(It was a conservative female rabbi and conservative synagogue that chose trannies over healthy families. So, I’m not so sure conservative synagogues are in the middle anymore. They’re just reform with different music now from my untrained eyes.)
You're not wrong. I consider myself "old school conservative" (which is a made up title but will make sense in a second). The conservative movement is a uniquely American invention from a unique period. Most of the people who joined it were either Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants from Europe or their children or their grandchildren (so say around around 1895 to say 1995). These were Jews who back in the old country were what we would consider Orthodox (if you've ever seen the movie fiddler on the roof that shetel life, which the Nazis completely destroyed is sort of what was very common amongst the ashkenazm was very common amongst the Ashkenazi Jews (obviously fiddler on the roof is a musical but I'm talking broadstrokes here).
So when these immigrants who escaped either the progroms of tsarist, Russia, general anti-Semitism of Europe or later on the Holocaust, came to the United States. They wanted to do away with more of the cultural "old country ways of thinking" but still keep the religious aspect of it. I'll give a quick personal example. One of my relatives when they came over, her family were all what we would consider. Orthodox Jews, however, when she came to America she married a Jewish man and could not stand that she could not sit next to her husband in the synagogue despite being married.
(Orthodox Jewish thought says men and women should be separate from each in the synagogue, but not in the Muslim sense more in the modesty, keeping your focus on God's sense) .. So she joined a conservative synagogue where they kept kosher, the rabbi was a man, the liturgy was done in Hebrew, the religious customs and traditions were the same, but some things were a little different. Whereas Orthodox Jews sought to separate themselves from society, Jews who sought to integrate themselves into American society but keep their religious and cultural identities secondary to their American identities became conservative Jews. However, time is marched on and that just doesn't exist anymore.
So in old school, conservative would look like a very liberal modern Orthodox Jew.
To translate this to our gentile friends on this site. (This is very broad strokes. Just take the framework. Not the inner meaning here):
Imagine Judaism as Catholicism. Big institution. Lot of rules. Lot of ceremony, some of it is liturgical. Some of it is traditional. It changes from place to place depending on what church you're part of (assuming they all are in communion with each other), but the broad strokes are the same. The reform movement would be similar to Early anglicanism/conservative anglicans (the ones that split). (?), or maybe protestantism. Everything can be reevaluated. It's more about the spirit of the law. We need to embrace the enlightenment. That sort of stuff (I'm not good with the minutiae of the church here).
Conservative Jews would be similar to your modern post Vatican 2 Catholics. Liberal but still keeping with the church traditions and the goal of the church. Modern Orthodox Jews (kippah wearing ones who dress normal otherwise) would be closer to your Catholics that either reject Vatican II or insist on using Latin in mass and that sort of stuff. Your Hasidic Jews ( Black hat stereotypical Orthodox Jews the kind that everyone likes to make fun of) would be closer to your Spanish grandmother. Highly religious, highly superstitious highly spiritual type.
They're all Jews but they all approach it differently. The problem with the reform movement is that it gets so liberal and has gotten so liberal that it falls "out of communion" and just doesn't become Judaism at all. The reconstructionists are your unitarians/ modern Church of englanders. Modern Anglican church members. At some point it stops being the religion.
As for the Israel Zionism part of Judaism. The idea of Zionism (simply that Jews should have their own country back and should rule themselves in their own country separate from other people in their holy Land that God gave them in the Levant). Is directly tied to the faith. You can interpret it as much as you want. What defines it? What kind of government it should be? Should we build it before or after the Messiah comes?, etc etc. but if you reject the Jewish Homeland you are not a Jew. In some ways you're closer to being a Christian (because doesn't Christianity state that the temple is no longer needed because Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice etc etc etc).
This would be like saying you're a Catholic but you don't accept the Trinity. You can't. It's foundational to the faith. You'll have Catholics that say one could be a homosexual and accept the sacrament and you have Catholics that say all homosexuals need to be killed. But at the end of the day they all accept the Trinity.
These are people who are "playing Judaism". They dress up in the " costume" of the faith but don't really believe in its tenants. They are "pop Jews" as I like to call them. The issue with the reform and the reconstructionists and whatever fucking type that tranny is now, is that Judy isn't doesn't have a central authority. We are " self-governing" in many ways. And the Holocaust show that when you go against the " self-governance" you open yourself up to just being killed by gentiles. So many reform Jews are very politically liberal the problem is that when you're politically liberal you're also in bed with dsa twitter types. And many people who have good intentions end up empowering these crazies.
@Catch The Rainbow is better at clarifying things.
Sorry for the sperging hope it is informative.
