Orthodox and Conservative

NYdailynews identifies the Orthodox Jewish man who was photographed when he let a passenger on a train sleep on his shoulder.

Harry Marylus writes about The Demise of Conservative Judaism.

 I feel sorry for them. The leaders of Conservative Judaism are scrambling to make sense of a Pew Research Center report that says their movement is shrinking...

JTS Chancelor, Arnlod Eisen spoke to this issue long before the Pew report came out. He blamed their problems on allowing people to drive to Shul on Shabbos – and the suburban sprawl their congregants followed as a result. That led to most Conservative Jews to feel that driving on Shabbos was OK in all circumstances.

Mr. Eisen now realizes that this was a mistake as it destroyed the sense of community that Orthodox Jews enjoy. By not driving to Shul on Shabbos, Orthodox Jews are forced to live near the Shul they attend. This creates a sense of community. People interact with each other -especially on Shabbos and Yom Tov. By contrast Conservative Jews do not necessarily live in Jewish neighborhoods and have no sense of community as Jews.

http://www.jewishpress.com/blogs/haemtza/the-demise-of-conservative-judaism/2013/11/06/

 

Benjamen Barer asks, "Why study an ancient religion?"

It is easy, in the time we live, to harbor the misguided feeling that anything that has not occurred in the last 24 (or maybe 48) hours is nearly irrelevant. Constantly craving the new, we are all pulled by an invisible string to answer, in the most satisfying way, 'what have you done lately?' Keeping me balanced, in large part, is a millennia-old religion.
Unlike the Facebook and Twitter generation, Judaism exhibits the opposite tendency. If something was not said or thought about two thousand years ago or more, it is probably a blip best ignored.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/benjamin-barer/why-study-an-ancient-reli_b_4215523.html?utm_hp_ref=religion