Rabbi Irving (Yitz) Greenberg, the distinguished exponent of contemporary Judaism, is quoted to have said that it doesn’t matter which denomination you belong to – as long as you are ashamed of it.
Many Conservative rabbis in Canada have been ashamed of their movement for some time now. They cite among their reasons the ordination of women by the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) and the admission of gay and lesbian students into its rabbinic program.
JTS professor Jack Wertheimer probably had this in mind when, speaking at a conference in Jerusalem last December, he expressed his disappointment that the Conservative movement has been so keen to compete with Reform for members that it has failed to provide a relevant, halachic alternative.
To express their dissent, several Conservative rabbis in Toronto have been active members of the Union for Traditional Judaism, where many disaffected Conservative Jews have sought refuge.
Now, some of the congregations they serve have done what Shaar Hashomayim Congregation in Montreal did years ago. They have seceded from the parent body of Conservative Judaism in North America.
Rabbi Steven Saltzman, of Adath Israel Congregation, explained the secession of his congregation ideologically. He spoke of the growing chasm between Conservative Judaism in America and its Canadian branch, with special reference to the ordination of women and homosexuals, and the tendency to emulate American Reform in accepting as Jews the offspring of a Jewish father and a non-Jewish mother.
Lay leaders of the congregations that have left tend to give more mundane reasons. They cite the cost of affiliation and say they don’t get as much back from the movement as they put into it. A spokesperson for Beth Tzedec Congregation, Canada’s largest Conservative shul, said openly that “the Conservative movement’s ideology did not enter into the synagogue’s decision.”
To wish to leave for ideological reasons may be misguided, because it would serve the cause better if they all stayed within the proverbial tent, but it is honorable. To leave in order not to pay affiliation fees reflects a deplorable, crass parochialism that eschews responsibility for the collective.
It’s bound to bring great harm to Canadian Jewry. For it can only be a matter of time before the JTS will make it very difficult, if not impossible, for congregations outside the Conservative movement to employ its graduates. The successors to those who currently serve the seceding congregations are, therefore, likely to be Orthodox. Liberal Jews seeking a traditional environment may be rendered religiously homeless.
As a liberal traditionalist Reform rabbi, I should be happy, because of the potential influx of new members to our congregations. But as a Jew in Canada, I am saddened by yet another unwarranted step to move the community to the right.
