On Sat, 2 Oct 1999, Doug Henwood wrote:
> This afternoon I overheard someone described as a "conservadox" Jew.
> I can guess the etymology, but what does it mean?
Conservadox are conservative jews who allow women to be rabbis. The "dox" ending is supposed to emphasize that they consider themselves more serious and scholarly, not less, than the conservatives, despite this radical change in custom -- they don't want to be regarded as watering it all down, but rather as renewing the tradition.
I've gotten the impression lately that more and more conservative congregations are adopting conservadox positions, and that it is leading to something something of a resurgence of conservative jewry, which used to be the vanishing middle. For the first time, young people seem to be joining up.
In Israel, for example, none of these pseudo-protestant divisions previously existed. You could be a religious Jew, or an agnostic Jew or an atheist Jew, but hitherto, none of the locals have had any interest in watering down the doctrines that they did or didn't believe in, and have never understood the American taste for it. But during this last set of high holidays, it was something of a news story that the Conservative synagogues of Israel, normally only holding Americans, were overflowing with young Tel Aviv'ers who have suddenly deciddd they love the bas mitzphah (the one for girls -- purely an American invention) and the idea that men and women can sit together. So there seems a chance that feminist religious scholars might actually start a broad trend. But I'd love to hear from someone that knows more of the details.
Michael __________________________________________________________________________ Michael Pollak................New York City..............mpollak at panix.com