Known for both his traditionalist views and the esteem he held for scientific study of Judaism, Frankel was at first considered a moderate figure within the nascent Reform movement.

He severely criticized the 1844 first Reform rabbinic conference of Braunschweig, yet eventually agreed to participate in the next, in spite of warnings from conservative friends such as Solomon Judah Loeb Rapoport.

He withdrew from the assembly, held in Frankfurt am Main in 1845, making a final break with the Reform camp after coming to regard their positions as excessively radical.

In his magnum opus Darkhei HaMishnah (Ways of the Mishnah), Frankel amassed scholarly support which showed that Jewish law was not static, but rather had always developed in response to changing conditions.

The Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) was founded in 1886 through the efforts of two distinguished rabbis, Sabato Morais and Henry Pereira Mendes, along with a group of prominent lay leaders from Sephardic congregations in Philadelphia and New York.

After the Reform movement published the Pittsburgh Platform in late 1885, Morais recognized the futility of his efforts and began to work with like-minded rabbis to strengthen the Orthodox institutions.

The "Jewish Theological Seminary Association" was founded with Morais as its President in 1886 as an Orthodox institution to combat the hegemony of the Reform movement.

Morais and Mendes were soon joined by Alexander Kohut and Bernard Drachman, both of whom had received semicha (rabbinic ordination) at Rabbi Frankel's Breslau seminary.

About 100 days after Schechter's appointment, the Agudath Harabbonim formed, principally in protest, and declared that they would not accept any new ordinations from JTS, though previous recipients were still welcome.

[13] In the 1920s, Boaz Cohen and Louis Finkelstein, both of whom were ordained at JTS and completed their doctoral degrees at Columbia University, joined the Talmud faculty.

Broadcasts did not involve preaching or prayer, but drew on history, literature and social issues to explore Judaism and Jewish holidays in a manner that was accessible to persons of any faith.

In 1945, JTS established a new institution, the Leadership Training Fellowship, designed to educate young people within Conservative synagogues and guide them into Jewish public service.

This was at roughly the same time that the other established American Jewish seminaries, Hebrew Union College and Yeshiva University, opened cantorial schools.

[19] In 1950, Finkelstein created the Universal Brotherhood program, which "brought together laymen interested in interpreting the ethical dimensions of Judaism to the wider society.

During the Finkelstein era, the Institute for Religious and Social Studies brought together Protestant, Roman Catholic and Jewish scholars for theological discussions.

In 1968, JTS received a charter from the State of New York to create an Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, which conferred bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees.

In 1940, Finkelstein made his most significant academic appointment,[23] hiring the prominent Talmud scholar Saul Lieberman as Professor of Palestinian Literature and Institutions.

[23] During the course of his chancellorship, Finkelstein also gave academic appointments to other prominent scholars including Moshe Davis (1942), Shalom Spiegel (1943), Yochanan Muffs (1954), Max Kadushin (1960), Gerson Cohen, David Weiss Halivni, Judah Goldin, Chaim Dimitrovsky, and Seymour Siegel.

Prominent faculty in the Talmud and Rabbinics department during Schorsch's chancellorship included Joel Roth, Mayer Rabinowitz, David C. Kraemer and Judith Hauptman.

In 2004, Alan Mittleman joined the Jewish Philosophy department and became head of JTS's Louis Finkelstein Institute for Religious and Social Studies.

Arnold Eisen, Koshland Professor of Jewish Culture and Religion and Chair of the Department of Religious Studies at Stanford University, took office as Chancellor-elect on July 1, 2006, the day after Schorsch stepped down.

In January 2007, at the start of Eisen's chancellorship, Daniel S. Nevins was named the Dean of the Rabbinical School of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, succeeding Rabbi William Lebeau.

[40] In June 2009, Goldman Sachs executive Abby Joseph Cohen was named Chairman of the Board of JTS, the first woman to hold the position.

According to the Seminary, "JTS was selected by the Tikvah Fund based on its academic excellence and its mission to advance Jewish life in the modern world.

In October 2010, a group of prominent Muslim and Jewish scholars and leaders, joined by the heads of several Christian seminaries, met at JTS for two days to discuss and compare the situations of Islam and Judaism in America.

Since March 2007, JTS has accepted openly gay, lesbian, and bisexual students into their rabbinical and cantorial programs (the seminary's other three schools upheld such non-discrimination policies prior to this date).

"[52] With the new mission statement introduced by Chancellor Arnold Eisen (2007-), the school has positioned itself as serving both "Conservative Judaism" and "the vital religious center.

"[55] A second important center for Conservative Judaism in the United States is the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies in California, founded by graduates of JTS in 1996.

Its curriculum requires extensive study of Talmud, midrash, Bible, Jewish history, Hebrew language, and various professional skills.

Concentrations include: The cantorial school describes itself as training "select advanced students as hazzanim (cantors) for congregational service or as teachers of Jewish music, choral directors, composers, or research scholars.