I really enjoyed hearing Michael Cohen speak about the foundation of Conservative Judaism. Having him tie in one of Solomon Schechter’s students with Delaware, and a shul which I am somewhat familiar with, definitely sparked my attention. I found it to be very important that he stressed that G-d did not declare on Sinai that there would be orthodox, conservative, and reform. Instead, he made it clear that these divisions came to be, instead of being pre-existing entities.
I found the information he gave us on Schecter very interesting. I had no idea that he created a group of disciples with which to form conservative Judaism as we know today. I also was unaware of the incredibly self sacrifice these disciples went under to try and form conservative communities. It seems that defining conservative Judaism has been anything but simple. Dr. Cohen said the 1970’s push to ordain women rabbi’s alienated people which seems to go against what Schechter’s aim was in trying to be all inclusive.
I thought that Dr. Cohen had a great presentation. He seemed very excited and interested, and really tried to engage the audience. His talk was more conversational then lecturing which I really enjoyed.
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