JTS and The Conservative Movement
JTS was the founding institution of Conservative Judaism in America. The United Synagogue of America, the organization of Conservative synagogues, was founded by Solomon Schechter while he served as President of JTS.
During the chancellorship of Louis Finkelstein, however, there were many tensions between JTS and the Conservative Judaism movement which it led. JTS was often more traditional in matters of religious practice than the denomination as a whole. Finkelstein was also perceived as focusing on American and world Jewry as a whole while paying little attention to the Conservative movement.
According to scholar Michael Panitz, the situation changed under Finkelstein's successors. Under Chancellor Gerson Cohen (chancellor from 1972–86), JTS "decisively embraced its identity as a Conservative Jewish institution, it thereby abandoned its earlier hopes to provide a non-denominational unifier for traditional and moderate American Jews." The next chancellor, Ismar Schorsch (1986–2006), "emerged as an outspoken advocate for Conservative Judaism." With the new mission statement introduced by Chancellor Arnold Eisen (2007-), the school has positioned itself as serving both "Conservative Judaism" and "the vital religious center."
As of 2010, JTS's website describes JTS as "the academic and spiritual center of Conservative Judaism worldwide." Others describe it as "the academic and spiritual centre of Conservative Judaism in the United States." A second important center for Conservative Judaism in the United States is the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies in California, founded by graduates of JTS in 1996.
Read more about this topic: Jewish Theological Seminary Of America
Famous quotes containing the words conservative and/or movement:
“The conservative assumes sickness as a necessity, and his social frame is a hospital, his total legislation is for the present distress, a universe in slippers and flannels, with bib and papspoon, swallowing pills and herb-tea.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“An actor rides in a bus or railroad train; he sees a movement and applies it to a new role. A woman in agony of spirit might turn her head just so; a man in deep humiliation probably would wring his hands in such a way. From straws like these, drawn from completely different sources, the fabric of a character may be built. The whole garment in which the actor hides himself is made of small externals of observation fitted to his conception of a role.”
—Eleanor Robson Belmont (1878–1979)