What are the different sects of Judaism?

Answer 1

Plenty of Different sects. In Judaism overall there is the Orthodox, conservative, reform and reconstructionist split, listed in order of their adherence to halachah with Orthodox being the only group to adhere to the complete Halachah, Conservative dropping what they consider are just rabbinic additions - including the Gemorrah and ONLY going according to the Torah and Mishnah, but even then they have questionable practices from the Orthodox viewpoint. Reform is even more modernised and Reconstructionist- while I know they are more modernised then Reform I don't really know much about since they are not represented at all in South Africa.

Within Orthodox you have the following major divisions:
Mitnagdim- literal translation of those oppossed. This is a label that only dates back a couple of hurrend years when the Chassidic movement started. Initially Chassidus was considered heretical and those who wanted to identify there opposition adopted this label (including the major rabbis at the time). In time Chassidus dropped those parts which were questionable and moved into the mainstream, but the label still stuck.
Within Mitnagdim you have
Modern Orthodox- guys like me- we observe all the laws but are more integrated into the secular world in our dress and jobs.
Orthodox - tend to be more formally dressed and more conservative than Modern Orthodox but there are no major differences just a few differences in customs
Hareidi- also often referred to as Ultra-Orthodox. These are the guys that people often think of when they think of the proototypical Jew- the guys with the big beards, black coats and hats and who are more comfortable conversing in yiddish than in any vernacualr of the country they live in (and yep- that applies to Israel since they view hebrew as the Holy Language and don't use it for secualr discussion but only for prayer and religious study).

Chassidim- this group developed from a mystic named the Baal Shem Tov who focussed more on the spiritual connection rather than the here and now. They study the mystic side far more intensely than the mitnagdim who view needing to know about the spiritual as a "nice to know but not essential" as oppossed to shas (the entire Jewish body of law excluding Kaballah and a couple of mystic books) as being the most important since that is what is important to us here on earth.bbWithin Chassidus there are a large number of sub-units- but their dress is pretty much the same as that of the ultra-orthodox (and the two are often lumped together in discussions and therefore the usage of Hareidi rather than ultra-orthodox frequently). for those in the know, the type of hat/coat/ manner in which the sideburns are worn are often indicators of which chassidic sect a person belongs to. (perosnally I can identify a handful of sects like this- but by no means all.)

The above largely applies to Ashkenazi Jews- mainly Jews of Eastern European descent. The other mainly grouping is Sephardi Jews- those from Spain and the Middle east. Within Sephardi there are splits as well- the differences often coming regions
Temeni: Jews from Yemen
Moraccai: Jews from Morocco
Sfard: The main generic classification within this group.

Ashkenazi and Sefardi Jews tend to have a lot of different customs but agree on the interpretation of the majority of the laws. Differences do exist as most Ashkenazi interpretations follow the ruling of the Rambam and Talmud Bavli, while Sephardi Jews often follow Rabbeinu Tam and the Talmud Yerushalmi.

There are other affiliations- but they would often be subsumed into the other categories and just be areas in which slightly different customs exist (called a Nusach) So within Ashkenazi you have a Nusach Polin (Poland), Litvak (Lithuania), Yekke (Germany) and so on. Often these nusachs are not used in favour of the generic Ashkenazi nusach (so while many South African Jews are Litvak, no shul here actually uses Nusach Litvak but prayers are nusach Ashkenaz)
Conservative/Masorti: Both of thse share the similarity that they believe the Torah to be divinely inspired but they see the oral law to merely be human interpretations by wise mean and subject to reinterpretation by modern Rabbis. As such they do not observe many of the laws and customs that orthodox Jews do. As such, while there conversions are accepted by Reform, they are NOT accepted by Orthodox Jews. Like Reform, they accept both matrilineal and patrilineal descent with the same issues arising as with Reform and Orthodox.

Renewal/Reconstructionist/Reform
What links these three is the common belief that the Torah is not a divinely inspired document and thus merely a good guideline on achieveing spirituality. They are the most liberal of the Jewish branches and people converted by them are NOT recognised as Jews by the other streams of Judaism. Also, they accept both patrilibeal and matrilineal descent making soe of those born as Jews in this branch not to be accepted as Jews by orthodox Jews who only accept matrilineal descent.

The similarity between all of them is recognising a single, indivisible God as the creator of the world. Also, all recognise the Torah as central to Judasim (though to different degrees as explained above). Aside from that- the only similarity is their total rejection of Messianic Judaism as being Judaism in any form!

MESSIANIC JUDAISM/JEWS FOR JESUS
Both of these are deemed as nothing more than Christian sects using deceitful means to convert Jews. EVERY Jewish denomination denounces these sects as Christians and nothing more. However, by Jewish law, once a Jew, always Jew- whether born or converted. Thus once a person is Jewish they are always judged by Jewish standards, and if they revert/convert to a different religion they are still considered Jewish by Jewish law. BUT, someone practising a religion other than Judaism is considered outside of the community, may not be a member of the community, receive any community honours, be a representative for the community, be buried in a Jewish cemetary, marry a Jew or be treated as a Jew for the purposes of the laws of mourning. However, since they never stop being a Jew- they merely have to repent, return to Judaism and go to mikveh in order to once again be a full member of the community.

Answer 2

Judaism doesn't have "sects."

The major movements, though, are Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, and Reconstructionist.

Edit: Normally I'm not prone to make statements like this, but Messianic Christians are NOT Jews.

Answer 3

"messianics" are christians and they are not part of the jewish religion at all. "messianic" was started 100 years ago by Baptists..
the Major "sects" are unafilliated, reform, conservative, orthodox.
All jews are jews, we simple follow the torah to various degrees
all jews follow the SAME exact torah, all jews read (or should read) from the same section of torah on shabbat (sabbath)
All torah (in the hebrew of-course) all over the planet, is exactly the same, it has never been changed or altered

Answer 4

Movements include Reform, Orthodox, Hasidic (which is often grouped with Orthodox), Reconstructionist, Karaite, and Humanistic Judaism, to name a few.

Answer 5

Agree with allonyoav

Answer 6

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judaism

Answer 7

theres reform, conservative, Orthodox, and messianic [Jews for Jesus].