News
2006-03-10
Conservative
rabbis delay decision on accepting gays
After considering
whether to lift a ban on gay rabbis and same-sex
unions, a Conservative Judaism legal committee agreed on
After considering
whether to lift a ban on gay rabbis and same-sex
unions, a Conservative Judaism legal committee agreed on
Wednesday to postpone deciding on the matter until
December. The group of legal experts has been
discussing the issue for three years, and many observers
had expected a decision during a meeting this week at an
undisclosed location near Baltimore, reports
The New York Times.
According to committee members, who set policy
for the moderate Jewish faith, they are still
unsure whether accepting gay people is allowed under
Jewish law, which is called halacha. The four
legal proposals under consideration were returned to their
authors for what one rabbi deemed "extensive revisions."
However, a female rabbi supportive of including
gay people said the situation is urgent. "I understand
the need for the law committee to go through a serious
halachic process, but this affects the real
lives of real people, and for the people in our
community there is real urgency," Rabbi Ayelet S. Cohen of
New York told the Times.
''There are gay people who grew up in the
synagogues and day schools and summer camps of the
Conservative movement who feel the movement has turned
its back on them,'' Cohen added. ''There are people who want
to become rabbis who can't, couples who want the
rabbis of their childhood synagogues to marry them,
and they won't.''
Other rabbis dismayed by the committee's
postponing its decision have indicated they will bring
the issue up at a rabbinical convention in Mexico City
later this month. (Advocate.com)
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