The Late Friday Night Orthodox Service: An Exercise in Religious Accommodation

The late Friday night service—usually conducted at 8 p.m. throughout the year—has been seen as a significant ritual difference distinguishing Conservative from Orthodox synagogue practice in twentieth-century America. Yet, in the 1920s–1940s, during an era of denominational indistinctiveness, some Orthodox congregations ignored the regulations of the Code of Jewish Law and followed what the Conservatives did. More generally, American Orthodox synagogues experimented with reaching potential Friday night worshippers without violating the halakhah. They created "forums" or quasi-services of varying sorts. In the early post–World War II period, as denominational lines calcified, some Orthodox congregations that had emulated Conservative practice gravitated toward that movement. Other Orthodox synagogues abandoned full-fledged late Friday night services. Still, "forums" continued to be part of the national Orthodox scene into the 1950s. In the 1980s, late Friday night experiences returned to American Orthodoxy's agenda as it sought to influence disconnected Jews.