Somehow, the rabbinic associations of both the Reform and Conservative movements decided to hold their conventions this week in our nation's two most notorious cities of sin -- New Orleans and Las Vegas, respectively.
I'm not attending either convention in person (does Twitter count?), but I have been following the speeches at the Rabbinical Assembly Convention (Conservative) that have been streamed live on Ustream. All of the sessions seem to focus on the future of Conservative Judaism and what the leadership thinks is currently ailing the movement.
Watching my colleagues discuss "The Paradox of Growth in the Conservative Movement," it occurred to me that to make Conservative Judaism vibrant again, we need to look at Ronald Reagan for guidance. That's right, Ronald Reagan! The former president famously explained his departure from the Democratic Party to the Republican side by saying, "I didn't leave the Democratic Party. The party left me."
In other words, the Democratic Party changed and Reagan wasn't willing to adapt. So he left. I'm not suggesting that Conservative rabbis leave the Conservative Movement en masse because it has changed. I am, however, suggesting that we -- the professional leadership -- adapt to the changing times.
The opening plenary session demonstrated this need. "The Paradox of Growth in the Conservative Movement" session began with a failed attempt at humor by Rabbi Brad Artson that underscores my point. One of the brightest rabbis today, Artson is a great speaker and well respected among his colleagues. But his joke came up empty. Riffing on the title of the session ("Paradox"), Artson referenced Allan Sherman's pun that Casey and Kildaire are a "pair a docs." Get it? Pair a docs -- paradox. Nobody laughed. I had to look up the reference. Turns out that if you weren't around back in the early 60s (at least half of the room at the convention), you're not going to remember the Ben Casey television series. You also might not be up on your Allan Sherman references if you're under 55-years-old.
And that's the problem with Conservative Judaism today. It's not the 60s, when Conservative Judaism enjoyed its heyday, or even the 70s anymore. My grandfather of blessed memory, sitting in a synagogue 30 years ago, would have loved it had the rabbi quoted the Allan Sherman pun about the hospital drama from 1961. I don't know that Artson needed to open with the "paradox/pair-a-docs" pun, but at least he could have referenced a hospital drama on TV from the past 20 years (ER, House, Scrubs). Even a St. Elsewhere reference might have included more of the rabbis in the room who came of age in the 1980s. After all, the most recent rabbinical school graduates were born in 1985.
Artson actually has his hand on the pulse of the younger generation and keeps up with the current trends more than most rabbis of his generation. He serves as the dean of the Ziegler Rabbinical School at the American Jewish University -- the West Coast's rabbinical seminary that trains Conservative rabbis. In fact, he redeemed himself after the pun FAIL last night. He even labeled his bad joke as "the old Conservative movement" and then went on to explain that rabbis need to embrace the Digital Age and exploit social media.
Artson shared a story of a mock job interview at the American Jewish University, in which a rabbinical student about to graduate told the interviewers that in order to respect their time he would put his cellphone on the table in front of him. The interviewers (all older adults) looked at this student like he was crazy. Artson had to explain that for this 20-something's generation, the cellphone has become the wristwatch. There was an obvious culture gap. I tell rabbis all the time that if they want to communicate with high school and college students, they need to text or use Facebook chat. Email is dead to that young generation and we have to keep up with the trends if we want to be relevant.
The Conservative Movement has changed because our culture has changed. Americans are being pulled to the extremes in all areas of society, especially religion. The institutions of the Conservative movement have grown stale by not keeping up with the times, but as the head of the Rabbinical Assembly, Rabbi Julie Schonfeld, has articulated, "The paradox of growth in the Conservative movement is that we have to separate movement from institutions." Conservative rabbis who have been out of the seminary for more than 10 years haven't changed, but they need to change because the culture has changed. Conservative Judaism has long waved the banner of "Tradition and Change." If that is to continue to be the mantra of this centrist branch of modern Judaism, then there must be a response to the change. "Tradition" must continue to be at the fore, but the way in which it is packaged and sold has to change. It's a different world out there.
The borders have disappeared in the 21st century Digital Age and rabbis must come up with a new vision for how to market the product that is Conservative Judaism. And to complicate matters, the transition is ongoing. Rabbis have finally embraced the fact that they have to give out their cellphone number to their congregants who also expect a response to their email within an hour. And rabbis slowly began to see the need to upload their sermons and classes onto the Web as podcasts. But now these rabbis need to Facebook chat and blog and Skype and Tweet and check-in. Will it ever end? No. We must continue to adapt and make our vision and approach fresh.
The opportunity for 50-year-old puns is clearly over. The future of Judaism is now.
Follow Rabbi Jason Miller on Twitter: www.twitter.com/rabbijason
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Now excuse me while I go make a BLT and wash it down with some milk.
There is a complete disconnect between the institutions, the religious leadership, and the adherents. The leadership makes all kinds of rulings that are "suggested" to be followed. The congregations do what ever they want and the congregants do even less.
The education is feel-good stuff and stops at age 13. Parents demand less interference with their secular and weekend schedules so there is less time for education and less time for services. An abbreviated service is better than nothing at all.
The golden age for Conservatism was only reached because all the Holocaust survivors that came to America were looking for a way of not following Orthodoxy without feeling guilty, while still attending some kind of familiar service. Conservatism was only too happy to accommodate by coming up with all kinds of rationalizations. As time goes on, Conservatism must find more and more rationalizations to accommodate changing societal mores. Otherwise, it will see more congregants leave since it won't be "relevant" anymore.
When kids marry non-Jews, parents shrug their shoulders, wondering what could have gone wrong. They don't shun their darling children because that would mean no contact with their grandchildren.
Conservative Judaism started out as “the historical schoolâ€. It was an approach to Torah scholarship. The movement changed and those looking for Torah were not willing to adapt so they left.
It is suggested that the movement not cater to the needs of the secular. When it does it has no purpose. Better to teach Torah than become a better social planner. Once Conservative was redefined as secular liberal it lost its soul.
A community committed to Torah and the historical perspective has a purpose. You have left those people behind. The secular are not worth chasing. If they see the value in Torah they will return. It is better to have fewer members that have a commitment. Selling memberships to a secular liberal social club has no purpose. It is guaranteed to fail.
Positive change as some here have posted comes from the heart -- a reinvigorated or reignited spark and not by conforming to the zeitgeist.
What a "religion."
Yerachmiel Ben Avraham
Eretz Israel
The problem isn’t that the Reform and conservative movements need to use more up to date forms of message transmission and more up to date imagery. Yes, using the Internet, social media, and twitter might help a bit. And clearing referencing current images might help the movements connect better. But that’s not the problem.
The problem is that neither the reform nor conservative movement tries to solve today’s problems with today’s solutions. They both try to apply 3,000 year old solutions. And people like me are not buying it.
People today are not buying that the problems we face today are the same as the old days and therefore the same solutions apply. We want solutions that reflect today’s knowledge and sensitivities and opportunities.
Take marriage harmony for example. The solutions that worked in the old days, where mobility, communication, and knowledge were very limited, don’t work today. You can try to make them work, but to do it requires too much linguistic gymnastics to make acceptance reasonable.
So until the conservative movement (along with most other religious movements for that matter) starts to change to offer solutions to the problems the community faces (like STDs, ADD, Drugs, discrimination, bullying, etc, etc, etc), using the knowledge and opportunities of today, they will continue to struggle gaining congregants.
Clearly I could be wrong. And I would be interested in a dialog to find out if I am.
The rabbis don't seem to enjoy the situation, but the place really does seem to be hopping all the time, which is not something one can say for more traditional Conservative synagogues.
Perhaps a low budget synagogue could translate this formula into getting a used ping-pong table. It's certainly not ALL about entertainment, but entertainment gets them in the door.
the borscht is belting a little further north.
Put up a political and social bogeyman. Create fear and doubt, especially of the supernatural. That simple strategy has artificially supported religious institutions since the beginning of time. There is something in our "old brain" that responds to this. The Evangelical Christians have mastered it. That is why in our country we have had several "Great Awakenings" (what a misnomer) of Christian influence, and why some uninformed people believe our country was founded on Christianity.