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March 10, 2006

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 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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