Which is the largest U.S. branch of...

Which is the largest U.S. branch of Judaism: Reform or Conservative? It turns out that no one has precise figures, and top officials put the two movements at about the same size.

In separate stories this week, The Times identified Reform and Conservative as the biggest.

Reform officials have estimated their U.S. members at about 1.3 million and worldwide membership at about 1.5 million.

Despite higher estimates by some Conservative officials, Rabbi Jerome Epstein of New York, chief executive officer of Conservative’s United Synagogue of America, said Thursday that Conservative Judaism may have between 1.3 million and 1.4 million U.S. members and about 1.5 million members worldwide.

“Reform and Conservative Judaism are still neck-and-neck,” Epstein said. “The trouble is that in both movements many synagogues only report how many families are members, not how many individuals.”

Meanwhile, Bruce Phillips of Hebrew Union College’s Los Angeles faculty said at the annual convention of Reform rabbis in Seattle this week that he thought Conservative enjoys a slight edge over Reform in affiliations, but that the standings will change soon.

“The demographic trend is toward a more liberal Judaism in terms of how people think of themselves,” Phillips said. “It will be the only movement in the United States that will be able to attract . . . fourth- and fifth-generation Jews, Jews in mixed marriages and the children of those marriages.”

Orthodox Judaism, widely considered third nationally in synagogue affiliations, is represented by many different organizations but will continue to grow, Phillips predicted.

DATES

The Conservative Baptists of America, which has 1,200 member churches in this country, opened its six-day national convention Friday at the Anaheim Convention Center.

“Jesus and Woody Allen: Two Jewish Theologians” is the topic of New Testament scholar Bernard Brandon Scott 8 p.m. Thursday at Mount St. Mary’s Doheny campus in downtown Los Angeles.

More than 15,000 U.S. and Latin American Catholics are expected to attend the 16th annual, three-day “Encuentro Latino Internacional” starting Friday at the Los Angeles Sports Arena.