In the Forward, Alison Cies writes about a recent program at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America entitled, “Conservative Judaism: The Next Generation”:

Conservative Judaism, struggling with decades of declining membership and an abrupt, sweeping change in its senior leadership, heard a call in early June from three prominent rabbis for a rethinking of its mission.

[...]

The third panelist, Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove of Park Avenue Synagogue on the affluent Upper East Side, argued that the separate denominations of American Judaism are losing their relevance among younger Jews. “Denominations are changing,” Cosgrove said. “Lines aren’t black and white. These lines are very slippery.”

In the early years of Conservative Judaism a century ago, Cosgrove said, “Americans were seeking to make sense of their lives as immigrants.” Now, he said, “This story is over. We’ve arrived. We’re here.” The question Jews ask today, he said, is not “how to arrive in a secular culture, but how to cross back over to tradition.”

Read the full article here.

[via: Haaretz]

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