Criticism of Conservative Judaism - Criticism From Reform Jews

Criticism From Reform Jews

Rabbi Paul Menitoff, Executive Vice President of the Reform movement’s Central Conference of American Rabbis, wrote in a 2004 essay that Conservative Judaism would either merge with Reform Judaism or "disappear". Rabbi Menitoff said that the Conservative movement's policies were at odds with the principles of its young adult members on issues such as intermarriage, patrilineal descent, and the ordination of lesbians and gay men—all issues that Conservative Judaism opposes and Reform Judaism supports. (The Conservative movement has since liberalized its policy concerning the ordination of gay clergy.) To support his prediction, Rabbi Menitoff described Conservative Judaism's dilemma:

If the Conservative movement capitulates regarding these core differences between Reform and Conservative Judaism, it will be essentially obliterating the need for its existence. If, alternatively, it stands firm, its congregants will vote with their feet.

Rabbi Menitoff's essay drew criticism from Conservative rabbis, two of whom described his prediction as "off base" and "wishful thinking." Rabbi Ismar Schorsch, then Chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary, pointed out that “at the beginning of the 20th century, all the Jewish pundits predicted the demise of Orthodoxy, and they all proved dead wrong. So Rabbi Menitoff has good company in bad predictions.”