Chai Anniversary
JTS chancellor marks 18 years defending his view of Conservative movement.
JOE BERKOFSKY
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
New York
r. Ismar Schorsch blasts the Bush
dministration for going to war
in Iraq and predicts that his
Conservative movement will not alter
Jewish law to accommodate homosexu-
ality.
"For the Conservative movement, the
issue is whether one can be politically
liberal and religiously conservative," said
Dr. Schorsch, chancellor of the Jewish
Theological Seminary (JTS) in New
York. "I happen to think that's possible
and tenable. ),
Dr. Schorsch, 68, has succeeded in
balancing that nuanced world-view dur-
ing 18 years at the helm of the move-
ment's academic and intellectual bastion.
Last May, JTS honored his tenure and
his role as a leading voice in4he centrist
movement.
"By dint of longevity, maturity,
prominence and scholarship, someone
has become the most recognized
spokesperson for the movement; and at
this juncture, it's clearly Dr. Schorsch,"
said Rabbi Jeffrey Wholberg of Adas
Israel Congregation in Washington.
The tribute comes as Conservative
Judaism is at a crossroads: Its education-
al institutions are flourishing and its syn-
agogues are experiencing a renewed
vitality, but some say a leadership vacu-
um is leading to a dwindling of the
ranks in what was the dominant
American Jewish movement as little as a
decade ago.
While many Conservative Jews share
Dr. Schorsch's world-view, the question
hovering over the movement is whether
Dr. Schorsch — or any single figure —
can speak for Conservative Jewry at a
time of intense soul-searching within the
movement.
"We seem only focused on the leader-
ship of the movement, and less so on its
. adherents," said Rabbi Joseph Krakoff of
Congregation Sha2rey Zedek in Metro
Detroit. "We, as rabbis and leaders of
the movement, in partnership with our
congregants, must share a widespread
vision and then be able to succinctly
Da
7 / 16
2004
46
articulate who we are and what we stand
for. Although there are multiple visions
of what it means to be a Conservative
Jew, together we must begin to see our-
selves as a unified movement with a
common voice."
Rabbi David Wolpe of Sinai Temple
in Los Angeles
said, "Rabbi
Schorsch has
been a wonder-
),
ful leader.
Describing
him as a "rising
star in the
movement, ”
Rabbi Wolpe
said, "He is the
victim of being
in a position
from which
people over-
expect. He just
can't be every-
,
33
thing.
negative definition. Perhaps we need to
change the metaphor to reflect the
dynamism and potential still unfulfilled
in the Conservative movement. Instead,
let us see ourselves as not in the middle
of anything, but at the center, the vital
center of everything Jewish."
Rabbi
Krakoff
describes being
in that vital
center as being
committed to
pluralism and
egalitarianism
and "conserv-
ing Jewish tra-
dition, but
doing so in a
vibrant fashion.
It means we
conserve the
traditional
practices and
values of
Judaism while
we enhance the
Survey Says
lives and meet
Several rabbis
the modern
who gathered at
needs of today's
JTS last winter
Jews," he said.
for a conference
"It is when
, .
on the latest
we
are wel-
National Jewish Rabbi Schorsch: politic
coming and
conservative
Population
inclusive; when
Survey (NJPS)
we reach out to
criticized the movement's leaders —
newcomers to Judaism and are open to
while not pointing fingers directly at Dr. all Jewish and interested non-Jews wish-
Schorsch — for failing to articulate a
ing to pursue a Jewish path of holiness
strong vision for Conservative Jewry.
and meaning."
Their complaints came in the wake
of NJPS results that showed
Ritual Observance
Conservative Jewry falling behind the
Reform movement in membership.
Rabbi Michael Strassfeld, head of the
According to the NJPS, only 33 per-
non-denominational Society for the
cent of 4.3 million connected U.S. Jews
Advancement of Judaism and co-author
identified as Conservative. That repre-
of the Jewish Catalog series that helped
sented a drop of 10 percentage points
spawn the chavurah movement, said
over the past decade, a time when the
Conservative Jewish leaders wrongly
other major streams saw their ranks
focused on adherence to Jewish ritual
swell.
rather than on the meaning of rituals.
"We must begin to see that being a
"If people come to Judaism as some-
Conservative Jew is so much more than
thing of meaning and value that adds to
merely saying, 'I am not Reform and I
their lives, they will come to ritual,"
am not Orthodox, so I must be in the
Rabbi Strassfeld said.
middle,' Rabbi Krakoff said. "That's a
Yet Dr. Schorsch sees ritual as pivotal.
"The function of ritual is to serve as
the vessel for the transmission of values,"
he said. "That's why religion works."
Rabbi Strassfeld said one example of
what he calls misplaced focus came late
last year when Dr. Schorsch questioned
the Conservative movement's 1950 deci-
sion to allow driving on the Sabbath to
encourage synagogue attendance. The
change came at a time when many
American Jews were migrating from
cities to suburbs and lived further from
their synagogues.
But Dr. Schorsch stuck to his guns.
"The more you drive, the less chance of
creating a Shabbat community," he said.
"That's what we failed to see.
Sometimes, we should be - silent.
Not many pulpit rabbis seem to share
that concern, saying that driving on
Shabbat has become so commonplace
that it is no longer controversial. Some
point to synagogue revitalization efforts
such as Synagogue 2000, a joint pro-
gram with the Reform movement, and
STAR: Synagogue Transformation and
Renewal, as efforts that have reinvigorat-
ed congregational life.
.
It might make sense to think twice
about the Shabbat driving decision near
JTS on the Upper West Side of
Manhattan, where synagogues abound,
but- "in most of America, it does not
work that way," Rabbi Wolpe said.
Such public willingness to confront
Dr. Schorsch may say something about
his sway over the movement. But
charges that the movement lacks leader-
ship don't move Dr. Schorsch, who
called them a "knee-jerk reaction" to the
population study.
Movement Of Education
There's a "lament that 'we got what we
deserved,' but I don't think that's a very
deep analysis," Rabbi Wolpe said.
On the contrary, Dr. Schorsch points
to education as one area where the
Conservative movement is thriving: Of
some 200,000 Jewish day school stu-
dents around the country, 25 percent
hail from the movement's Solomon
Schechter Day Schools or community
schools largely funded and populated by
Conservative Jews.