The Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America

The Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America is an organization of Orthodox Jewish synagogues. It is sometimes referred to by its initials (UOJCA) but is more commonly known as the OU or the Orthodox Union.

It is the largest Orthodox organization in the United States. Its synagogues, and the rabbis who lead them, are part of Modern Orthodox Judaism.

This organization should not be confused with the Union of Orthodox Rabbis, a distinct Haredi Judaism rabbinical group with a similar name.

History

The UOJCA was founded in 1898, and today serves over 800 congregations of varying size. The initial idea for this organization came from rabbis at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America (JTS), in Manhattan, NY. At that time, rabbis in JTS were promoting the idea of a unified American Jewish community, with a central rabbinic seminary and a central congregational body. In this era, the lines between modern Jewish denominations were not clearly drawn. However, none of the Yiddish-speaking Haredi rabbinate would have anything to do with rabbis at JTS at all; JTS allowed its teachers and students to use the tools of critical-historical scholarship as well as traditional forms of Jewish Torah study, and this practice was seen as heretical.

Many rabbis within modern Orthodoxy accepted some limited use of critical-historical scholarship, but were torn between reaching out to their theological left (Conservative Jews at JTS) and their theological right (Haredi Jews.) The proposal for a national synagogue body failed to garner any significant number of Orthodox partners and thus came to naught. Some Modern Orthodox rabbis stayed with JTS and worked with that community to later create the United Synagogue of America, the national congregational body of Conservative Judaism. Most Haredi Orthodox rabbis viewed the nascent UOJCA as insufficiently Orthodox, and thus did not participate in it, instead setting up their own organizations. However, the idea for a national Orthodox-only congregational body took hold, and soon developed into the UOJCA that exists today. The UOJCA grew slowly until the 1950s, when it soon began increasing the number of affiliated congregations (most of them small, but many of them of a large size.)

The UOJCA holds all member synagogues to Orthodox Jewish interpretations of Jewish law and tradition. Men and women are seated separately, and nearly always are separated by a mechitza, a physical divider between the men's and women's section of the synagogue. UOJCA synagogues are Zionist, meaning that they support the existence of the State of Israel. The laws of Shabbat (the Sabbath) and Kashrut are stressed. Members of UOJCA synagogues have a wide political background, varying from progressive to Democrat to Republican to conservative. Orthodox Jews are somewhat more politically conservative than those in Reform and Conservative congregations.

Prayer is done exclusively, or almost exclusively in Hebrew, using the same traditional text of the siddur (prayer book) that has been used in Ashkenazic Jewish communities for the last few centuries. Until recently the most common prayerbook used in UOJCA synagogues have been Ha-Siddur Ha-Shalem edited by Philip Birnbaum. In recent years the most common siddur has been the RCA edition of the Artscroll siddur, a prayerbook that is identical to the siddur used in Haredi synagogues, but for the addition of a new preface, and prayers for the State of Israel and the Israel Defense Forces. Until recently the most common Torah commentary has been the Pentateuch and Haftarahs, edited by Joseph H. Hertz. In recent years the most common Torah commentary has been The Chumash: The Stone Edition, also known as the Artscroll Torah.

The UOJCA plays a significant role in supervising kosher foods; the "OU" symbol signifying that a food has been certified as kosher is the most well known and widely accepted heksher (mark of kashrut) in North America.

The official youth program of the UOJCA is the National Conference of Synagogue Youth. It sponsors the Association of Orthodox Jewish Scientists.

For many years the UOJCA worked with the larger Jewish community in the Synagogue Council of America, along with its related rabbinic arm, the Rabbinical Council of America. In this group Orthodox, Conservative and Reform Judaism worked together on issues of joint concern. The grow became defunct in 1994.

See also

Rabbinical Council of America Orthodox Judaism

External websites