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Union for Traditional Judaism
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The Union for Traditional Judaism is an ostensibly non-denominational Jewish educational, outreach and communal service organization. The UTJ, as it is known, sees itself as trans-denominational, and works to encourage traditional observance among all Jews. The UTJ maintains various educational and religious programs, and makes these available to the wider community. Though officially non-denominational, the UTJ is understood to have many components typically associated with a religious denomination, i.e.
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The Union for Traditional Judaism is an ostensibly non-denominational Jewish educational, outreach and communal service organization. The UTJ, as it is known, sees itself as trans-denominational, and works to encourage traditional observance among all Jews. The UTJ maintains various educational and religious programs, and makes these available to the wider community. Though officially non-denominational, the UTJ is understood to have many components typically associated with a religious denomination, i.e. a seminary, an association of clergy, and a committee which has authority over religious issues. The UTJ is often viewed as representing a denomination or inhabiting an ideologic space nestled between Conservative Judaism and Orthodox Judaism.
The UTJ is headquartered in Teaneck, NJ, USA.
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 with the movement because of ideological differences, including the Conservative's approach to changes in Halakha and the manner in which the issue of admitting women to the rabbinate was addressed.
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.
While still a Conservative 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 Conservative movement. Halivni withdrew this responsum prior to leaving the Conservative movement and founding the UTJ. The UTJ issued a responsum opposing the ordination of women as part of its first volume of responsa.
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 subsequently described itself as being trans-denominational in character.
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 religious law. As such, it stands in between Modern Orthodox Judaism, which retains a belief that the current written Torah and Oral Torah were transmitted in an unbroken tradition from what was received by Moses on Mount Sinai through Divine revelation, and Conservative Judaism, which in the UTJ's view has sometimes permitted personal views to override classical halakhic scholarship. The Union endorsed women's prayer groups . The Metivta, its rabbinical school, does not ordain women as rabbis.
David Weiss Halivni, one of the Union founders and the head of its rabbinical school, has written extensively on an approach to harmonizing the perspectives of contemporary biblical criticism (as well as critical study of the Talmud) 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.
Relationship to Conservative Judaism
The UTJ is widely viewed as a form of Conservative Judaism, although not as a part of the more narrowly defined Conservative movement. Congregations and Rabbis affiliated with the UTJ followed interpretations of halakhah, and beliefs considered normative within CJ at the time they left the USCJ and the Rabbinical Assembly. Since then these practices and beliefs have not been modified. No Conservative responsa that they viewed as legitimate in the past have been rejected since.
Major differences between UTJ and USCJ exist due to UTJ rabbis generally choosing traditional options with regards to halakhot related to women, or in the use of siddurim. For instance UTJ synagogues follow the practice of having separate seating for men and women, and women not acting as a shaliach tzibbur, both positions still considered halakhically valid by Conservative rabbis. In regards to siddurim, UTJ synagogues still use Conservative siddurim edited by Ben Zion Bokser or Morris Silverman.
The term Conservative Judaism doesn't refer to a narrowly defined movement or school of thought. Rather, the term refers to a broadly defined religious ideology with an overlapping range of beliefs and practices, which includes groups and individual prayer communities outside of the formal Conservative movement. Conservative groups in this broader sense also include Traditional-Egalitarian synagogues, and many non-movement affiliated synagogues, kehillot and chavurot. ,
In The Conservative Movement in Judaism: Dilemmas and Opportunities, Elazar and Geffen describe Conservative Judaism as a grouping made up of several different camps, including the chavurah movement and the Union for Traditional Judaism. The havurah movement is described as not breaking away from Conservative Judaism; they did not break away from the Conservative fold; rather, they are described as "no longer part of the dominant party of Conservative Judaism" , ,
In "Jewish Choices" (Bernard Melvin Lazerwitz et. al.) The Union for Traditional Judiasm is viewed as a denomination within Conservative Judaism., p.8,
Stefan Reif refers to members of the UTJ as "traditionalists" within the Conservative movement,
Many other sources, however describe the Union for Traditional Judaism as a new religious movement positioned between Orthodoxy and the Conservative movement, such as "Essential Judaism", George Robinson, p.60, Farber and Waxman, p.104, and Charles Selengut, p.33,
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.
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.
- Isaac S.D. Sassoon - Sephardic Rabbi and scholar. He currently teaches at the Institute of Traditional Judaism.
See also
Footnotes
External links
Synagogues
Further reading
- Ament, Jonathon. The Union for Traditional Judaism: A Case Study of Contemporary Challenges to a New Religious Movement. Doctoral Dissertation, Department of Near Eastern and Jewish Studies, Brandeis University, 2004. Reviewed in "Dissertations in Jewish Studies", Jewish Quarterly Review, Volume 95, Number 3, Summer 2005, pp. 601-608
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