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.

The international association of Conservative / Masorti Rabbis is known as the Rabbinical Assembly ; the Cantors Assembly is the organization of chazanim.

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.

The Conservative movement maintains a number of Rabbinical seminaries:

The Rosh Yeshiva at the Canadian Yeshiva & Rabbinical School in Toronto is a Conservative rabbi, Roy Tanenbaum.

The faculties of the Academy for Jewish Religion in New York and of the Rabbinical School of Hebrew College in Newton Centre, Massachusetts also includes a large number of Conservative rabbis.

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 collaboration with the late Chaim Potok, Kushner co-edited Etz Hayim: A Torah Commentary, the new official Torah commentary of the Conservative movement, which was jointly published in 2001 by the Rabbinical Assembly and the Jewish Publication Society.

They have been accepted as religious holidays by the following groups: The Union of Orthodox Congregations and the Rabbinical Council of America ; The United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth ; Reform Judaism ; Conservative Judaism ; Reconstructionist Judaism ; the Union for Traditional Judaism.

In Conservative Judaism, the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards ( CJLS ) of the Rabbinical Assembly makes the movement's decisions concerning Jewish law.

It made its greatest stride in becoming the fourth movement in North American Judaism ( Orthodox, Conservative and Reform being the other three ) with the founding of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in 1968.

The Rabbinical Assembly ( RA ) is the international association of Conservative rabbis.

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

He founded the first Conservative Jewish day school, served as President of the Rabbinical Assembly and the Synagogue Council of America, and was a professor at Jewish Theological Seminary of America from 1940 to 1992.

* Emet Ve-Emunah: Statement of Principles of Conservative Judaism, Robert Gordis et al., Jewish Theological Seminary and the Rabbinical Assembly, 1988.

) Emet Ve-Emunah: Statement of Principles of Conservative Judaism JTS, Rabbinical Assembly, and the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, 1988

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.

It closely works with the Rabbinical Assembly, the international body of Conservative rabbis, the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, and the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies.

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

Non-denominational yeshivas and kollels with connections to Conservative Judaism include Yeshivat Hadar in New York, the leaders of whom include Rabbinical Assembly members Eli Kaunfer and Shai Held.

Modern day vaads in Conservative Judaism include the Rabbinical Assembly's Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, and the Masorti movement's Vaad Halakha.

In December 2006, the Rabbinical Assembly's Committee on Jewish Law and Standards passed three responsa discussing the extent of Biblical requirements and continuing applicability rabbinic prohibitions concerning niddah for Conservative Jews.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.