I came from a congregation that didn’t know what it was. It was a German Liberal synagogue, that belonged to the then Union of American Hebrew Congregations (URJ today), worshipped from the Union Prayer Book on Shabbat and Festivals, but for the High Holydays used an old Conservative/Orthodox (Conservadox) prayerbook. The music was the grand and beautiful melodies of the European greats Lewandowski and Sulzer, typical of Reform congregations in those days.
Men were required to wear a talit when called to the bimah for an aliyah, and every man absolutely had to wear a kipah (actually a yarmulke. One day I’ll write about the difference). But the one weird thing about the congregation – as Reconformadox as they were – is that at the time it was one of only a handful of congregations that had a COLLECTION every Shabbat and Festival service, money collected in baskets brought from pew to pew by ushers (my friends and I for many years in our teens). I asked my rabbi about that collection once I knew how very unusual it was for synagogues (again, one day I’ll tell you the rationale; I think I’ve got a few more daily articles that need subjects).
There’s a different kind of mixture today resulting from sociological issues more than religious ones. Twenty-first century Judaism is indeed post-denominational. Those who identified one way in the middle to late 1900s may identify differently today. Often those in URJ-affiliated congregations consist of many who are far more accustomed to the style of Conservative, even modern Orthodox, synagogues. I believe it is because of mixed marriage or the marriage of a cradle-Jew and one who has chosen Judaism; the spouse of the cradle-Jew might not be comfortable in anything other than a Reform congregation. The number of such marriages is very high so when former non-Reform Jews affiliate with a URJ congregation their influence is felt. Mishkan Tefillah is a perfect example of how the style of our movement has turned to the right; as one friend of mine told me a few years ago, “I’m so surprised…your style of worship is more or less no different than what we do!” Note, I had been retired a number of years already; he never would have said that before I hung up my clergy robe!
(Speaking of the good ol’ days…what was it like before computers? Memory was something you lost with age; an application was for employment; a program was a tv show; a cursor used profanity; a keyboard was a piano; a web was a spider’s home; a virus was the flu.)