What Are Jewish Conservatives Trying to Conserve?

I applaud Eric Cohen’s statement of Jewish conservative belief, as well as his suggestion that the time has come for a “more or less well-defined movement” to give conservative political tendencies within Jewry a sharper definition than has been possible until now.

Seen from Jerusalem, things appear much as Cohen describes them. The leftward lurch of large sectors of American Jewry has opened an ever-deepening rift with the more traditionalist and conservative branches of the Jewish people—including the majority of Orthodox Jews, Israeli Jews, French Jews, American Jewish Republicans, and many others. The war cries coming from the increasingly militant Jewish left threaten fundamentals that are precious to all of these communities. The imperative of the hour therefore seems to be a coordinated effort to defend Jewish interests as these have long been understood.

To do this, Cohen sees two stages: first, formulation and definition, in which basic principles are agreed upon that can create a “big-tent community of values and ideas” and give voice to what he describes as “Jewish patriotism” or “Jewish conservatism”; next, once this is achieved, more concrete work with respect to various issues.