What's wrong with the Conservative Movement?

A year ago, in one of the first articles I wrote from Washington, I chose to write about the Conservative Movement in Judaism. The occasion was somewhat strange: The decision by the USCJ's public policy committee to send a letter stating that John Roberts, President Bush's conservative nominee to fill a Supreme Court vacancy, "is qualified to serve."

However, this was more an excuse than a reason. What I really wanted to highlight (and I was in no way the first to do so) was the crisis within the movement. For years, "the Conservatives were at the center of American Jewry. The mainstream. What then happened is similar to what is also happening in the political world and to American Jewry in general: The flanks are getting stronger, while the center is weakening." It was not a big scoop, but rather a pending issue on which many people commented and had an ongoing debate.

I was reminded of this piece yesterday, reading a long piece in Slate by Samantha Shapiro. "I grew up in the Conservative movement," she tells the readers, "and my religious ideals line up with it in many ways. Yet I agree that it often misses the mark and suffers... from 'a failure of nerve.'" Most of her article is dedicated to the farewell speech made by Ismar Schorsch, the outgoing chancellor of New York's Jewish Theological Seminary, in which he criticized the movement in a rather harsh manner (you probably heard about it before, if not, read about it here). Her conclusion: "The project of looking squarely at the demands of our time and Jewish texts is both true to Jewish tradition and badly needed at this particular historical moment, and I wish it didn't seem to be faltering."

So here's what I think about this piece: It's part of the movement's problem, not part of the solution. As long as such pieces will be published (and I'm not suggesting this should somehow be banned), the Conservatives will only suffer from the one real problem they have - a self image problem.

This came up in a long conversation I had a while ago with Prof. Arnold Eisen, the man who was surprisingly chosen to be Schorsch's successor. "There's a problem with morale," he said dryly, and then moved to highlight the "potential." What's the point about whining over "the crisis." This, he said, will not take Conservatives anywhere. And Eisen believes there's plenty to do besides complaining about the current state of affairs.

Truth must be told, he was somewhat vague when he talked about the place of Conservatives, squeezed between the Orthodox and the Reform. "There are overlaps," he willingly admitted, "but there's room in the middle." A clearer message is needed in order to define the boundaries of this room for the benefit of the community members.

Since I wrote my piece about the movement a lot has changed. For once, Eisen was chosen, Schorsch has retired, the committee dealing with possible ordination of gay rabbis and acceptance of same-sex marriage is very close to completing its work (The Jewish Forward reported last Friday what was practically something everybody knew by now, that "The ordination of gay rabbis and the sanctioning of same-sex marriage within Conservative Judaism is near certain.")

"Many challenges await a leader or leaders, as well as the committees now busy with their important missions," I concluded last year. "The challenges can be expressed thusly: The Conservative movement definitely needs to search for its path, but at some stage it also needs to find it." And in fact, in one tumultuous year, Conservatives did find quite a lot, they achieved some remarkable goals.

One can convincingly argue, that for the past year it was the most vibrant Jewish movement - not because its daily activities were somehow more impressive than they were in the past, but rather because the movement has acknowledged and dealt with mercurial problems, and because it was ready to enter the operation room for a risky procedure. So far so good, signs of life are still visible.