Among the synagogue organizations are the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations and Young Israel (“modern” Orthodox) and Agudas Israel; among the rabbinical groups, the Rabbinical Council of America (“modern”) and the Rabbinical Alliance of America; among the rabbinical schools, Isaac Elchanan Seminary at Yeshiva University and the Hebrew Theological College (“modern”) in Skokie, Illinois, and numerous small European-type yeshivas (talmudic academies). The Synagogue Council of America is a forum for discussion and joint action among these movements.
Significance of Israel
American Judaism has been profoundly affected by the Nazi destruction of European Jewry and the founding of the modern state of Israel. The Holocaust and Israel are closely linked in the perceptions of most contemporary Jews as symbols of collective death and rebirth—profoundly religious themes. Israel has a religious dimension, embodying Jewish self-respect and the promise of messianic fulfillment. All movements in American Judaism (excepting the ultra-Orthodox sectarians) have become more Israel-oriented in the past decades. Both the Reform and Conservative movements have been striving to achieve legal recognition and equal status with Orthodoxy in the state of Israel, where marriage, divorce, and conversion are controlled by the Orthodox rabbinate, which is backed in the government by the important National Religious party.