Criticism of Conservative Judaism


Criticism of Conservative Judaism is widespread in the Orthodox Jewish community, although the movement also has its critics in Reform Judaism and in other streams of Judaism. While the Conservative movement professes fidelity to Jewish tradition, it considers Halakha to be a dynamic process that needs reinterpreting in modern times. The criticism by Orthodox Jews and traditionalists within the movement itself revolves around the following:
Critics also claim that the legal analysis of the Conservative movement tends to be ideologically-driven, resulting in intended outcomes to such an extent that it is outside the bounds of traditional halakhic analysis.

Criticism from Orthodoxy

From Haredi Judaism perspective, criticism is exemplified by Rabbi Avi Shafran of Agudath Israel of America. Shafran wrote in 2001 that the Conservative movement's leaders "trample" halakha while proclaiming fealty to it. He argued that the movement was a failure because nearly three-quarters of Conservative Jews said that they consider a Jew to be anyone raised Jewish, even if his or her mother was a gentile—the official Reform position, rejected by Conservative leaders as nonhalachic. Shafran further argued that Conservative Judaism "movement is not honest" because, though stating its commitment to halakhah, it approved the ordination of women based on a commission containing mostly laypeople and only one Talmud scholar. Shafran stated that the movement should have relied on the Talmud faculty of JTS. Similarly, in 2006, Rabbi Shafran criticized the decision by the Conservative movement's Committee on Jewish Law and Standards to adopt a responsum liberalizing its position on homosexual conduct. Shafran repeated his assertion that the Conservative movement, despite its "claim of halachic integrity", did not follow the "true halachic process."
Moreover, Rabbi Avi Weiss, an Open Orthodox rabbi on the left wing of Orthodox Judaism, also characterized the differences between Orthodox and Conservative Judaism in a manner critical of the Conservative approach:

Criticism from Conservative traditionalists

At the 2006 convention of the Rabbinical Assembly, the Conservative movement's official rabbinical organization, Rabbi Ismar Schorsch said that the Conservative movement had "lost faith in itself" and "become Reform."
In an interview, Rabbi Schorsch, who was about to retire as Chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary, criticized rabbis and activists who were lobbying to change the Conservative movement's opposition to same-sex unions and the ordination of gay clergy. He described their methods as using scholarship to overturn halakha rather than to foster appreciation of it.
Rabbi Schorsch made similar criticism two months later in his final commencement address at Jewish Theological Seminary, in which he spoke of the "malaise of Conservative Judaism," its "impoverishment," and its "grievous failure of nerve." He also criticized the Seminary, one of the chief academic and intellectual institutions of Conservative Judaism:
Rabbi David Golinkin, the chair of the Masorti movement's Va'ad Halakha, criticized the Conservative movement's proposal to liberalize its position on homosexual conduct. He wrote that such a change would "split the Conservative movement in two... drive away the most halakhically observant laypeople in our synagogues, and... have a devastating effect on the Conservative movement throughout the world.” According to Rabbi Golinkin, if the Conservative movement adopted such a change, most Israelis would see little difference between the Masorti movement and Reform Judaism.
Rabbi Joseph Prousser, a member of the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, also lobbied against the proposal, arguing that its adoption would result in "a fractured Conservative movement" that is "rendered less viable". He wrote that adopting such a change would represent a "failure of moral and religious leadership" and that such a significant change would diminish the Conservative rabbinate's ability to provide meaningful religious guidance to its congregants:
After the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards adopted the responsum liberalizing its position on homosexual conduct, Rabbi Prouser and three other members of the Committee—Rabbis Joel Roth, Mayer Rabinowitz, and Leonard Levy—resigned in protest.

Criticism from Reform Jews

Rabbi Paul Menitoff, Executive Vice President of the Reform movement’s Central Conference of American Rabbis, wrote in a 2004 essay that Conservative Judaism would either merge with Reform Judaism or "disappear". Rabbi Menitoff said that the Conservative movement's policies were at odds with the principles of its young adult members on issues such as intermarriage, patrilineal descent, and the ordination of lesbians and gay men—all issues that Conservative Judaism then-opposed yet Reform Judaism supported. To support his prediction, Rabbi Menitoff described Conservative Judaism's dilemma:
Rabbi Menitoff's essay drew criticism from Conservative rabbis, two of whom described his prediction as "off base" and "wishful thinking." Rabbi Ismar Schorsch, then Chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary, pointed out that “at the beginning of the 20th century, all the Jewish pundits predicted the demise of Orthodoxy, and they all proved dead wrong. So Rabbi Menitoff has good company in bad predictions.”

Criticism from third-wave feminists

Some third-wave feminists have criticized Conservative Judaism's efforts at integrating women as half-hearted attempts at egalitarianism. Instead of maintaining a traditional approach to worship and treating women as if they were men, what Dr. Rachel Adler calls "honorary men", some have suggested that the Conservative movement cannot become truly egalitarian until it reinterprets Judaism to reflect the perspectives and experiences of women.
In her 1998 book Engendering Judaism: An Inclusive Theology and Ethics, Dr. Adler wrote: