Conservative Rabbis Decry Lack of Cooperation From Orthodox

Rabbis in the Conservative movement of Judaism are training more specialists to prepare religious divorces and mikvot --ritual baths used for conversion--to overcome what they describe as a growing refusal by their Orthodox colleagues to share such services.

At the 89th annual meeting of the Rabbinical Assembly--which represents 1,300 Conservative rabbis serving a constituency of 2 million--leaders of the organization reported that seven new gittin specialists have just been certified to prepare religious divorces for Conservative Jews, and in October a group of doctors will start classes at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York to become qualified to perform circumcisions.

Rabbi Albert Lewis of Cherry Hill, N.J., president of the Assembly, told the meeting in Washington that “these moves are prompted by an aggressive and militant separatist Orthodoxy, increasingly dominated by extremists putting pressure on moderates to deny full equality to Conservative rabbis in their capacity as supervisors and those carrying out ritual life-cycle events.”

Lewis acknowledged that “there are still many communities where modern Orthodox spiritual leaders offer their full cooperation for these life-cycle religious events.” But he added that “right-wing Orthodox elements are doing their best to persuade those who cooperate not to do so.”

The Conservative movement is the largest branch of American Judaism, but it has often drawn fire from both the Orthodox on the right and the Reform on the left for its attempts to find a “middle way.” Last year a common set of principles for Conservative Judaism was issued for the first time in the history of the movement, which started in Germany in 1845.

Rabbi Wolfe Kelman, executive vice president of the Rabbinical Assembly, cited that document and the Masorti movement in Israel as evidence that “the Conservative leadership has finally come to the decision that we must be less dependent on the erratic and unpredictable behavior of the Orthodox religious leadership.”

He said the non-cooperation on the part of many Orthodox rabbis is especially “deplorable” because “Conservative Judaism has always strictly followed the halacha --Jewish law--when it comes to dealing with life-cycle rituals.”