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Answer:
The three major denominations in Judaism are, in alphabetical order,
Conservative Judaism, Orthodox Judaism, and Reform/Progressive
Judaism.
Outside of the United States and Israel, the distinction tends to be
along Orthodox/Liberal lines. Outside of North America, the equivalent
of North American Reform Judaism is called Progressive or Liberal
Judaism. Outside of North America, the equivalent of North American
Conservative Judaism is called "Reform" or "Masorti", although there
are differences in all cases from the North American versions. To be
more specific, all synagogues associated with the movement in North
and South America are called 'Conservative', all synagoues in Israel
and England are called 'Masorti', and all synagogues in Hungary are
called 'Neolog'. Note that the Neolog movement developed independently
of the rest of Conservative Judaism. Their philosophy was also based
on the work of Rabbi Zecharias Frankel, the founder of the
Positive-Historical school of thought (Mid 1800s, Germany, Breslau).
The evolution of their school of thought basically followed the same
path as the Conservative movement, and in recent years they have
formalized this by joining the World Council of Conservative/Masorti
Synagogues.
With respect to the United Kingdom, there are about 11 synangogues
that are officially part of The World Council of Conservative/Masorti
Synangogues ([5]http://www.masortiworld.com ), and all of these
synangogues refer to themselves as 'Masorti'. Most of them even have
the word 'Masorti' in their name. Their philosophy is identical to
that of Conservative Jews in the US - and Masorti Jews in Israel - and
almost all of their rabbis (perhaps even all by now) are officially
members of the Conservative movement's Rabbinical Assembly.
In Israel, the Conservative and Reform movements are very small
(although they do exist). Rather, the split tends to be along
secular/non-secular lines, with further internal devisions with the
non-secular adherents. An estimated breakdown might be 30% secular,
50% traditional (those who keep some Mitzvot), and 30% religious.
These numbers have been provided by Hillel Applebaum
([6]alpebaum@cs.huji.ac.il) and are being reinvestigated because they
add up to over 100%. This breakdown may be misleading, because the
Mitzvot observed by the majority of "traditional" Israelis include
some that are imposed by secular law (Jewish marriage and divorce) and
others that have been adopted voluntarily because of their social,
cultural, and/or national content (e.g. Passover Seder, Chanukah
candles). Conversely, most members of this group do not keep the
Mitzvot that are considered by non-secular Jews to lie at the heart of
Judaism: Shabbat (observance of the Sabbath) and Kashruth (observance
of the dietary laws), and should therefore be regarded as "nearly
secular" rather than "moderately religious".
There are also a fourth movement which is considered major by some:
Reconstructionist. It is an offshoot of Conservative.
Note: "Messianic Judaism[sic]" and other groups accepting the tenets
of Christianity are not Jewish movements.
Sephardic(Southern European/Spanish/North African) Orthodox tend not
to bother with liberal/traditional distinctions as much as Ashkenazi
(Northern European/Franco-German/Russian) Jews.
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Last Update March 27 2014 @ 02:11 PM
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