ACRE Blog

With an internal position paper by Reform rabbinic leadership describing the movement as in “disarray,” the nation’s largest branch this week selected Westchester Rabbi Richard (“Rick”) Jacobs, who helped draft the document, as its new congregational leader.

Since the beginning of January, I have been on a tour of North America and have seen over 400 Conservative rabbis face-to-face or conducted extensive phone interviews with them.

What am I looking for?

The recent release of a draft strategic plan for the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism (USCJ) is simply the latest indicator of the challenge facing non-Orthodox Judaism in the United States. The USCJ press release was accompanied by data showing that the movement has lost 14 percent of their affiliated families since 2001, and twice that percentage in the Northeast Region.

Several months ago the Union of Reform Judaism announced an 18-month Think Tank to include all the major arms of the Reform Movement. It came on the heels of significant cutbacks in their national staff and the near closure of one of the campuses of Hebrew Union College. While some of these cuts were driven by a bad economy, of more serious concern was the loss of membership in the movement’s congregations. The Think Tank was designed to consider the prospects for Reform Judaism’s future.