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"Conservative Judaism believes that scholarly study of Jewish texts indicates that Judaism has constantly been evolving to meet the needs of the Jewish people in varying circumstances, and that a central halakhic authority can continue the halakhic evolution today." (Soc.Culture.Jewish Usenet Newsgroup FAQ)
The term conservative does not imply that the movement's adherents are politically conservative; rather, the term was meant to signify that Jews should attempt to conserve Jewish tradition, rather than reform or abandon it. However, many political parties follow conservative political agendas, or even have the word as part of their name. Due to this, a number of Conservative rabbis have proposed renaming the movement. Outside the USA it is now known as Masorti Judaism. Adherents of Conservative Judaism may be on the political left, center or right.
Conservative Judaism is a unified movement; the international body of Conservative rabbis is the Rabbinical Assembly (RA), the organization of synagogues is the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism (USCJ), and the primary seminary and cantorial school is the Jewish Theological Seminary of America (JTS) in New York City.
Conservative Judaism outside the USA is often called Masorti Judaism; Masorti rabbis belong to the Rabbinical Assembly.
Other seminaries include the University of Judaism in Los Angeles, California; the Marshall Meyer Seminario Rabbinico Latinoamericano in Argentia; and Machon Schechter (in Jerusalem.)
Like Orthodox Judaism and Reform Judaism, the Conservative movement developed in Europe and the United States in the 1800s, as Jews reacted to the changes brought about by the Enlightenment and emancipation. In Europe the movement was known as Positive-Historical Judaism, and it is still known as "the historical school" today. In the USA it became known as Conservative Judaism; later it became known as Masorti (traditional) Judaism outside of the USA.
Positive-Historical Judaism, the intellectual forerunner to Conservative Judaism, was developed as a school of thought in 1850s Germany by a number of thinkers, including Rabbi Zecharias FrankelZecharias Frankel was a German rabbi and a historian who studied the historical development of Judaism. He was born in Prague Sept. 30, 1801, and died in Breslau (modern day Wroclaw), on Feb. Frankel was the founder and the most eminent member of the scho. Frankel rejected the positions taken by both those in Orthodox Judaism and in Reform Judaism as deviations from traditional Judaism. Frankel became the head of the Jewish Theological Seminary of Breslau, GermanyWroclaw (in Polish pronounced: Media:Wroclaw. ogg|[:vrwaf]]], Czech Vratislav Latin: Wratislavia German Breslau is a city in Silesia in southwestern Poland, situated on the Oder River. As of ( 2003) the city had a population of 638,666. It is the principa. The seminary taught that Jewish law was not static, but rather has always developed in response to changing conditions. He called his approach towards Judaism "Positive-Historical," which meant that one should have a positive attitude towards accepting Jewish law and tradition as normative, yet one should be open to developing the law in the same fashion that it has always historically developed.
Frankel did not attempt to establish a separate movement; he was interested in promoting a school of thought. To those to his left, he was perceived as not very different from the neo-Orthodox (later: Modern Orthodox) Jews at the time. However to many in Orthodoxy, Frankel's openness to modern methods of historical scholarship put him beyond the pale of Orthodoxy, and he was thus associated with the more radical Reform movement.
In 1902Events January-April January 28 The Carnegie Institution is founded in Washington, DC with a $10 million gift from Andrew Carnegie. France, Loisy's L'evangile et l'Eglise which inaugurates the Modernist Crisis February 11 Police beat up universal suffrage, Solomon SchechterRabbi Solomon Schechter (1850-1915) was born to a Lubavitch Hasidic family and later became the second President of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America ( 1902 to 1915) and founder and President of the United Synagogue of America (later to become th reorganized the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City and made it into the flagship institution of Conservative Judaism.
A number of studies have shown that there is a large gap between what the Conservative movement teaches and what most of its laypeople have incorporated into their daily lives. Conservative Judaism holds that halakha (Jewish law) is normative, i.e. that it is something that Jewish people must strive to actually live by in their daily lives. This would include the laws of Shabbat (the Jewish Sabbath); the laws of kashrut (keeping kosher); the practice of thrice daily prayer; observance of the Jewish holidays and life-cycle events. In practice, the majority of people who have come to join Conservative synagogues only follow all these laws rarely. Most do follow most of the laws some of the time, but only a minority follow most or all of the laws all of time. There is a substantial committed core, consisting of the lay leadership, rabbis, cantors, educators, and those who have graduated from the movement's religious day schools and summer camps, that do take Jewish law very seriously. Recent studies have shown an increase in the observance of members of the movement.
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