The CEOs of the movement’s rabbinic and congregational umbrella groups are both stepping down. Next month, for the first time in years, there will be a contested election for one of the top lay leader positions of its rabbis’ association.
The wholesale changes add more uncertainty — and opportunity — to a religious denomination already in flux. Conservative leadership says it’s just normal professional turnover and that major ideological changes are not around the corner. But for Conservative rabbis who want to see a policy shift, particularly on interfaith marriage, this could be an opening.
CEO
i
cijela krovna grupa kongregacije su odstupile, a slijedeći mjesec se očekuje izbor jednog od glavnih lidera u organizaciji rabina. To dovodi do brojnih promjena i osjećaja nesigurnosti ali i mogućnosti za religijsdku denominaciju. Konzervativni lideri smatraju da je to normalna smjena profesionalaca i da se ne očekuju većeideološke promjene. Ali postojre konzervativni rabini koji žele vidjeti promjene upolitici osobito prema pitanju mješovitih ( međureligijskih) brakova .
Način kako da se angažiraju parovi iz mješovitih brakovima već dugo zanima konzervativni Judaizam, s kojim se identificira više od jedne petine američkih Židova. To je pokret čiji je zadatak da stvara most između tradicionalnih židovskih nazora i modernih normi u društvu. Još tradicionalniji pokreti , kao što su Ortodoksi, zabranjuju mješovite brakove, a Liberalni pokreti ih sprovode. Neki se Konzervatini rabini osjećaju "zarobljenima" u između tih pokreta.
dalje čitajte u originalnom članku
Conservative Judaism prohibits officiating at, attending or otherwise celebrating an intermarriage, but a number of Conservative rabbis want some or all of those rules to change. Some want to perform intermarriages. Others want to ritually recognize them in synagogue. Still others want to at least attend intermarriages (and already do, despite a formal but rarely enforced ban on the practice). And some want the rules to stay exactly as they are.
Rabbi Steven Wernick, told JTA that intermarriage is the biggest challenge facing his successor...
...
But change is still in the air. A handful of rabbis have left the movement in order to perform intermarriages, and a larger group has complained that the ban on attending intermarriages alienates them from friends and family with non-Jewish spouses. Last year, the United Synagogue voted to allow its congregations to accept non-Jewish partners as full members.
.....
The anxiety over the officiation ban stems in part from fears about the movement’s future as a whole. Studies have shown that the number of Conservative Jews in the United States has shrunk from more than a third of Jewish families in 1990 to less than a fifth. The number of synagogues affiliated with Conservative Judaism, once the dominant denomination, has also fallen.
.........
“I think the intermarriage question is today’s most urgent issue that is challenging the movement’s sense of cohesion,” Lewittes said. “This is an historic opportunity. And I really hope that it’s taken because I think the Conservative movement has a lot to offer in today’s world — a world that is struggling to understand how to stay rooted even as we move toward growing complexity and diversity.”