Editing Conservative Judaism (section)

==History==
===Positive-Historical School===
[[File:Brockhaus and Efron Jewish Encyclopedia e15 334-0.jpg|thumb|right|upright|Rabbi Zecharias Frankel]]
The rise of modern, centralized European states by the early 19th century heralded the end of Jewish judicial autonomy and social seclusion. Their communal corporate rights were abolished, and the process of [[Jewish emancipation|emancipation]] and [[acculturation]] that followed quickly transformed the values and norms of the public. Estrangement and apathy toward Judaism were rampant. The communal, educational and civil reform process could not be restricted from affecting the core tenets of the faith. The new academic, critical study of Judaism (''[[Wissenschaft des Judentums]]'') soon became a source of controversy.<ref name="Rudavsky186–217">{{cite book |surname=Rudavsky |given=David |title=Modern Jewish Religious Movements: A History of Emancipation and Abjustment |edition=3rd rev. |year=1979 |orig-year=1967 |place=New York |publisher=Behrman House |url=https://archive.org/details/modernjewishreli0000ruda/page/n8/mode/1up |url-access=registration |isbn=0-87441-286-2 |pages=186–217}}</ref><ref name="Dorff">{{cite encyclopedia |surname=Dorff |given=Elliot Nelson |entry=Historical Movement |editor-surname=Berlin |editor-given=Adele |editor-link=Adele Berlin |title=The Oxford Dictionary of the Jewish Religion  |edition=2nd |page=350 |year=2011 |publisher=Oxford University Press |place=Oxford; New York |entry-url={{Google books|id=hKAaJXvUaUoC|plainurl=y|page=350|keywords=|text=}} |url={{Google books|id=hKAaJXvUaUoC|plainurl=y}} |isbn=978-0-19-975927-9}}</ref> Rabbis and scholars argued to what degree, if at all, its findings could be used to determine present conduct. The [[Torah im Derech Eretz|modernized Orthodox]] in Germany, like rabbis [[Isaac Bernays]] and [[Azriel Hildesheimer]], were content to cautiously study it while stringently adhering to the sanctity of holy texts and refusing to grant ''Wissenschaft'' any say in religious matters. On the other extreme were Rabbi [[Abraham Geiger]], who would emerge as the founding father of [[Reform Judaism]], and his supporters. They opposed any limit on critical research or its practical application, laying more weight on the need for change than continuity.

The [[Prague]]-born [[Zecharias Frankel]], appointed [[chief rabbi]] of the [[Kingdom of Saxony]] in 1836, gradually rose to become the leader of those who stood in the middle. Besides working for the civic betterment of local Jews and educational reform, he displayed a keen interest in Wissenschaft. But Frankel was always cautious and deeply reverent towards tradition, privately writing in 1836, "The means must be applied with such care and discretion... that forward progress will be reached unnoticed, and seem inconsequential to the average spectator." He soon found himself embroiled in the disputes of the 1840s. In 1842, during the second [[Hamburg Temple disputes|Hamburg Temple dispute]], he opposed the new Reform [[siddur]]. He argued that eliminating petitions for a future return to the [[Land of Israel]] in the [[Messianic Age]] violated an ancient tenet. However,  he also opposed Bernays's ban on the tome, stating this was a primitive behaviour. In the same year, he and the moderate conservative [[Solomon Judah Loeb Rapoport]] were the only ones of nineteen respondents who negatively answered the [[Breslau]] community's enquiry on whether the deeply unorthodox Geiger could serve there.

In 1843, Frankel clashed with the radical Reform rabbi [[Samuel Holdheim]], who argued that the act of [[marriage in Judaism]] was a civic (''memonot'') rather than sanctified ({{lang|he-Latn|issurim}}) matter and could be subject to the Law of the Land. In December 1843 Frankel launched the magazine ''Zeitschrift für die Religiösen Interessen des Judenthums''. In the preamble, he attempted to present his approach to the present plight: "The further development of Judaism cannot be done through Reform that would lead to total dissipation... But must be involved in its study... pursued via scientific research, on a ''positive, historical'' basis." The term ''Positive-Historical'' became associated with him and his middle way. The ''Zeitschrift'' was, along the convictions of its publisher, neither dogmatically orthodox nor overly polemic, wholly opposing [[Biblical criticism]] and arguing for the antiquity of custom and practice.<ref name="Rudavsky186–217" /><ref name="Dorff" />

In 1844, Geiger and like-minded allies arranged a conference in [[Braunschweig]] that was to have enough authority (in 1826, [[Aaron Chorin]] called for the convocation of a new [[Sanhedrin]]) to debate and enact thoroughgoing revisions. Frankel was willing to agree only to a meeting without any practical results, and refused the invitation. When the protocols containing many radical statements were published, he denounced the assembly for "applying the scalpel of criticism" and favouring the spirit of the age over tradition. However, he later agreed to attend the second conference, held in [[Frankfurt am Main]] on 15 July 1845, despite warnings from Rapoport, who cautioned that compromising with Geiger was impossible. It would only damage his reputation among the traditionalists. On the 16th, the issue of [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] in the liturgy arose. Most present were inclined to retain it, but with more German segments. A slight majority adopted a resolution stating there were subjective, but no objective, imperatives to keep it as the language of service. Frankel then astounded his peers by vehemently protesting, saying it was a breach with the past and that Hebrew was of dire importance and great sentimental value. The others immediately began quoting all passages in rabbinic literature allowing prayer to be in the vernacular. Frankel could not contend with the halakhic validity of their decision, but he perceived it as a sign of profound differences between them. On the 17th, he formally withdrew, publishing a lambasting critique of the procedures. "Opponents of the conference, who feared he went to the other side," noted historian Michael A. Meyer, "now felt reassured of his loyalty".

[[File:Posithis.png|thumb|upright=1.5|Frankel's speech in the protocol of the Frankfurt conference, mentioning "Positive-Historical Judaism" (second row, 2–4 words from left)]]

The rabbi of Saxony had many sympathizers, who supported a similarly moderate approach and change only based on the authority of the Talmud. When Geiger began preparing a third conference in Breslau, [[Hirsch Bär Fassel]] convinced Frankel to organize one of his own in protest. Frankel invited colleagues to an assembly in [[Dresden]], which was to be held on 21 October 1846. He announced that one measure he was willing to countenance was the possible abolition of the [[second day of festivals]], though only if a broad consensus would be reached and not before thorough deliberation. Attendants were to include Rapoport, Fassel, [[Adolf Jellinek]], [[Leopold Löw]], [[Michael Sachs (rabbi)|Michael Sachs]], [[Abraham Kohn]] and others. However, the Dresden assembly soon drew heated Orthodox resistance, especially from Rabbi [[Jacob Ettlinger]], and was postponed indefinitely.

In 1854, Frankel was appointed chancellor in the new [[Jewish Theological Seminary of Breslau]], Germany's first modern rabbinical seminary. His opponents on both flanks were incensed. Geiger and the Reform camp accused him of theological ambiguity, hypocrisy, and attachment to stagnant remnants. They now protested the "medieval" atmosphere in the seminary, which was mainly concerned with teaching Jewish Law. The hardline [[Samson Raphael Hirsch]], who fiercely opposed Wissenschaft des Judentums and emphasized the divine origin of the entire halakhic system in the [[theophany]] at [[Biblical Mount Sinai]], was deeply suspicious of Frankel's beliefs, use of science and constant assertions that Jewish Law was flexible and evolving.

The final schism between Frankel and the Orthodox occurred after the 1859 publication of his ''Darke ha-Mishna'' "Ways of the [[Mishna]]". He praised the [[Chazal]], presenting them as bold innovators, but did not affirm the divinity of the [[Oral Torah]]. On the ordinances classified as [[Law given to Moses at Sinai]], he quoted [[Asher ben Jehiel]] that stated several of those were only apocryphally dubbed as such. He applied the latter's conclusion to all, noting they were "so evident ''as if'' given at Sinai". Hirsch branded Frankel a [[Heresy in Judaism|heretic]], demanding that he announce whether he believed that both the Oral and Written Torah were of celestial origin. Rabbis [[Benjamin Hirsch Auerbach]], [[Solomon Klein]] and others published more complaisant tracts, but also requested an explanation. Rapoport marshaled to Frankel's aid, assuring that his words merely reiterated ben Jehiel's and that he would soon release a statement that would belie Hirsch's accusations. However, the Chancellor of Breslau issued an ambiguous defence, writing that his book was not concerned with theology and avoiding giving any clear answer. Rapoport now joined his critics.

[[File:Breslauseminar.png|thumb|right|[[Jewish Theological Seminary of Breslau]]]]

Hirsch succeeded, severely tarnishing Frankel's reputation among most concerned. Hirsch and fellow Orthodox Rabbi [[Azriel Hildesheimer]] launched a protracted public campaign through the 1860s. They ceaselessly stressed the chasm between an Orthodox understanding of ''Halakha'' as derived and revealed, applied differently to different circumstances and subject to human judgement and possibly error, yet unchanging and divine in principle—as opposed to an evolutionary, historicist and non-dogmatic approach in which past authorities were not just elaborating but consciously innovating, as taught by Frankel. Hildesheimer often repeated that this issue utterly overshadowed any specific technical argument with the Breslau School (the students of which were usually more lenient on matters of headcovering for women, [[Chalav Yisrael]] and other issues). Hildesheimer was concerned that Jewish public opinion perceived no practical difference between them. However, he cared to distinguish the observant acolytes of Frankel from the Reform camp, he noted in his diary: "How meager is the principal difference between the Breslau School, who don silk gloves at their work, and Geiger who wields a sledgehammer." In 1863, when Breslau faculty member [[Heinrich Graetz]] published an article where he appeared to doubt the [[Messiah in Judaism|Messianic belief]], Hildesheimer immediately seized upon the occasion to prove once more the dogmatic, rather than practical, divide. He denounced Graetz as a heretic.

The Positive-Historical School was influential, but never institutionalized itself as thoroughly as its opponents. Apart from the many graduates of Breslau, [[Isaac Noah Mannheimer]], [[Adolf Jellinek]] and Rabbi [[Moritz Güdemann]] led the central congregation in [[Vienna]] along a similar path. In Jellinek's local seminary, [[Meir Friedmann]] and [[Isaac Hirsch Weiss]] followed Frankel's moderate approach to critical research. The rabbinate of the liberal [[Neolog Judaism|Neolog public]] in Hungary, which formally separated from the Orthodox, was also permeated with the "Breslau spirit". Many of its members studied there, and its [[Jewish Theological Seminary of Budapest]] was modeled after it, though the assimilationist congregants cared little for rabbinic opinion.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |surname=Silvan |given=Gabriel |entry=Neology |editor-surname=Berlin |editor-given=Adele |editor-link=Adele Berlin |title=The Oxford Dictionary of the Jewish Religion  |edition=2nd |page=533 |year=2011 |publisher=Oxford University Press |place=Oxford; New York |entry-url= |url={{Google books|id=hKAaJXvUaUoC|plainurl=y|page=|keywords=|text=}} |isbn=978-0-19-975927-9}}</ref> In Germany itself, Breslau alumni founded in 1868 a short-lived society, the Jüdisch-Theologische Verein. It was dissolved within a year, boycotted by both Reform and Orthodox. [[Michael Sachs (rabbi)|Michael Sachs]] led the Berlin congregation in a very conservative style, eventually resigning when an organ was introduced in services. [[Manuel Joël]], another of the Frankelist party, succeeded Geiger in Breslau. He maintained his predecessor's truncated German translation of the liturgy for the sake of compromise, but restored the complete Hebrew text.

The Breslau Seminary and the Reform [[Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums]] maintained very different approaches. Still, on the communal level, the former's alumni failure to organize or articulate a coherent agenda, coupled with the declining prestige of Breslau and the conservatism of the Hochschule's alumni—a necessity in heterogeneous communities which remained unified, especially after the Orthodox gained the right to secede in 1876—imposed a relatively uniform and mild character on what was known in Germany as "Liberal Judaism". In 1909, 63 rabbis associated with the Breslau approach founded the Freie Jüdische Vereinigung, another brief attempt at institutionalization that failed soon. Only in 1925 did the Religiöse Mittelpartei für Frieden und Einheit succeed in driving the same agenda. It won several seats in communal elections, but was small and of little influence.

===Jewish Theological Seminary===
[[File:Alexander Kohut.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Alexander Kohut]]]]
Jewish immigration to the United States bred an amalgam of loose communities, lacking strong tradition or stable structures. In this free-spirited environment, a multitude of forces was at work. As early as 1866, Rabbi [[Jonas Bondi]] of New York wrote that a Judaism of the "golden middleway, which was termed Orthodox by the left and heterodox or reformer by the right" developed in the new country. The rapid ascendancy of [[Reform Judaism]] by the 1880s left few who opposed it, merely a handful of congregations and ministers remained outside the [[Union of American Hebrew Congregations]]. These included [[Sabato Morais]] and Rabbi [[Henry Pereira Mendes]] of the elitist [[Sephardi]] congregations, along with rabbis [[Bernard Drachman]] (ordained at Breslau, though he regarded himself as Orthodox) and Henry Schneeberger.

While spearheaded by radical and principled Reformers like Rabbi [[Kaufmann Kohler]], the UAHC was also home to more conservative elements. President [[Isaac Meyer Wise]], a pragmatist intent on compromise, hoped to forge a broad consensus that would turn a moderate version of Reform to dominant in America. He kept the [[kosher|dietary laws]] at home and attempted to assuage traditionalists. On 11 July 1883, apparently due to negligence by the Jewish caterer, non-kosher dishes were served to UAHC rabbis in Wise's presence. Known to posterity as the "[[trefa banquet]]", it purportedly made some guests abandon the hall in disgust, but little is factually known about the incident. In 1885, the traditionalist forces were bolstered upon the arrival of Rabbi [[Alexander Kohut]], an adherent of Frankel. He publicly excoriated Reform for disdaining ritual and received forms, triggering a heated polemic with Kohler. The debate was one of the main factors which motivated the latter to compose the [[Pittsburgh Platform]], which unambiguously declared the principles of Reform Judaism: "to-day we accept as binding only the moral laws, and maintain only such ceremonies as elevate and sanctify our lives."

The explicit wording alienated a handful of conservative UAHC ministers: [[Henry Hochheimer]], [[Frederick de Sola Mendes]], [[Aaron Wise]], [[Marcus Jastrow]], and [[Benjamin Szold]]. They joined Kohut, Morais and the others in seeking to establish a traditional rabbinic seminary that would serve as a counterweight to [[Hebrew Union College]]. In 1886, they founded the [[Jewish Theological Seminary of America]] in New York City. Kohut, professor of Talmud who held to the Positive-Historical ideal, was the main educational influence in the early years, prominent among the founders who encompassed the entire spectrum from progressive Orthodox to the brink of Reform; to describe what the seminary intended to espouse, he used the term "Conservative Judaism", which had no independent meaning at the time and was only in relation to Reform. In 1898, Pereira Mendes, Schneeberger and Drachman also founded the [[Orthodox Union]], which maintained close ties with the seminary.

The JTS was a small, fledgling institution with financial difficulties, and was ordaining merely a rabbi per year. But soon after Chancellor Morais' death in 1897, its fortunes turned. Since 1881, a wave of Jewish immigration from Eastern Europe was inundating the country—by 1920, 2.5 million of them had arrived, increasing American Jewry tenfold. They came from regions where civil equality or emancipation were never granted, while acculturation and modernization made little headway. Whether devout or irreligious, they mostly retained strong traditional sentiments in matters of faith, accustomed to old-style rabbinate; the hardline [[Agudas HaRabbanim]], founded by emigrant clergy, opposed secular education or vernacular sermons, and its members spoke almost only [[Yiddish]]. The Eastern Europeans were alienated by the local Jews, who were all assimilated in comparison, and especially aghast by the mores of Reform. The need to find a religious framework that would both accommodate and Americanize them motivated [[Jacob Schiff]] and other rich philanthropists, all Reform and of German descent, to donate $500,000 to the JTS. The contribution was solicited by Professor [[Cyrus Adler]]. It was conditioned on the appointment of [[Solomon Schechter]] as Chancellor. In 1901, the [[Rabbinical Assembly]] was established as the fraternity of JTS alumni.

[[File:SolomonSchechter3.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Solomon Schechter]]]]

Schechter arrived in 1902, and at once reorganized the faculty, dismissing both Pereira Mendes and Drachman for lack of academic merit. Under his aegis, the institute began to draw famous scholars, becoming a center of learning on par with HUC. Schechter was both traditional in sentiment and quite unorthodox in conviction. He maintained that theology was of little importance and it was practice that must be preserved. He aspired to solicit unity in American Judaism, denouncing sectarianism and not perceiving himself as leading a new denomination: "not to create a new party, but to consolidate an old one". The need to raise funds convinced him that a congregational arm for the Rabbinical Assembly and the JTS was required. On 23 February 1913, he founded the United Synagogue of America (since 1991: United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism), which then consisted of 22 communities. He and Mendes first came to major disagreement; Schechter insisted that any alumnus could be appointed to the USoA's managerial board, and not just to serve as communal rabbi, including several the latter did not consider sufficiently devout, or who tolerated mixed seating in their synagogues (though some of those he still regarded as Orthodox). Mendes, president of the Orthodox Union, therefore refused to join. He began to distinguish between the "Modern Orthodoxy" of himself and his peers in the OU, and "Conservatives" who tolerated what was beyond the pale for him. However, this first sign of institutionalization and separation was far from conclusive. Mendes himself could not clearly differentiate between the two groups, and many he viewed as Orthodox were members of the USoA. The epithets "Conservative" and "Orthodox" remained interchangeable for decades to come. JTS graduates served in OU congregations; many students of the Orthodox [[Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary]] and members of the OU's [[Rabbinical Council of America]], or RCA, attended it. In 1926, RIETS and the JTS even negotiated a possible merger, though it was never materialized. Upon Schechter's death in 1915, the first generation of his disciples kept his non-sectarian legacy of striving for a united, traditional American Judaism. He was replaced by Cyrus Adler.<ref>Cohen, ''The Birth of Conservative Judaism'', pp. 80–82.</ref>

The USoA grew rapidly as the Eastern European immigrant population slowly integrated. In 1923 it already had 150 affiliated communities, and 229 before 1930. Synagogues offered a more modernized ritual: English sermons, choir singing, late Friday evening services which tacitly acknowledging that most had to work until after the Sabbath began, and often mixed-gender seating. Men and women sat separately with no partition, and some houses of prayer already introduced family pews. Motivated by popular pressure and frowned upon by both RA and seminary faculty—in its own synagogue, the institute maintained a partition until 1983—this was becoming common among the OU as well. As both social conditions and apathy turned American Jews away from tradition (barely 20 per cent were attending prayers weekly), a young professor named [[Mordecai Kaplan]] promoted the idea of transforming the synagogue into a community center, a "Shul with a Pool", a policy which indeed stymied the tide somewhat.<ref>[[Jack Wertheimer]], ''[http://www.bjpa.org/Publications/details.cfm?PublicationID=3040 The Conservative Synagogue]'', Cambridge University Press, 1987.</ref>

[[File:East Midwood Jewish Center building 1.JPG|thumb|left|[[East Midwood Jewish Center]], a United Synagogue affiliate built in 1926, during the early years of the union]]

In 1927, the RA also established its own Committee of Jewish Law, entrusted with determining ''halakhic'' issues. Consisting of seven members, it was chaired by the traditionalist Rabbi [[Louis Ginzberg]], who already distinguished himself in 1922, drafting a responsa that allowed the use of grape juice rather than fermented wine for ''[[Kiddush]]'' on the background of [[Prohibition in the United States|Prohibition]]. Kaplan himself, who rose to become an influential and popular figure within the JTS, concluded that his fellow rabbis' ambiguity in matters of belief and the contradiction between full observance and critical study were untenable and hypocritical. He formulated his own approach of [[Judaism as a Civilization]], rejecting the concept of [[Revelation]] and any supernatural belief in favour of a cultural-ethnic perception. While valuing received mores, he eventually suggested giving the past "a vote, not a veto". Though popular among students, Kaplan's nascent [[Reconstructionist Judaism|Reconstructionism]] was opposed by the new traditionalist Chancellor [[Louis Finkelstein]], appointed in 1940, and a large majority among the faculty.

Tensions within the JTS and RA grew. The Committee of Jewish Law consisted mainly of scholars who had little field experience, almost solely from the seminary's Talmudic department. They were greatly concerned with ''halakhic'' licitness and indifferent to the pressures exerted on the pulpit rabbis, who had to contend with an Americanized public which cared little for such considerations or for tradition in general. In 1935, the RA almost adopted a groundbreaking motion: Rabbi Louis Epstein offered a solution to the [[agunah]] predicament, a clause that would have had husbands appoint wives as their proxies to issue divorce. It was repealed under pressure from the Orthodox Union. As late as 1947, CJL Chair Rabbi [[Boaz Cohen]], himself a historicist who argued that the Law evolved much through time, rebuked pulpit clergy who requested lenient or radical rulings, stating he and his peers were content to "progress in inches... Free setting up of new premises and the introduction of novel categories of ritual upon the basis of pure reason and thinking would be perilous, if not fatal, to the principles and continuity of Jewish Law."

===A third movement===
The boundaries between Orthodox and Conservative Judaism in America were institutionalized only in the aftermath of World War II. The 1940s saw the younger generation of JTS graduates less patient with the prudence of the CJL and Talmud faculty in face of popular demand. Kaplan's Reconstructionism, while its fully committed partisans were few, had much influence. The majority among recent alumni eschewed the epithet "Orthodox" and tended to employ "Conservative" exclusively. Succeeding Schechter's direct disciples who headed the RA, JTS and United Synagogue in the interwar period, a new strata of activist leaders was rising. Rabbi [[Robert Gordis]], RA president in 1944–1946, represented the junior members in advocating more flexibility; Rabbi [[Jacob Agus]], a RIETS graduate who joined the body only in 1945, clamored that "we need a law making body, not a law interpreting committee." Agus argued that the breach between the Jewish public and tradition was too wide to be bridged conventionally, and that the RA would always remain inferior to the Orthodox as long as it retained its policy of merely adopting lenient precedents in rabbinic literature. He offered to extensively apply the tool of ''[[takkanah]]'', rabbinic ordinance.

[[File:Shaarey Zadek.jpg|thumb|300px|The Conservative [[Congregation Shaarey Zedek]], [[Southfield, Michigan]]. The synagogue was built in 1962, after the migration to suburbia]]
In 1946, a committee chaired by Gordis issued the ''Sabbath and Festival Prayerbook'', the first clearly Conservative liturgy: references to the sacrificial cult were in the past tense instead of a petition for restoration, and it rephrased blessings such as "who hast made me according to thy will" for women to "who hast made me a woman". During the movement's national conference in [[Chicago]], held 13–17 May 1948, the pulpit rabbis in the RA gained the upper hand. Spurred by Gordis, Agus and fellow leaders, they voted to reorganize the CJL into a Committee of Jewish Law and Standards, enfranchised to issue ''takkanot'' by a majority. Membership was conditioned on having experience as a congregational rabbi, and unseasoned JTS faculty were thus denied entrance. While the RA was asserting a Conservative distinctive identity, the seminary remained more cautious. Finkelstein opposed sectarianism and preferred the neutral epithet "traditional", later commenting that "Conservative Judaism is a gimmick to get Jews back to real Judaism". He and the very right-wing Talmud professor [[Saul Lieberman]], who maintained ties with the Orthodox while also viewing them as obstructionist and ossified, dominated the JTS, providing a counterweight to the liberals in the Assembly. Kaplan, meanwhile, spent more time on consolidating his Society for Advancement of Judaism. [[Abraham Joshua Heschel]], who espoused a [[Jewish mysticism|mysticist understanding of Jewish religion]], also became an important figure among the faculty.

The CJLS now proceeded to demonstrate its independence. Sabbath was widely desecrated by a large majority of Jews, and the board believed attendance at synagogues should be encouraged. They therefore enacted an ordinance that allowed driving on the Sabbath (for worship alone) and the use of electricity. The driving responsum was later severely criticized by Conservative rabbis, and was charged with imparting that the movement was overly keen to condone the laxity of congregants. It also signified the final break with the Orthodox, who were themselves being bolstered by more strictly observant immigrants from Europe. In 1954, the RCA reversed its 1948 ruling that allowed the use of microphones on Sabbath and festivals and declared that praying without a partition between sexes was banned. Though enforced slowly—in 1997, there were still seven OU congregations with no physical barrier, and so-called "[[Conservadox]]" remain extant—these two attributes became a demarcation line between Orthodox and Conservative synagogues. RA converts were denied ablution in Orthodox ritual baths, and rabbis from one movement would gradually cease serving in the other's communities.

Rather than a force within American Judaism, the JTS-centered movement emerged as a third movement. The historicist and critical approach to ''halakha'', as well as other features, were emphasized by leaders eager to demonstrate their uniqueness. In their efforts to solidify a coherent identity, Conservative thinkers like [[Mordecai Waxman]] in his 1957 ''Tradition and Change'', ventured beyond Schechter's conceptions to Rabbi Zecharias Frankel and Breslau, presenting themselves as its direct inheritors via [[Alexander Kohut]] and others. The CJLS continued to issue groundbreaking ordinances and rulings.
[[File:לואי פינקלסטיין והרב פרופ' פנחס פלאי.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Chancellor [[Louis Finkelstein]] (left), the dominant leader of JTS from 1940 to 1972.]]

The postwar decades were a time of immense growth for the Conservative movement. Most of the 500,000 decommissioned Jewish GIs left the densely populated immigrant neighbourhoods of the East Coast, moving to [[suburbia]]. They were Americanized but still retained traditional sentiments, and Reform Judaism was too radical for most. The United Synagogue of America offered Jewish education for children and a familiar religious environment which was also comfortable and not strict. It expanded from 350 communities by 1945 to 832 by 1971, becoming the largest denomination, with some 350,000 dues-paying member households (1.5 million people) at synagogues and over 40 per cent of American Jewry identifying with it in polls, adding an estimated million more non-registered supporters.

Already in a 1955 study, [[Marshall Sklare]] defined Conservative Judaism as the quintessential American Jewish movement, but stressed the gap between laity and clergy, noting "rabbis now recognize that they are not making decisions or writing responsa, but merely taking a poll of their membership." Most congregants, commented [[Edward S. Shapiro]], were "Conservative Jews because their rabbi kept kosher and the Sabbath... Not because of their religious behavior." The movement established its presence outside the U.S. and Canada: In 1962, the young Rabbi [[Marshall Meyer]] founded the [[Seminario Rabinico Latinoamericano]] in [[Buenos Aires]], which would serve as the basis for Conservative expansion in South America. In 1979, four communities formed the Israel Masorti Movement. Rabbi [[Louis Jacobs]], dismissed in 1964 from the British Orthodox rabbinate on the charge of heresy after espousing a non-literal understanding of the Torah, joined with the Conservatives and founded his country's first Masorti community. The new branches were all united within the World Council of Synagogues, later to be named Masorti Olami.

The movement peaked in numbers in the 1970s. During that decade, the tensions between the various elements within it intensified. The right wing, conservative in ''halakhic'' matters and often adhering to a verbal understanding of revelation, was dismayed by the failure to bolster observance among the laity and the resurgence of Orthodoxy. The left was influenced by the Reconstructionists, who formed [[Reconstructionist Rabbinical College|their own seminary]] in 1968 and were slowly coalescing, as well as the growing appeal of Reform, which turned more traditional and threatened to sway congregants. While the rightists opposed further modifications, their left-wing peers demanded them. The [[Chavurah]] movement, consisting of nonaligned prayer quorums of young (and frequently, Conservative-raised) worshipers who sought a more intense religious experience, also weakened congregations. In 1972, the liberal wing gained an influential position with the appointment of Gerson D. Cohen as JTS Chancellor. During the same year, after Reform began to ordain female rabbis, a strong lobby rose to advocate the same. The CJLS rapidly enacted an ordinance which allowed women to be tallied for a ''[[minyan]]'', and by 1976 the percentage of synagogues allowing them to bless during the reading of the Torah grew from 7 per cent to 50 per cent. In 1979, ignoring the denominational leadership, [[Beth Israel Congregation of Chester County]] accepted the [[Reconstructionist Rabbinical College|RRC]]-ordained Rabbi [[Linda Joy Holtzman]]. Pressures to allow women to assume rabbinical positions was mounting from the congregational level, though the RA agreed to delay any action until the JTS scholars would concur.

Female ordination was a matter of great friction until 1983, when Rabbi [[Joel Roth (rabbi)|Joel Roth]] devised a solution that entailed women voluntarily accepting the obligation to pray regularly. The leadership passed it not by scholarly consensus but via a popular vote of all JTS faculty, including non-specialists. Two years later, the first JTS-ordained female rabbi, [[Amy Eilberg]], was admitted into the RA. [[David Weiss Halivni]], professor of the Talmud faculty, claimed that Roth's method must have required waiting until a considerable number of women did prove sufficient commitment. He and his sympathizers regarded the vote as belying any claim to ''halakhic'' integrity. They formed the [[Union for Traditional Judaism|Union for Traditional Conservative Judaism]] in 1985, a right-wing lobby which numbered some 10,000 supporters from the Conservative observant elite. The UTJC withdrew from the movement and erased the word "Conservative" in 1990, attempting to merge with moderate Orthodox organizations.

In the very same year, the Reconstructionist also seceded fully, joining the [[World Union for Progressive Judaism]] under observer status. The double defection narrowed the movement's spectrum of opinions, at a time when large swaths of congregants were abandoning in favour of Reform, which was more tolerant of intermarriage. RA leaders were engaged in introspection through the later 1980s, resulting in the 1988 ''Emet ve-Emunah'' platform, while Reform slowly bypassed them and became the largest American Jewish movement.

After the issue of egalitarianism for women subsided, LGBT acceptance replaced it as the main source of contention between the declining right wing and the liberal majority. A first attempt was rebuffed in 1992 by a harsh responsum written by Roth. The retirement of Chancellor [[Ismar Schorsch]], a staunch opponent, allowed the CJLS to endorse a motion which still banned anal intercourse but not any other physical contact, and allowed the ordination of openly LGBT rabbis, in 2006. Roth and three other supporters resigned from the panel in protest, claiming the responsum was not valid; Masorti affiliates in South America, Israel and Hungary objected severely. The Seminario is yet to accept the resolution, while several Canadian congregations seceded from the United Synagogue in 2008 to form an independent union in protest of the slide to the left. Since the 2013 Pew survey, which assessed that only 18 per cent of American Jews identify with it, Conservative leadership is engaged in attempting to solve Conservative Judaism's demographic crisis.