There has been much talk lately about the demise of the Conservative Jewish movement. Perhaps they are correct. Conservative Judaism as it once was is fading. Its fading but not exactly. Over the years Conservative Judaism has come to resemble the Reform Jewish movement. However , now there are other groups that are a lot like what Conservative Judaism really was, but with a different name and face. There are "partnership" or "egalitarian" minyans which may have a mechitzah but have men or women leading parts of the services to varying degrees. To me these types of minyanim scream Conservative Judaism. I think that there will always be the spiral staircase from Orthodox Judaism and beyond. After those who have gone so far from Judaism have intermarried and have become Cultural Jews there will always be another group of those unhappy with the reigning frum establishment that will form their own branches of Judaism. For better or for worse.
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The problem Conservativism faces is that it tries to stay in a self-proclaimed centre. But in Western culture today compromise is a dirty word. People see ideological purity as desirable. For example, If you're not going to keep kosher and Shabbos why are you still going to shul? And if you're going to keep kosher and Shabbos then why go to a shul that doesn't have davening al pi halacha?
Compounding this is the trend in Reform to add ritual to bring in a sense of authenticity and add colour to their practices, and what is Conservatism any more but Reform with rituals? So to the left the difference between the two movements is blurring while to the right the YCT crowd is busy recreating what old time right wing Conservatism was, only with a mechitzah. So who needs the original movement anymore?
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United Synagogue Turns Inward by Stewart Ain, 2011 February 8:
<< Faced with a declining membership, an increasing number of Jews who shun synagogue affiliation and the [Conservative Judaism] movement’s “best and brightest” migrating to post-denominational or Modern Orthodox settings...>>
SOURCE: www.thejewishweek.com/news/new_york/united_synagogue_turns_inward
Around 1990, the Union for Traditional Conservative Judaism (UTCJ) deleted the word "CONSERVATIVE" from its name, and is now The Union for Traditional Judaism (UTJ).
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