Tikvat Israel Blog

I subscribe to COMPACT from the USCJ, but I often don’t read the mailings, because of time – however, this caught my eye. Of note, check out the asterix at the bottom as to when these words were originally aired!! We have occasionally argued about who we are as Conservative Jews, and what our mission is at TI – I wonder if this adds to that discussion.

For me, that last bullet item is the most reassuring, especially the words “however slowly”!!

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OR LA YEHUDIM SIVAN

(A Light to Our Fellow Jews in the Month of Sivan)

GOALS FOR A CONSERVATIVE JEW *

Rabbi Herman L. Horowitz

A Conservative strives to be a person who —

• is not content to reduce Judaism to a style, but is compelled to make it a matter of substance
• can feel at home in Judaism whether he has a Russian, American, Canadian, Israeli or any other background
• seeks a lifestyle which is Jewish, with adjustments to secularity; not a secular lifestyle giving occasional recognition to Jewish origins
• is as comfortable with the most committed Jew as with the least committed Jew and while identifying with one, has respect for the other
• is ready to commit to the performance of a specific mitzvah even though many questions about it remain unanswered
• is unafraid of being labelled “elitist” when calling for excellence and standards in the Jewish community
• sees the secular world with Jewish eyes, and is unafraid to measure a culture by its morality and holiness, as understood by Jews dedicated to Judaism through the ages
• realizes that it takes courage and character to be observant of Jewish practice more than it does to be non-observant
• though unafraid of modernity, is wary of modernism
• is weary of polemics and Jewish partisanship and sees the strength of Conservative Judaism in being able to depend less on the movement and more and more on Jewish texts and sources by themselves
• sees Conservative Judaism as a summons to maximal not minimal Judaism
• sensitized by the study of history, is able to separate the transitory from the permanent, the fad from the eternal and who, though influenced by the times, refuses to make it the norm and become a captive of it
• who rejects the identification of change with progress
• who believes that human achievement can be reached independent of political power or organizational efficiency
• who, knowing from history what are the consequences of the alternatives, is ready to accept the authority of the Torah as a joyous blessing
• is in the process, however slowly, of becoming a practicing, observant Jew.

*Rabbi Horowitz shared these goals close to 30 years ago. How do his ideas resonate in 2008 as we approach Shavuot 5768? Let me know your thoughts at edelman AT uscj DOT org.