Conservative Judaism: The Middle

It's interesting to think that Conservative Judaism was born from Reform Judaism and not the other way around. It's an interesting denomination that follows more traditional ways of Judaism than Reform Judaism, but still strays away from Orthodoxy. Plain and simple, it's the middle of the Jewish denominational spectum.

When looking at the website, one can notice that the USCJ website is very organized with plenty of links and other information about Conservative Judaism through Jewish education, leadership, social action, as well as Israel. The Israel section of the website was an especially interesting thing to check out as it featured links to programs such as USY summer Israel programs the Conservative Yeshiva as well as the Fuchsberg Jerusalem Center for Conservative Judaism in Israel (where I lived for about 5 months in 2006-2007). It also had a complete guide for making Aliya (the move to Israel) for those who wish to, as well as the bulletin entry for support of Israel througout the Gaza war.

Another thing to take note of from this site is the limited explanation of terms. In order for someone to fully understand this site, one would have to have a basic knowledge of what a certain subject may be, such as KOACH being the Conservative Judaism College Outreach Program, or USY (the USCJ's youth program), or Project Reconnect, which is a reunion program that sends out frequent newsletters on happenings of alumni of programs from USCJ. Still, these links, when explored are very helpful to attaining the needed information related to Conservative Judaism.

As alumni and current member of many programs from the USCJ such as USY (Chicago Region), Camp Ramah in Wisconsin, Nativ, and KOACH, I find Conservative Judaism to play an important role in my life thanks to their own laws of tradition. Conservative Judaism bases itslef on moreso of a religious belief on Judaism through observance of Jewish Holidays as well as a bigger and more restrictive structure of Jewish Law. However the beliefs of Conservative Judaism keeps changing everyday in part of the wide range of figuring out certain beliefs or issues within the religion, such as kashrut, or homosexuality in the leadership roles of Judaism. It is a part of Judiasm that takes a more conservative, right-wing departure from Reform Judaism, but also a movement that is not quite completely comfortable with Orthodoxy. Quite simply, it's the middle of the Jewish denominations.