Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Conservative Judaism: A Reader's Guide

The Berman Jewish Policy Archive of New York University's Wagner School of Public Service has just compiled a Reader's Guide on Conservative Judaism, including the full-text of over 80 articles and reports published recently and in the last 30 years. Topics include ideology, observance, institutions, demographics, the rabbinate, and denominational relations. Here is a summary of the guide, with highlights.

The Berman Jewish Policy Archive is a particularly useful resource for Jewish educators, and professionals involved in Jewish communal service and public policy. Although it is called an "archive" and does contain materials from previous decades, it is an excellent source for materials on current Jewish community issues: as of April 10 2012 it already provides readers with 22 documents from April 2012 and 108 documents from this year.

As stated on its website, the Berman Jewish Policy Archive also "serves as a catalyst for new research, new analysis, and new policy discussions through live events such as conferences, roundtables, lectures, publication launches and salons."