c. 2007 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) After his first months as chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, Arnold Eisen is poised to become a leader in what was once the country’s largest Jewish movement, Conservative Judaism. Some would say he already is one.

He’s been described as “plucky” _ a trait many say he’ll need as he tries to promote discussions about the future despite declining numbers and (real or imagined) low morale.

“He’s going to have to find a way, with other leaders of the movement, to inspire people with a passion for their Jewish identity, with a passion to bring God and Torah into their lives,” said Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson, dean of the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies, also a Conservative seminary, in Los Angeles.

Speaking in his office on the Jewish Theological Seminary campus in upper Manhattan, Eisen is passionate about Conservative Judaism, which occupies a middle ground between the more liberal Reform movement and the more traditional Orthodox. In addition to shrinking numbers, it faces an aging membership and internal debate about exactly what it means to be a Conservative Jew.

For a movement often defined by what it’s not, the identity debate is not an insignificant one.

“My first message is, `Don’t give in to this language of despair,”’ Eisen said. “This movement is very strong, and if we act in a way over the next few years that will maximize our resources, we are in a position to do great things.”

Eisen is just the second layperson to lead the school in its 121-year history. Prior to his appointment, Eisen was professor of Jewish culture and religion at Stanford University. The Forward, a New York-based Jewish newspaper, recently named him among the 50 most influential Jews in America but noted he has “no easy road ahead of him.”

Although there is no single leader for the movement that claims about 750 U.S. congregations, members have traditionally looked to the JTS chancellor for direction. Eisen has embraced that role _ a “vocation,” he calls it _ and his first task is to communicate “what Conservative Judaism stands for.”

“The movement continues to be strong because it insists on a full engagement with Jewish history and Jewish law, as well as full engagement with participation in the larger society and culture,” he said. “Although there are sometimes tensions between these two, they are fruitful tensions.”

Those tensions were evident last December when, after much debate, a movement committee voted to allow the ordination of gay rabbis. Eisen supported the move, and there now are gay students at both Conservative U.S. seminaries.

“At every step, we need not just consult tradition, but carry it forward,” he said. “And tradition is carried forward, sometimes, by changing.”

Although he will embrace change, he said the movement’s greatest strengths are its familiar institutions, including a network of camps and schools, and its rabbis, cantors and academics.

Eisen typifies what he calls the unnoticed “third resource” _ lay people.

“Not being a rabbi, I sat in the pews for 20 years. … Lay people’s talents just need to be elicited for the benefit of the movement, and that’s what I’m determined to do.”

His first project involves getting Conservative lay members to discuss mitzvah, which means commandment. Roots in biblical, commandments law shape the contours of Jewish life, outlining what is essential, optional or somewhere in the middle, where Conservative Jews have often struggled to negotiate a balance.

“Chancellor Eisen proposed the movement talk about mitzvah, not in the context of doing good deeds, which is how many people think of it, but as a religious obligation from a relationship with God,” said Rabbi Joel Meyers, executive vice president of the Rabbinical Assembly, an umbrella group of Conservative rabbis.

“It’s a way into discussions of religious beliefs and where we stand as a movement on various matters of religious concern.”

Eisen’s initiative started with rabbis using his mitzvah talking points in Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur sermons in September. Next, lay people at eight pilot congregations held discussions around understandings of mitzvah.

His emphasis on mitzvah was informed, in part, by his research. He co-authored “The Jew Within: Self, Family and Community in America.”

“Many Jews, like Protestants and Catholics, feel a contradiction between obligation and freedom. They would tell us, `Don’t have any rabbi tell me what to do. I’m free. I will decide.’ This is a false dichotomy. I don’t think we sacrifice freedom when we undertake responsibility for our community or when we celebrate Shabbat (the Jewish Sabbath.)”

Eisen hopes the mitzvah discussions will contribute to an ongoing discussion within the movement between “big tent” Conservatives and those who support a stricter adherence to inherited tradition. The wrangling over gay rabbis reflected those tensions.

“The tension between the big-tent Conservative Jews and the more restrictive or constructionist Conservative Jews is a very significant one,” said Jonathan Sarna, a professor of American Jewish history at Brandeis University. “I think Chancellor Eisen is much more eager to get people involved in doing things Jewish. This is his first big effort, and it will be very interesting to watch.”

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RB END ROAN