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What Does It Mean To Be Conservative?

A few months ago, I wondered aloud whether Conservative Judaism’s recent decision on gay marriage would cause a Jewish schism, the same way it appears to be doing within the Episcopal church.

Jewcy’s own Joey Kurtzman responded, with a rallying cry of, “Split! Split!” He said, among other things:

Maybe it'd be better if Judaism moved to an even more congregationalist model (like Quakers, say), where each congregation basically does whatever it wants. You want a synagogue that obsesses over where other people stick their genitals? Fine, find one or start one. You want a synagogue that is interested in actual moral issues? Find one or start one.

Perhaps now is the time for such a split. According to Rabbi Michael Broyde, Conservative Judaism is dead. You can read about it at Jewish Week, or you can check in with one response to the story over at Mixed Multitudes (a blog worth a stop on your blogroll). They sum things up thusly:

Rabbi Broyde’s thesis is that the Conservative movement’s recent decision on homosexuality was a move that demonstrated its break with Jewish law, and that along with ushering in the demise of the Conservative movement, will usher in an age in which American Jewry will have only two movements: Traditional and Liberal.

Which wouldn’t bother me in the least. Because we’d end up with all kinds of wonderful communities with creative responses to such a division. Full of people who like straddling fences, who seek to preserve the best of tradition, infused with a more reasonable and just interpretation of the politics implicit in our faith.

But when I say this, I say this as someone who grew up straddling fences, lack of affiliation was a birthright. I want to know how you’d respond to such a state of things…. Particularly if you grew up a Conservative Jew.

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