Conservative Judaism: From Right to Left?

Using Western equality as its Cultural Guide, the Conservative movement has stressed gender equality, but has followed traditional Jewish values in that interfaith families are treated differently in comparison to in-married families. In short, Conservative Jews maintain their now more than a 100 years of a penchant for using a “both/and” approach to the problem of what it means to be an American Jew. That is, they continue to be committed to being Culturally Guided by both traditional Jewish law and modern values and to maintain a Structural Focus on both Jewish ethnicity and Jewish religiosity. According to the latest Pew national survey (2021), 17% of American Jewish households are Conservative, which is a substantial decline from the approximately 55% in 1971. The institutional history of Conservative Judaism is reviewed according to the following five phases: Getting Started (Phase I, 1886–1920); The Jewish Community Center (Phase II, 1920–1939); Continued Growth (Phase III, 1939–1965); Schism, Ordaining Women, and a Statement of Principles (Phase IV, 1965–1995); and Contemporary Trends (Phase V, 1995–present). The chapter relies on four sorts of empirical research, which reveals that most Conservative Jews do maintain significant connections with their Jewish identity. These connections are generally weaker than Orthodox Jews but stronger than Reform Jews and the Just Jewish on religiosity measures. Conservative connections are higher than both Orthodox and Reform Jews on “remembering the Holocaust,” “working for justice and equality,” and “caring about Israel.”