Do orthodox Jews consider Conservative Jews not Jewish?

Question

I was once told that Orthodox Jews do not consider the more lienient Jews non-Jews. Is this true?

Answer 1

Not true.

Answer 2

Orthodox Jews consider all those born of a Jewish mother to be Jew. The issue is people converting to conservative, reformed,ect Judaism, if you convert through those branches then you are not a jew according to the law of Moses because they did not convert the proper way which only the orthodox Jews are doing.

Answer 3

(This is from the Judaism 101 website. Not "official", but gives generally accurate information.)

A Jew is any person whose mother was a Jew or any person who has gone through the formal process of conversion to Judaism.

It is important to note that being a Jew has nothing to do with what you believe or what you do. A person born to non-Jewish parents who has not undergone the formal process of conversion but who believes everything that Orthodox Jews believe and observes every law and custom of Judaism is still a non-Jew, even in the eyes of the most liberal movements of Judaism, and a person born to a Jewish mother who is an atheist and never practices the Jewish religion is still a Jew, even in the eyes of the ultra-Orthodox. In this sense, Judaism is more like a nationality than like other religions, and being Jewish is like a citizenship.

Answer 4

Those who convert through the non-orthodox movements are not jewish. But those born of a jewish mother are jews, even if they practice buddhism or atheism, so surely conservatism wouldn't take that away.

However, since conservatism and reformism is a warped version of judaism, we do not exactly consider them to be "religious" jews (which is what a full jew is; or what it is to be jewISH). Of course, though, the little they do is better than nothing, and better than a different religion altogether.

Answer 5

Well... I think that some Orthodox jews tend to think this way towards conservative and reformed jews... But also Reformed Jews tend to think this way towards the next level down of jews..

What it all comes down to is that while the basic core beliefs are similiar, each person believes that the religion should be practiced in a specific way.

Orthodox believe that the religion should be practiced straight from the book exactly as it was thousands of years ago while reformed people think that the religion should be changed a bit to reflect the modern society that we live in...

Conservatives are a bit inbetween...

Since Orthodox see that conservative jews and reformed jews dont follow all of the jewish rules and customs, some look at them as less of a jew.

its all about a different belief on how to practice the same religion...

I think that most Orthodox jews still recognize other sects of jews as jewish, but they sometimes tend to look down on them for not practicing hte strict laws...

you cant give a conclusive answer about all orthodox peoples views. But it would make sense if some even went to the level where they dont think that other sects. are really jewish.

I know some orthodox Jews that would disown their children if they married anyone outside of orthodox even conservatives or reformed.... but it varies between person



As to judiasm being an ethnicity (as said in an earlier post)... that is still debated... Many people dont like the idea of Judaism as an ethnicity mainly because that is what hitler tried to say as an excuse when he got rid of jews.

If your wondering why Jewish people often have similiar features (like the big nose and stuff). I think that is because, with jewish customs jewish people often marry other jewish people and it is not jewish peoples belief to try to convert people who are not jewish (although they readily welcome converts).

So what this leads to is many people in the jewish community marrying other jews who marry other jews... eventually when you have a smaller pool of people to marry generally you get common genes that tend to appear. these genes have been passed down from generation to generation.

So it has nothing to do with ethnicity as much as it has to do with our culture and beliefs

Answer 6

No! They consider anyone whom is born from a jewish woman a jew. Sara (Abraham's wife) became the mother of Isaac, the son God promised Abraham. Agar, (Sara's servant) gave birth to Ismael, but he was'nt the son of the promise.
They also consider the convert, who becomes jewish by abiding to the faith and precepts of the Torah to be a "full" jew (like Abraham, because he was the first jew).

So what you "once heard" is unfortunetly one of the misconceptions many people have about jews.

If you dont believe this then: ask the question to a real orthodox rabbi by going on an official site about judaism like aish.com and go to the section : ask a rabbi

Answer 7

I recently met with an Orthodox Mikveh attendant who (between the lines) told me I could not use their mikveh because we were not Orthodox, thereby I assumed, not Jewish. I do find the Orthodox to be very judgmental of other sects of Judaism. I was told by a Conservative Rabbi that I could go back to the Orthodox Rabbi (usurping the mikveh attendant) and try to plea my case as their judgment of my Jewishness was keeping me from performing and fulfilling a mitzvot ordered by god. I don't have the guts to go and do it, but I'd be interested to hear what the Rabbi's opinion would be.

Answer 8

Allow me to clarify this. Religion is about following God's will and serving him. Various religions say God said, "x...." and not withstanding the arguements of who is right, what God said is what he said, end of story. Many people have become inspired to modify this because of difficulty of convinience but it must be realized that this is foolish because the basis of practice is because said to do it, not for you to make up your own way. So non-Torah (bible) followed, a.k.a. orthodox, Judaism (which includes hasidic jews) is not following God's word but a modification, so we now have different followings due to modifications. So many Jews today and non-observant or non-practicing but are Jews by birth. In otherwords, Jews who may not be practising all or any of Judaisms or something which is not Judasim but an alteration (a better word, I suppose than modification, which I used above). Because Jewish law also dictates who is a Jew by birth, as well as who accepts converts and how they are accepted, any alteration to this law can render converts, or births (e.g. Jewish father, gentile mother) to be non-Jewish according to Orthodox law but not Reform law. Concervative Judaism is not as different by conversions and hereditary Judaism as Reform is from Orthodox.

Answer 9

Perhaps there are a few Orthodox Jews who believe this, as to their Jewish religion.

But Jews are Jews by birth also. It's an ethnic group as well as a religion

Answer 10

Conversions done by Conservative Jews are no good, so it must be investigated to see if the "Jew" comes from converts.

Answer 11

No, if they are born from a Jewish mother (no conversions), they are Jewish, just kinda uninformed Jews.