Conservative movement

Yishai Mogilner, 19, worked as one of the Israeli staff members at Camp Ramah in the Poconos for the 2023 season (Courtesy Ella Goldberg)

September 1, 2023, 9:29 am

What Matters Now to counselor Yishai Mogilner: Being an Israeli at a US summer camp

Picking up from last summer’s podcast with two Israeli counselors at Camp Ramah in the Poconos, first-time staffer Yishai Mogilner talks about returning to his family’s camp

By Jessica Steinberg

An illustrative photo of a charging electric car. (Scharfsinn86 via iStock by Getty Images)

July 28, 2023, 6:48 am

Conservative rabbis endorse use of electric cars on Shabbat, still divided on driving

Just 10 members of the movement’s 25-rabbi Committee on Jewish Law and Standards were in favor and 6 voted against, 5 rabbis abstained, 4 did not attend

By Jackie Hajdenberg

Vegetarian food sold at the restaurant Village Green on Jaffa Street in Jerusalem, April 17, 2008. (Yossi Zamir/Flash90)

May 22, 2023, 5:03 pm

Conservative movement okays dining at meat-free eateries without kosher certificates

Rabbis rule it’s kosher to eat at unsupervised vegan and vegetarian restaurants, say many of their members already see ‘no obvious kashrut problems’ in doing so

By Jackie Hajdenberg

The Conservative Movement's 2023 Passover guide recommends browsing for certified gluten-free, oat-free products ahead of Passover when making their holiday purchases this year. (Getty via JTA)

April 9, 2023, 1:50 pm

Amended Conservative Jewish Passover policy taps into booming gluten-free market

Rabbis make a pandemic-era emergency measure permanent, allowing certain FDA-certified products to be purchased ahead of the holiday even without a kosher for Passover label

By Jackie Hajdenberg

Illustrative: A young woman sits alone (torwai; iStock by Getty Images)

March 10, 2023, 4:52 am

Probe into Conservative Jewish youth group finds ‘hypersexualized culture’

Inquiry following ToI exposé on decades-long abuse scandal identifies 41 alleged incidents of sexual misconduct by adults at USY, but concludes issues not systemic

By Jacob Magid and JTA

Demonstrators rally on a highway in Tel Aviv to protest the Israeli government's planned overhaul of the judicial system, on February 18, 2023. (Ahmad Gharabli/AFP)

February 19, 2023, 7:48 pm

Conservative movement: Legal overhaul would ‘eviscerate’ Israeli checks and balances

Joining other international Jewish groups, Masorti-Conservative leadership comes out in favor of President Herzog’s call to freeze legislation, hold dialogue on judicial reform

By Judah Ari Gross

Reform and Conservative Jewish leaders at the Western Wall in Jerusalem in 2016. (Courtesy Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism)

November 11, 2022, 10:48 pm

$2.3 million plan to improve ties with non-Orthodox Jews uncertain after election

Watchdog reveals existence of plan to bring American youth to Israel and hold communal events in the US, without any apparent reference to issues driving disconnect

By Asaf Elia-Shalev

Actor Adam Sandler (left) with Rabbi Robyn Fryer Bodzin of Toronto's Beth Tzedec Synagogue, where Sandler and cast spent much of the summer filming his upcoming tween film, 'You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah!' (Courtesy: Robyn Fryer Bodzin)

August 18, 2022, 7:08 pm

Adam Sandler spends 6 weeks at Toronto shul shooting bat mitzvah film

Sandler, Idina Menzel and SNL actor Sarah Sherman get friendly with the rabbis, Beth Tzedec’s Steven Wernick and Robyn Fryer Bodzin

By Jessica Steinberg

Rabbi Matt Abelson, right, makes the blessing over bread with children of the Jericho Jewish Center at Shabbat in the park, 2019. (Leslie Hartman)

August 9, 2022, 9:53 pm

NY synagogue’s looming demise highlights Conservative Judaism’s struggles to survive

The Jericho Jewish Center has aimed to consolidate with a nearby congregation, but years of negotiations over men and women praying together finish with the plan voted down

By Cathryn J. Prince

In this July 16, 2010 photo, members of the religious group Minyan Tehillah look at a Torah scroll as they prepare for Shabbat services at Harvard Radcliffe Hillel, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. (AP Photo/Lisa Poole)

June 9, 2022, 5:33 am

Conservative movement introduces non-binary liturgy for Torah honors

In unanimous vote, rabbinical panel signs off on lightly tweaked liturgy to accommodate people who do not identify as male or female to avoid ’embarrassment and disrespect’

By Judah Ari Gross

A law enforcement officer lights a candle outside Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, Wednesday, May 25, 2022. (AP/Jae C. Hong)

May 26, 2022, 1:07 am

Jewish groups share horror over Texas shooting, but remain split on gun control

Organizations affiliated with liberal and progressive streams of Judaism call for reforms after latest mass killing, but others shy away from taking politically fraught stance

By Ron Kampeas

Shuly Rubin Schwartz in New York. (Ellen Dubin Photography via AP)

May 19, 2022, 5:45 am

After 2-year delay, Shuly Rubin Schwartz inaugurated as JTS’s first woman chancellor

Rubin Schwartz is first woman to head Conservative movement’s Jewish Theological Seminary in its 136-year history

By Jackie Hajdenberg

Rabbi Stephen Weiss (Courtesy of Cleveland Jewish News, via JTA)

April 22, 2022, 8:25 pm

‘Horrible and disgusting’: Conservative groups decry Cleveland rabbi over sex crimes

Rabbi Stephen Weiss resigns from his synagogue after being charged with attempting to solicit sex with a minor online; he faces maximum of 3.5 years in prison

By Andrew Lapin

An aerial view of American Jewish University's Sunny & Isadore Familian Campus in the Bel Air neighborhood of Los Angeles. (Courtesy of Communications Department, AJU/ via JTA)

March 25, 2022, 9:21 pm

One of 2 Conservative US rabbinical schools is slashing tuition — by nearly 80%

The Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies has lowered its tuition to $7,000 amid dwindling attendance and fewer rabbinical students overall, in the hopes of setting an upward trend

By Jackie Hajdenberg

Rabbis are leaving their jobs in unusually large numbers as the pandemic enters its third year. (Getty Images/ via JTA)

February 6, 2022, 3:35 am

Great Resignation fuels rabbinic hiring crisis, may leave US synagogues leaderless

With annual cohorts of new clergy already shrinking, non-Orthodox denominations see an even sharper drop this year due to the pandemic, leaving them to rely on creative solutions

By Asaf Shalev