The Rabbinical Assembly (RA) is the international association of Conservative rabbis. The RA was founded in 1901 to shape the ideology, programs, and practices of the Conservative movement. It publishes prayerbooks and books of Jewish interest, and oversees the work of the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards for the Conservative movement. It organizes conferences and coordinates the Joint Placement Commission of the Conservative movement. Members of the RA serve as rabbis, educators, community workers and military and hospital chaplains around the world.
Elliot N. Dorff is an American Conservative rabbi. He is a Visiting Professor of Law at UCLA School of Law and Distinguished Professor of Jewish theology at the American Jewish University in California, author and a bio-ethicist.
Julius Edwin Harlow was an American Conservative rabbi and liturgist.
American Jewish University (AJU) is a private Jewish university in Los Angeles, California. It was formed in 2007 from the merger of the University of Judaism and Brandeis-Bardin Institute.
Chumash is a Torah in printed in book bound form as opposed to a Torah scroll.
The New Jewish Publication Society of America Tanakh (NJPS), first published in complete form in 1985, is a modern Jewish 'written from scratch' translation of the Masoretic Text of the Hebrew Bible into English. It is based on revised editions of earlier publications of subdivisions of the Tanakh such as the Torah and Five Megillot which were originally published from 1969 to 1982. It is unrelated to the original JPS Tanakh translation, which was based on the Revised Version and American Standard Version but emended to more strictly follow the Masoretic Text, beyond both translations being published by the Jewish Publication Society of America.
Jacqueline Hazel "Jackie" Tabick is a British Reform rabbi. She became Britain's first female rabbi in 1975. She retired in 2023 as convenor of the Movement for Reform Judaism's Beit Din, the first woman in the role, and until its closure in 2022 was also Rabbi of West Central Liberal Synagogue in Bloomsbury, central London.
Criticism of Conservative Judaism is widespread in the Orthodox Jewish community, although the movement also has its critics in Reform Judaism and in other streams of Judaism. While the Conservative movement professes fidelity to Jewish tradition, it considers Halakha to be a dynamic process that needs reinterpreting in modern times. The criticism by Orthodox Jews and traditionalists within the movement itself revolves around the following:
Elisheva Carlebach Jofen is an American scholar of early modern Jewish history.
Etz Hayim, also transliterated as Eitz Chaim, is a common term used in Judaism. The expression can be found in Genesis 2:9, referring to the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden. It is also found in the Book of Proverbs, where it is figuratively applied to "the Torah" Proverbs 3:18, "the fruit of a righteous man" Proverbs 11:30, "a desire fulfilled" Proverbs 13:12, and "healing tongue" Proverbs 15:4.
Dawidh Ḥanokh Yissḥaq Bar-Ḥayim is an Israeli rabbi who heads Machon Shilo, a Jerusalem-based rabbinical court and institute of Jewish education dedicated to the Torah of Israel.
Rabbi David Eli Stern is the senior rabbi at Temple Emanu-El of Dallas, the largest synagogue in the South/Southwest United States and the third-largest in the Union for Reform Judaism. He was selected as the 26th most influential rabbi in America by Newsweek magazine in 2008 and the 30th most influential in 2009. Rabbi Stern graduated with high honors from Dartmouth College, earned his M. A. in Jewish education from the Rhea Hirsch School of Education at HUC-JIR Los Angeles, California in 1988, and was ordained from HUC in 1989.
Etz Hayim: Torah and Commentary is a humash published and used by Conservative Judaism. Its production involved the collaboration of the Rabbinical Assembly, the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, and the Jewish Publication Society.
David L. Lieber (1925-2008), rabbi and scholar, was president emeritus of the University of Judaism and the senior editor of the Etz Hayim Humash. He helped pioneer the Ramah camps, serving as the founding head counselor in the first of the camps in Wisconsin, a director in Maine, the founding director of Camp Ramah in California, and the founding director of the Mador.
Asher Lopatin is the Director of Community Relations at the Jewish Federation of Greater Ann Arbor. He is an American pluralist, Open Orthodox rabbi and leader of Kehillat Etz Chayim, an Open Orthodox synagogue in Oak Park, MI. He is also the founder and executive director of the Detroit National Center for Civil Discourse, which has run a Fellowship in Civil Discourse at Wayne State University since September 2019. Previously, he was the President of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah (2013–2018) and the spiritual leader of Anshe Sholom B'nai Israel Congregation in Chicago before that. He is a Rhodes Scholar and a Council on Foreign Relations member.
Hebrew Institute of Boro Park is a defunct private school in New York City. It was the first Jewish day school in Borough Park, Brooklyn.
Richard Jacobs is a Reform rabbi and the president of the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ), the congregational arm of the Reform movement in North America which represents an estimated 1.5 million Reform Jews in nearly 900 synagogues across the United States and Canada. He is the first Union president to have served most of his career as a congregational rabbi. Before being installed as URJ president in June 2012, he served for nine years at Brooklyn Heights Synagogue and then for twenty years at Westchester Reform Temple in Scarsdale, New York.
Nosson Dovid Rabinowich is an American scholar of classical and medieval Jewish history former Dean of Ahavath Torah Institute in Brooklyn, New York. He is a descendant of Nathan David Rabinowich of Shidlowce and is a modern advocate of "the theory of the two Jesuses." In February 2013 he was arrested for attempting to lure a child for sex.
The Louis and Judith Miller Introduction to Judaism Program is an educational institute based at the American Jewish University in Los Angeles, California. It has, since its founding in 1986, helped students explore their Jewish roots or prepare for conversion to Judaism. Based primarily in Los Angeles, and throughout the United States, the Miller Program is available to people of any backgrounds find a home in the Jewish community.
The Etz Haim Synagogue is an Orthodox Jewish congregation and synagogue, located at Melidoni Street 8, in the Thiseio area of Athens, Greece. The synagogue was completed in 1904 by Greek Romaniote Jews who came from Ioannina, and for this reason it is also called the "Romanian" or "Yannonian" synagogue by the oldest members of the community. The synagogue is located across the street from the Beth Shalom Synagogue.
