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soc.culture.jewish FAQ: Who We Are (2/12)
Section - Question 2.2: What are the major Jewish movements?

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                                  Answer:
   
   The three major denominations in Judaism are, in alphabetical order,
   Conservative Judaism, Orthodox Judaism, and Reform/Progressive
   Judaism.
   
   Outside of the United States and Israel, the distinction tends to be
   along Orthodox/Liberal lines. Outside of North America, the equivalent
   of North American Reform Judaism is called Progressive or Liberal
   Judaism. Outside of North America, the equivalent of North American
   Conservative Judaism is called "Reform" or "Masorti", although there
   are differences in all cases from the North American versions. To be
   more specific, all synagogues associated with the movement in North
   and South America are called 'Conservative', all synagoues in Israel
   and England are called 'Masorti', and all synagogues in Hungary are
   called 'Neolog'. Note that the Neolog movement developed independently
   of the rest of Conservative Judaism. Their philosophy was also based
   on the work of Rabbi Zecharias Frankel, the founder of the
   Positive-Historical school of thought (Mid 1800s, Germany, Breslau).
   The evolution of their school of thought basically followed the same
   path as the Conservative movement, and in recent years they have
   formalized this by joining the World Council of Conservative/Masorti
   Synagogues.
   
   With respect to the United Kingdom, there are about 11 synangogues
   that are officially part of The World Council of Conservative/Masorti
   Synangogues ([5]http://www.masortiworld.com ), and all of these
   synangogues refer to themselves as 'Masorti'. Most of them even have
   the word 'Masorti' in their name. Their philosophy is identical to
   that of Conservative Jews in the US - and Masorti Jews in Israel - and
   almost all of their rabbis (perhaps even all by now) are officially
   members of the Conservative movement's Rabbinical Assembly.
   
   In Israel, the Conservative and Reform movements are very small
   (although they do exist). Rather, the split tends to be along
   secular/non-secular lines, with further internal devisions with the
   non-secular adherents. An estimated breakdown might be 30% secular,
   50% traditional (those who keep some Mitzvot), and 30% religious.
   These numbers have been provided by Hillel Applebaum
   ([6]alpebaum@cs.huji.ac.il) and are being reinvestigated because they
   add up to over 100%. This breakdown may be misleading, because the
   Mitzvot observed by the majority of "traditional" Israelis include
   some that are imposed by secular law (Jewish marriage and divorce) and
   others that have been adopted voluntarily because of their social,
   cultural, and/or national content (e.g. Passover Seder, Chanukah
   candles). Conversely, most members of this group do not keep the
   Mitzvot that are considered by non-secular Jews to lie at the heart of
   Judaism: Shabbat (observance of the Sabbath) and Kashruth (observance
   of the dietary laws), and should therefore be regarded as "nearly
   secular" rather than "moderately religious".
   
   There are also a fourth movement which is considered major by some:
   Reconstructionist. It is an offshoot of Conservative.
   
   Note: "Messianic Judaism[sic]" and other groups accepting the tenets
   of Christianity are not Jewish movements.
   
   Sephardic(Southern European/Spanish/North African) Orthodox tend not
   to bother with liberal/traditional distinctions as much as Ashkenazi
   (Northern European/Franco-German/Russian) Jews.

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