Religious commitment crosses denominational lines

Recently, the mislabeling of a photograph caused me first to smile and then to reflect on the underlying nature of the error itself. It occurred to me that there were, in fact, two errors: the caption itself and the assumption that the commandment and practice of mitzvot is limited to any one Jewish denomination.

The first error: The caption beneath a poster in the Celebrate 350 series, created to mark a milestone anniversary of Jews in America, identifies a boy and man in tallit and tefillin as representing a step forward in the renewal of the Orthodox Jewish community. As it happens, the man is a prominent Conservative Jewish professional and he was serving as gabbai ("manager" of the prayer service) at the boy's bar mitzvah in an egalitarian minyan.

The second error was the automatic assumption that the two davening wearing tallit and tefillin are Orthodox Jews.

At the United Synagogue's convention in 2002, I delivered a speech calling upon more Conservative Jews to consider Halacha binding upon themselves. I do not deny that there is still a good deal of work to do in that area. Nevertheless, we must not assume that observing kashrut, celebrating Shabbat, raising money for tzedakah or spending a year in Israel are behaviors limited to Orthodox Jews. Nor should they be.

Over the past several years, Conservative synagogues have seen congregants, both men and women, adopt behaviors and take on religious obligations formerly identified solely as Orthodox. Indeed, the United Synagogue's IMUN program was created at least in part to address congregants' growing interest in learning skills of Jewish living.

In the realm of Jewish study, we have witnessed thousands of synagogue members participate not only in their own congregational adult education programs but in United Synagogue programs such as Perek Yomi and Mishnah Yomit (daily study of Tanakh and Mishnah), both on an individual basis and as part of synagogue groups. In addition, the number of attendees of all ages at the USCJ Conservative Yeshiva in Israel continues to grow each year.

Another phenomenon of note is the increase in family involvement during b'nai mitzvah, with siblings, parents, friends, and members of the extended family stepping forward to read Torah and conduct other parts of the service. Communities of young Jews are starting minyanim in diverse areas; and while Jews as a whole have always celebrated the High Holidays and Passover in large numbers, we see an increasing number of families in Conservative synagogues celebrating Sukkot with lulav and etrog.

Support of and travel to Israel is another index of Jewish commitment, and, again, the number of Conservative families visiting or sending a child to Israel has risen over the years. Youngsters in programs such as Kadima and USY raise large sums for tikkun olam projects and gather in large numbers for annual conclaves that bring them together with peers from around North America. In addition, Conservative college students on dozens of campuses are both demanding and helping to create new resources under the aegis of the USCJ KOACH Program to help them live more serious Jewish lives on campus.

The Conservative movement will continue to recognize and to welcome the individual Jew at whatever level of observance we find him/her and to urge, inspire and guide that individual to a richer Jewish life. While it remains our goal to increase the level of religious observance and commitment among all our members - and we have not yet attained that goal - we can say with assurance that some old assumptions are now being challenged.

Rabbi Jerome Epstein is the executive vice president of The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism.

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