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Conservative Jews to Consider Ending a Ban on Same-Sex Unions and Gay
Rabbis
By LAURIE GOODSTEIN
March 6, 2006 New York Times In a closed-door meeting this week in an
undisclosed site near Baltimore, a committee of Jewish legal experts who
set policy for Conservative Judaism will consider whether to lift their
movement's ban on gay rabbis and same-sex unions.
In 1992, this same group, the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards,
declared that Jewish law clearly prohibited commitment ceremonies for
same-sex couples and the admission of openly gay people to rabbinical or
cantorial schools. The vote was 19 to 3, with one abstention.
Since then, Conservative Jewish leaders say, they have watched as
relatives, congregation members and even fellow rabbis publicly revealed
their homosexuality. Students at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New
York City, the movement's flagship, began wearing buttons saying
"Ordination Regardless of Orientation." Rabbis performed same-sex
commitment ceremonies despite the ban.
The direction taken by Conservative Jews, who occupy the centrist position
in Judaism between the more liberal Reform and the more strict Orthodox,
will be closely watched at a time when many Christian denominations are
torn over the same issue. Conservative Judaism claims to distinguish
itself by adhering to Jewish law and tradition, or halacha, while bending
to accommodate modern conditions.
"This is a very difficult moment for the movement," said Rabbi Joel H.
Meyers, a nonvoting member of the law committee and executive vice
president of the Rabbinical Assembly, which represents the movement's
1,600 rabbis worldwide.
"There are those who are saying, don't change the halacha because the
paradigm model of the heterosexual family has to be maintained," said
Rabbi Meyers, a stance he said he shared. "On the other hand is a group
within the movement who say, look, we will lose thoughtful younger people
if we don't make this change, and the movement will look stodgy and behind
the times."
Several members of the law committee said in interviews that while
anything could happen at their meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday, there
were more than enough votes to pass a legal opinion (a teshuvah in Hebrew)
that would support opening the door to gay clergy members and same-sex
unions. The law committee has 25 members, but only six votes are required
to validate a legal opinion.
Committee members who oppose a change may try to argue that the decision
is so momentous that it falls into a different category and requires many
more than six votes to pass, even as many as 20, the members said. Other
members may argue that no vote should be taken because the committee and
the movement are too divided.
The committee may even adopt conflicting opinions, a move that some
members say would simply acknowledge the diversity in Conservative
Judaism. The committee's decisions are not binding on rabbis but do set
direction for the movement.
"I don't think it is either feasible or desirable for a movement like ours
to have one approach to Jewish law," said Rabbi Gordon Tucker of Temple
Israel Center, in White Plains, a committee member who has collaborated
with three others on a legal opinion advocating lifting the prohibition on
homosexuality.
Even if the five Conservative rabbinical schools — in New York, Los
Angeles, Jerusalem, Buenos Aires and Budapest — adopted different
approaches, Rabbi Tucker said, "I don't think that would necessarily do
violence to the movement."
The Conservative movement was long the dominant one in American Judaism,
but from 1990 to 2000 its share of the nation's Jews shrank to 33 percent
from 43 percent, according to the National Jewish Population Survey. In
that same period, the Reform movement's share jumped to 39 percent, from
35, making it the largest, while Orthodox grew to 21 percent, from 16
percent. Estimates are difficult, but there are five to six million Jews
in the United States.
Jonathan D. Sarna, a professor of American Jewish history at Brandeis
University and author of "American Judaism: A History," said, "In the
1950's when Americans believed everybody should be in the middle, the
Conservative movement was deeply in sync with a culture that privileged
the center. What happens as American society divides on a
liberal-conservative axis is that the middle is a very difficult place to
be."
Rabbi Meyers, vice president of the Rabbinical Assembly, said he worried
that any decision on homosexuality could cause Conservative Jews to
migrate to either Reform, which accepts homosexuality, or Orthodoxy, which
condemns it. But Dr. Sarna said some studies suggested that many Jews who
were more traditional began abandoning the Conservative movement more than
20 years ago, when it began ordaining women.
Few congregants are as preoccupied about homosexuality as are their
leaders, said Rabbi Burton L. Visotzky, a professor of Talmud and
interreligious studies at the Jewish Theological Seminary, who spends
weekends at synagogues around the country as a visiting scholar.
"There are so many laws in the Torah about sexual behavior that we choose
to ignore, so when we zero in on this one, I have to wonder what's really
behind it," Rabbi Visotzky said.
The ban on homosexuality is based on Leviticus 18:22, which says, "Do not
lie with a male as one lies with a woman; it is an abomination," and a
similar verse in Leviticus 20:13.
The law committee now has four legal opinions on the table. Although the
reasoning in each is different and complex, two opinions essentially
oppose any change to the current law disapproving of homosexuality, and
one advocates overturning the law.
A fourth, authored by Rabbi Elliot N. Dorff, rector and a professor of
philosophy at the University of Judaism in Los Angeles, argues that the
passages in Leviticus refer only to a prohibition on anal sex and that
homosexual relationships, rabbis and marriage ceremonies are permissible.
"What we're really trying to do is to maintain the authority of halacha,
but also enable gays and lesbians to have a love life sanctioned by Jewish
law and guided by Jewish law," said Rabbi Dorff, vice chairman of the law
committee.
A change in the ban on homosexuality has been staunchly opposed by the
longtime chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary, Rabbi Ismar
Schorsch. But Rabbi Schorsch is retiring in June after 20 years, and his
successor could greatly affect the policy. Rabbi Schorsch declined to be
interviewed for this article. Several Conservative officials said that
while Rabbi Schorsch is not a member of the law committee, he is very
involved in its deliberations on this issue.
If the law committee does not vote to change the prohibition, some rabbis
said, the issue could resurface at the Rabbinical Assembly's convention
March 19-23 in Mexico City.
Many students at the seminary say they find the gay ban offensive and
would welcome a change, said Daniel Klein, a rabbinical student who helps
lead Keshet, a gay rights group on campus. "It's part of the tradition to
change, so we're entirely within tradition," he said. Mr. Klein said that
even if the law committee did not lift the ban this week, change would
come eventually.
"Imagine what will happen 10 years from now when some of my colleagues are
on the law committee, when people from my generation are on the law
committee," he said. "It's not going to be a close vote."
Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company |
