls have actually encourgaed their young people
to join. Conservative
Judaism’s Camp Ramah has many Orthodox alumni. If the Conservative Movement
dies, that potential will be gone and a lot more Jews will be lost to Judaism. And
that is not something to be happy about.
