Judaism in Transformation: Events and Movements for Reform
Keywords:
Judiasm, Jews, Transformation, Events, MovementsAbstract
Until the 1950s it was assumed by everyone, including the Orthodox, that Orthodox belief and traditional Jewish observance were dying out. However, in the 1960s and 70s the Orthodox made a strong comeback, and traditional observances are spreading. When J was a student at the Reform Rabbinical school in the early 1960s less than 5% of the students ate kosher food. Now, over 1/3 of the students observe a kosher diet. Both the Conservative and Orthodox movements also report a resurgence of traditionalism. Several Ortho- dox synagogues, which had permitted men and women to sit together during services, now have re-established a partition to separate the sexes. 1 Orthodox women who married 20-30 years ago are sometimes embarrassed now to show people photographs of their wedding recep- tions, which picture men and women dancing together. 2 Young Conservative Rabbis rarely follow the liberal philosophy of Mordechai Kaplan, who was the chief mentor of the generation that was ordained in the 1930s and 40s.
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