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VERY SHORT, overly simplified explanation of the movements within Judaism. The term is "movement," whereas for Christians the term would be "denomination," and I have noticed every Muslim group seems to refer to every other Muslim group as a "sect," though I don't know if that last is the technically correct word. Anyway, onward.

Orthodox viewpoint:
The Torah is divided into two parts, the Written Torah and the Oral Torah. The Written Torah was given to Moshe word-for-word by Hashem on Har-Sinai (the Mountain of Sinai). The Oral Torah was, depending on viewpoint, either (1) also given to Moses word-for-word on Har-Sinai, memorized by subsequent generations, and eventually written down when it was realized that the Diaspora had interfered with our ability to teach it to enough of us by memorization, OR (2) was developed by each generation's greatest and most pious scholars, most knowledgeable in Written Torah. Both the Written Torah and the Oral Torah -- which include the Five Books of Moses, the Prophets, the Writings (those three together called Tanakh), the Mishnah, the Gemara, and the Responsa that have come down to us since then -- are all considered to be fully binding upon all Jews. We are meant to live by the laws contained therein. Nothing can be removed from them; nothing can be added to them. The ONLY thing that a new law can do is clarify or interpret an existing law more completely. However, those interpretations can cause evolution. It just happens a bit more slowly than it does in Conservative/Traditional or Reform/Liberal circles.

Conservative viewpoint:
The Written Torah was given to Moshe as divine inspiration, rather than word-for-word dictation, on Har-Sinai -- but it was definitely divine inspiration from G*D. The Oral Torah was developed by the most pious and knowledgeable scholars of each generation. Both are binding upon all Jews. Nothing can be added to, nor removed from, the Written or Oral Torah. (Very similar to Orthodoxy, up until this point.) However, new interpretations are always possible, and even encouraged, when doing so would help open up the tradition to more inclusivity for all Jews who wish to participate in readily identifiable, visible symbols of the tradition. For instance, women are permitted to do everything that men are permitted to do. However, men are obligated simply by being male and reaching the age of bar mitzvah. For a woman to become obligated, she must first conciously choose to obligate herself in a given mitzvah, such as public prayer, tefillin, and the like.

Reform viewpoint:
The Written Torah and the Oral Torah are humanity's best effort at understanding our origins, the world around us, and most importantly, our relationship to one another and to the Divine. The work is imperfect. It was inspired by God, but the inspiration came to humans, whose minds and language could only go so far in the stretch to encompass it all. The imperfections that do exist are the result of humans being imperfect, not through any error of Gods. However, because they are human works, rather than the direct work of God, we are meant to use them in specific ways. We learn from them. They inform our choices. Halachah (Jewish law, codified over centuries by scholars and deeply spiritual men -- men, mind you, not men and women -- has a vote, not a veto, in the ways that each Jew chooses to live his or her life and express his or her Jewishness. Laws that seem outdated can, after well-reasoned and insightful scholarly debate, be largely dispensed with. They are a part of our cultural heritage, and should be remembered and preserved, but they don't have the right to stop us from living our lives. We individually define our needs, our boundaries, and our own responses (and Responsa) to our tradition. We keep it alive by letting it grow, change, and adapt to the changing world around us. Change comes rapidly, but easily, and without the long, drawn-out birthing pains to which the more traditional movements are subject.

There are other movements within Judaism: Reconstructionist, Jewish Renewal, Jewish Humanism, Secular Judaism, and probably others. I don't know enough about any of them to speak on those subjects.

No big. smile I think there may be something about this on the Jewish Information subforum, too.