I World for Rent 4! - Big Questions At biennial, Conservative Jews look to recapture movement's place in the sun. Sue Fishkoff Jewish Telegraphic Agency Oakland, Calif ow should Conservative Judaism cope with dwin- dling membership, grow- ing intermarriage rates and soci- ety's increasing religious and polit- ical polarity, while remaining true to its base in Halachah, or Jewish law? Those are some of the vexing questions the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism will tackle when it convenes Sunday, Dec. 4, in Boston for its four-day biennial. There are more: Who will replace Rabbi Ismar Schorsch, longtime chancellor of the movement's flag- ship Jewish Theological Seminary, when he retires next summer? It's no accident that the opening plenary talk by Rabbi Harold Kushner is called "What does it mean to be a Conservative Jew?" That's a question that will be on everyone's mind at the conference, says Rabbi Joel Meyers, head of the Rabbinical Assembly, the Conservative movement's rabbinic arm. "What the movement is strug- gling to do is set a public position H Village Park of Royal Oak 1, 2 & 3 Bedroom Apartments 248.547.5989 Village Green Townhomes of Ferndale 1 & 2 Bedroom Townhomes 248.547.9393 Village Green on Lake St. Clair Studio, 1 & 2 Bedroom Apartments & Lofts 586.791.3093 Village Green of Ann Arbor Studio, 1 & 2 Bedroom Apartments & Lofts 734.995.9111 Sutton Place of Southfield 2 & 3 Bedroom Apartments & Townhomes 248.358.4954 or+ Wage e teen. e,e/12 ( Real Estate Since 1919 e C T ?ark- Present this ad to any of the Village Green managed communities above and receive: $75 off your move-in costs Plus $0 Application Fee! 1.800.SAY.RENT -VILLAGEGREEN.COM CHICAGO CINCINNATI CLEVELAND COLUMBUS DETROIT • MINNEAPOLIS ST.LOUIS 48 Rabbi Epstein: movement's executive VP for the 21st century',' he says. The challenge comes as Conservative Judaism, which once set the agenda for American Jewry, has lost its numeric edge, dropping from 43 percent of affiliated Jews in 1990 to 33 percent in 2000, according to the two latest National Jewish Population Surveys. Conservative Jews are older as a group than the Reform or Orthodox, yet they hold most of the key positions in Jewish com-• munal leadership, contributing to the aging of that leadership. Rabbi Meyers insists the Conservative movement "is strong" and says enrollment in day schools and camps is up, even as the movement's outreach to young adult Jews is languishing. In an effort to stem the hemor- rhaging of membership in Conservative synagogues and soft- en the movement's image of being cold and unwelcoming to the inter- married, Rabbi Jerome Epstein, the USCrs executive vice president, will unveil a far-reaching initiative on keruv, or outreach, directed pri- marily at interfaith families in Conservative congregations. In the works for the past year, the initiative, described by Conservative leaders as much more forthcoming than the move- ment's current approach to keruv, is being kept under tight wraps — though every movement leader, half a dozen congregations and selected outsiders already have seen it. Rabbi Epstein, the driving force behind the initiative, notes that in 1986 he headed the faction that pushed for promoting in-marriage rather than actively welcoming the intermarried. Now he's spearhead- ing an outreach approach that Charles Simon, head of the Conservative Movement's Federation of Jewish Men's Clubs, calls "a major reversal" of the movement's current attitude. Insisting it's "an evolution, not a 1025640 December 1 2005 J