Union for Traditional Judaism
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The Union for Traditional Judaism is a non-denominational Jewish communal services organization. It was founded by traditionalists within Conservative Judaism who broke with the movement because of ideological differences, including the way in which Jewish law changes (Halakhic Process) and the issue of admitting women to the rabbinate. The UTJ, as it is known, sees itself as trans-denominational, and works to encourage traditional observance among all Jews.
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[edit] Origins
The Union for Traditional Judaism, originally known as the Union for Traditional Conservative Judaism, began as a rabbinic rather than a lay movement. It was founded by a group of traditionalist Conservative rabbis, led by former Jewish Theological Seminary Talmud professor David Weiss Halivni, who broke away from the Conservative movement after the Jewish Theological Seminary faculty voted to ordain women as rabbis in 1983.
Rabbi Halivni had written a responsum supporting the ordination of women as rabbis, although by a more gradual process than the one approved by the JTS faculty. Halivni and other traditionalists claimed that in this and other decisions the Conservative movement had made decisions to change from traditional practices in a legislative rather than a judicial fashion, by poll or majority vote. Traditionalists believed that halakhic decision-making should be made by Talmud and Halakha scholars following a process of legal reasoning.
The Union originally intended to form the elements of a separate denomination, including an association of rabbis, a rabbinical school, and an association of synagogues. The organization abandoned this approach after it failed to attract large numbers of synagogues to its synagogue organization or large numbers of rabbinical students to its rabbinical school.
[edit] Beliefs and Practices
The Union for Traditional Judaism attempts to combine modern approaches to studying Judaism's sacred texts, including the use of critical methods and the study of approaches such as the Documentary hypothesis, with what it regards as classical approaches to interpreting and making decisions regarding Jewish religiouslaw. As such, it stands in between Modern Orthodox Judaism, which retains a belief that the current written Torah and Oral Law were transmitted in an unbroken tradition from what was received by Moses on Mount Sinai through Divine revelation, and Conservative Judaism, which in addition to adhering to source-critical views of classical texts, also believes that its contemporary rabbinate has authority to reinterpret and may sometimes overrule classical injunctions in light of contemporary morality. In practice, the Union has retained certain leniencies it inherited from Conservative Judaism, such as a holding that using electricity does not violate the Shabbat, but has departed from Conservative Judaism on issues such as the Role of women in Judaism. The Union has endorsed the concept of a Partnership Minyan, at one point sponsoring one of the first American congregations of this type, the Montauk Minyan in New York. The Metivtah, its rabbinical school, does not ordain women as rabbis.
David Weiss HaLivni, one of the Union founders and formerly the head of its rabbinical school, has written extensively on an approach to harmonizing the perspectives of contemporary biblical criticism with traditional religious belief. In his books Peshat and Derash and Revelation Restored, he developed the concept he called Chate'u Israel (Israel sinned), in which he argued that the biblical texts were originally given to Moses on Mount Sinai, but they subsequently became irretrievably corrupted and the texts we currently have were redacted by editors in an effort to restore them.
[edit] The Institute of Traditional Judaism/The Metivta
The Institute of Traditional Judaism, also known as the Metivta, is the rabbinical school sponsored by the UTJ. The Metivta trains men for the rabbinate, and also offer study programs for men and women which do not lead to ordination.
Graduates of the rabbinical program have been hired by both Conservative and Orthodox synagogues.
[edit] Important Figures
David Weiss Halivni - Rabbi, talmud scholar, and Reish Metivta of the UTJ's rabbinical school.
David Novak - Rabbi and theologian. He currently teaches at the University of Toronto and the Institute of Traditional Judaism.
[edit] See also
Conservadox Judaism, Conservative Judaism, Modern Orthodox Judaism, Biblical criticism, Halakha, Role of women in Judaism
[edit] External links
[edit] Synagogues
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