In 1946, he took a position at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America ( JTS ), the main seminary of Conservative Judaism, where he served as professor of Jewish ethics and Mysticism until his death in 1972.

Conservative Judaism ( also known as Masorti Judaism outside of the United States and Canada ) is a modern stream of Judaism that arose out of intellectual currents in Germany in the mid-19th century and took institutional form in the United States in the early 1900s.

Conservative Judaism has its roots in the school of thought known as Positive-Historical Judaism, developed in 1850s Germany as a reaction to the more liberal religious positions taken by Reform Judaism.

Because of this potential for confusion, a number of Conservative Rabbis have proposed renaming the movement, and outside of the United States and Canada, in many countries including Israel and the UK, it is today known as Masorti Judaism ( Hebrew for " Traditional ").

In the United States and Canada, the term Conservative, as applied, does not always indicate that a congregation is affliliated with the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, the movement's central institution and the one to which the term, without qualifier, usually refers.

The moniker Conservadox is sometimes employed to refer to the right wing of the Conservative spectrum, although " Traditional " is used as well ( as in the Union for Traditional Judaism ).

* The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism ( USCJ ) in the United States and Canada,

Like Reform Judaism, the Conservative movement developed in Europe and the United States in the 19th century, as Jews reacted to the changes brought about by the Enlightenment and Jewish emancipation, a confluence of events that lead to Haskalah, or the Jewish Enlightenment.

Positive-Historical Judaism, the intellectual forerunner to Conservative Judaism, was developed as a school of thought in the 1840s and 1850s in Germany.

The fortunes of Conservative Judaism underwent a dramatic turnaround when in 1902, the famed scholar Solomon Schechter, lecturer in Talmud at the University of Cambridge, accepted the invitation to become president of JTS.

In 1913, the Conservative Movement founded its congregational arm, the United Synagogue of America, which would later become the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism.

Conservative Judaism enjoyed rapid growth in the first half of the 20th century, becoming the largest American Jewish denomination.

After World War II, Conservative Judaism continued to thrive.

Conservative Judaism occupied an enviable middle position during a period where American society prized consensus.

By the 1990s Conservative Judaism continued to flourish, yet dichotomies of practice and belief, which had been present for years, began to formulate.

Working with this 1990s trend of diversity and institutional growth, Conservative Judaism remained the largest denomination in America, with 43 percent of Jewish households affiliated with a synagogue belonging to Conservative synagogues ( compared to 35 percent for Reform and 16 percent for Orthodox ).

For the first time in nearly a century, Conservative Judaism is no longer the largest denomination in America.

In 2002, the Committee adopted a responsum that provides an official religious-law foundation for its past actions and articulates the current Conservative approach to the role of women in Judaism.

Due to halakhic disputes, such as the controversies over the role of women and homosexuality, some Conservative Talmudic scholars and experts in halakha have left the Jewish Theological Seminary and the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards.

CND's growing support in the 1980s provoked opposition from several sources, including Peace Through Nato, the British Atlantic Committee ( which received government funding ), Women and Families for Defence ( set up by conservative journalist Lady Olga Maitland to oppose the Greenham Common Peace Camp ), the Conservative Party's Campaign for Defence and Multilateral Disarmament, the Coalition for Peace through Security, the Foreign Affairs Research Institute, and The 61, a private sector intelligence agency.

Within Conservative Judaism, the Rabbinical Assembly has an official Committee on Jewish Law and Standards.

A key practical difference between Conservative and Orthodox approaches is that Conservative Judaism holds that its Rabbinical body's powers are not limited to reconsidering later precedents based on earlier sources, but the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards ( CJLS ) is empowered to override Biblical and Taanitic prohibitions by takkanah ( decree ) when perceived to be inconsistent with modern requirements and / or views of ethics.

In Conservative Judaism, the Rabbinical Assembly's Committee on Jewish Law and Standards has issued several responsa ( legal rulings ) which hold that the prohibitions against weddings in this timeframe are deeply held traditions, but should not be construed as binding law.

Conservative Judaism's Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, which until December 2006 held the same position as Orthodoxy, recently issued multiple opinions under its philosophy of pluralism, with one opinion continuing to follow the Orthodox position and another opinion substantially liberalizing its view of homosexual sex and relationships while continuing to regard certain sexual acts as prohibited.

It saw the Conservative MPs Neil Hamilton and Tim Smith leave the government in disgrace, and a Committee on Standards in Public Life established to prevent such corruption occurring again.

Conservative columnist Jonah Goldberg criticised the magazine writing that " Rolling Stone has essentially become the house organ of the Democratic National Committee.

It publishes prayerbooks and books of Jewish interest, and oversees the work of the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards for the Conservative movement.

Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Rabbinical Assembly ( Conservative ), 2002

However, the Conservative movement's Committee on Jewish Law and Standards permits driving to a synagogue on Shabbat, as an emergency measure, on the grounds that if Jews lost contact with synagogue life they would become lost to the Jewish people.

The Conservative Rabbinical Assembly's Committee on Jewish Law and Standards ( CJLS ), consistent with the Conservative movement's general view of the role of Kohanim, has ruled that the practice of calling a Kohen to the first aliyah represents a custom rather than a law, and that accordingly, a Conservative rabbi is not obligated to follow it.

Goodhart is best known for his book on the workings of the Conservative MPs ' 1922 Committee, and for his brother Charles, who was a famous economics professor at LSE and sat for some time on the Bank of England's monetary policy committee.

In addition, Dorff has written responsa adopted by the Conservative Movement's Committee on Jewish Law and Standards on these and other topics: end-of-life medical issues ; artificial insemination, egg donation, and adoption ; assisted suicide ; donations of ill-gotten gain ; and violent or defamatory video games.

* Proceedings of the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Conservative Movement 1986-1990, The Rabbinical Assembly, 2001.

Several Presidents of the Oxford University Newman Society, a President of the Oxford Law Society, several Officers in the Oxford University Conservative Association, an elected Standing Committee member, and several Returning Officers and Chairmen of the Consultative Committee of the Oxford Union, officers of the Light Entertainment Society, a Station Manager of Oxide Radio, and prominent University sportsmen have been Benetians.

Most Conservative responsa have been written by the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards.

* " Proceedings of the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Conservative Movement 1980-1985 ", The Rabbinical Assembly, 1998

* " Proceedings of the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Conservative Movement 1986-1990 " The Rabbinical Assembly, 2001.

She is a committed animal lover and one of the few Conservative MPs to have consistently voted for the ban on fox hunting.

The SDP favoured some Thatcherite reforms during the 1980s, such as legislation aimed at reforming the trade unions ( although the parliamentary SDP actually split three ways on Norman Tebbit's 1982 Industrial Relations bill, most voting for, some against, and others abstaining ), but took a more welfarist position than the Conservative Party, being more sceptical of Conservative welfare reforms ( particularly regarding the Health Service ).

John Major's Back to Basics campaign backfired because of media focus on its moral aspects, where they exposed " sleaze " within the Conservative Party and, most damagingly, within the Cabinet itself.

Conservative backbench MSP Brian Monteith has the whip withdrawn for briefing against his leader to the Scotland on Sunday newspaper.

Devlin punched Reginald Maudling, the Secretary of State for the Home Department in the Conservative government, when he made a statement to Parliament on the events of Bloody Sunday stating that the British Army had fired only in self-defence.

This was largely blamed on post-war austerity denting Labour's appeal to wealthier voters who felt they would be more prosperous under a Conservative government.

During the 2008 Canadian parliamentary dispute, two of Canada's opposition parties signed an agreement to form what would become the country's second coalition government since Confederation if the minority Conservative government was defeated on a vote of non-confidence ; unseating Stephen Harper as Prime Minister.

Papers from a recent Rabbinical Assembly conference on theology were printed in a special issue of the journal Conservative Judaism ( Winter 1999 ); the editors note that Kaplan's naturalism seems to have dropped from the movement's radar screen.

Conservative Jews hold a wide array of views on the subject of revelation.

When considering changes to halakha, Conservative Judaism's rabbinical authorities may rely on historical analysis as well as religious considerations.

They believe that the Orthodox Jewish movements, on the theological right, have erred by slowing down, or stopping, the historical development of Jewish law: " Conservative Judaism believes that scholarly study of Jewish texts indicates that Judaism has constantly been evolving to meet the needs of the Jewish people in varying circumstances, and that a central halakhic authority can continue the halakhic evolution today.

Many other " community day schools " that are not affiliated with the Solomon Schechter network take a generally Conservative approach, but unlike the Schechter schools, these schools generally have " no barriers to enrollment based on the faith of the parents or on religious practices in the home.

In matters of marriage and divorce, the State of Israel relies on its Chief Rabbinate to determine who is Jewish ; the Chief Rabbinate, following Orthodox practice, does not recognize the validity of conversions performed by Conservative rabbis and will require a Jew who was converted by a Conservative rabbi to undergo a second, Orthodox conversion to be regarded as a Jew for marriage and other purposes.

* The Core Principles of Conservative Judaism, by Ismar Schorsch on behalf of the Jewish Theological Seminary

* Research and articles on Conservative Judaism on the Berman Jewish Policy Archive @ NYU Wagner

* Conservative Judaism on My Jewish Learning

* An intro to Conservative Judaism on Soc. Culture. Jewish Newsgroups

Conservative thought developed alongside nationalism in Germany, culminating in Germany's victory over France in the Franco-Prussian War, the creation of the unified German Empire in 1871, and the simultaneous rise of Otto von Bismarck on the European political stage.

" On August 13, 2002 American Catholic bishops issued a joint statement with leaders of Reform and Conservative Judaism, called " Reflections on Covenant and Mission ", which affirmed that Christians should not target Jews for conversion.

Conservative critics of DADT were disappointed that he failed to withdraw the " don't ask " directives and return the military to its earlier complete ban on service by gays and lesbians.