I have only been in a synagogue a few times, is there a difference between synagogues?
Absolutely. There are Reform synagogues for "Reform Jews"; Conservative synagogues for "Conservative Jews"; and Orthodox synagogues for strictly observant Jews. Services - with the possible exception of High Holidays during which there might be some attempt at uniformity -- are different in each. They don't visit one another's synagogues; they have different rabbis; they think differently from one another; and they tend not to be that friendly with one another. Many Jews, especially in a cosmopolitan center like New York City, are even less observant than "Reform Jews", preferring to call themselves "secular Jews" or perhaps "cultural Jews" or sometimes -- in an attempt to split hairs -- they will assert that they do not practice Judaism, don't believe in God, observe no Jewish holidays, but they were born to Jewish parents, so in a purely nominal sense, they are forced into admitting that they are Jews(!) It's a very odd -- and often a very disconcerting -- cultural fissure within Judaism, especially as it developed in the U.S.
Until the mid-19th century when the Reform got started in Germany and the U.S., there was pretty much just Orthodoxy from ancient times on. Most practiced it, some to a greater or lesser degree. The “innovation” that was the Reform Movement is one that was so fixated on assilimilating into German society that some of the leaders were not satisfied just to observe less, but instaed decided to recreate their millenia old religion in their own self-conscious image, basically throwing out most of the litergy and law and even beliefs, in short throwing out the baby with the bathwater. The scions of Reform now includes the later “innovation” Conservative; these are the Obama supporters, brainwashed by the clergy who have been taught in the past 40 years by Marxists who have made their way onto these faculties - no different from what has happened to our universities.