Skip to product information
1 of 1

The Conservative Movement Whither or Wit

Regular price $3.00
Regular price Sale price $3.00
Sale Sold out
Shipping calculated at checkout.

Conservative Judaism stands at a crossroads, caught between its traditional religious principles and the fluid identities of postmodern American Jewish life. As Conservative synagogues lose approximately 110,000 members—many migrating to Reform Judaism—the movement's leadership continues promoting fixed religious norms that increasingly alienate its constituency. Through the lens of Walter Truett Anderson's framework of postmodernity, analysis of recent qualitative and quantitative research, particularly the Wertheimer studies on synagogue membership, reveals a growing schism between institutional expectations and member practice. Survey data and demographic trends demonstrate that while Conservative leadership maintains definitive positions on halakhah, family structure, and professional standards, congregants practice a selective Judaism that reflects postmodern identity construction and customization. The movement's focus on traditional two-parent families has effectively excluded diverse household configurations, including interfaith couples, single individuals, and non-traditional families. This demographic narrowing, combined with members' ambivalent attitudes toward Conservative norms, presents a fundamental challenge: maintaining traditional standards may accelerate membership decline, while adapting to postmodern preferences risks compromising theological integrity. This tension between modern religious leadership and postmodern constituency exemplifies a broader struggle facing contemporary religious communities in an age of socially constructed truth and fluid identity formation.

View full details
  • Physical Description

  • Publication Information

    Published 2000

    ISBN

  • Publication Credits

    Hayim Herring