| This dissertation traces the history of the Synagogue Council of America (SCA) as a case study of the effort to create unity among the Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox movements in the 20th century. By analyzing the aspirations and activities of the SCA from its founding in 1926 to its collapse in 1994, I explore a significant example of the noble dream to unite the American Jewish community and consider its impact on American Jewish life.; American Jewish history is replete with examples of unsuccessful attempts to unite the American Jewish community in a national association representative of its diverse ideologies and constituencies. Given the limited successes or outright failures of these initiatives, they have been dismissed as quixotic visions and have received little attention by scholars beyond being cited as proof of the impotence of cooperation and the prevalence of recurrent divisive tensions and balkanization in American Jewish life.1 In his examination of "the struggle for the soul of American Jewry," Samuel Freedman epitomizes the negative take on efforts of Jewish unity by identifying a "civil war" between the forces of "unity" around halachic Judaism and "pluralism" which accepts all expressions of Judaism. In his view, the "Orthodox model" has triumphed.2 Given the general acceptance of the Freedman thesis, the important story of the "pluralism" model of American Jewish life has long been overlooked. This dissertation tells one chapter of that important story. Also, an in-depth study of the Synagogue Council of America reveals how a significant pluralistic organization was created, where it succeeded, and why it failed. Thus, this study serves as an important test case of the Freedman thesis. Finally, as the title suggests, this dissertation highlights both moments of cooperation and confrontation among the three movements. Each movement's decision to sanction or challenge the activities of the SCA reflects the movement's values and self-conception of its position in the Jewish world. Consequently, this study provides important insights into the development of Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox Judaism in the United States.; 1These tensions include those between German and Russian Jews, secular and religious Jews, and immigrant and native-born Jews. As one example of the treatment of these organizations in the literature, Daniel Elazar notes that the Synagogue Council "for a few years during the height of the 'religious revival' of the 1950s tried to capture - and failed - the leading role as spokesman for American Jewry...it is a commentary on its role in American Jewish life that in the early 1970s it was nearly bankrupt." Daniel Elazar, Community and Polity - The Organizational Dynamics of American Jewry, (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1995). 2Samuel G. Freedman, - Jew vs. Jew - The Struggle for the Soul of American Jewry, (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2000), 26. |
