Conservative Judaism Reconsiders Policy on Gays

Published on March 31, 2005

The Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, which considers religious law for the Conservative branch of American Judaism, will meet next week to reconsider its 1992 decree opposing the blessing of same-sex couples and the ordination of open homosexuals as rabbis. Both the Orthodox and Reform Jewish movements have resolved the issue of gays in […]

The Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, which considers religious law for the Conservative branch of American Judaism, will meet next week to reconsider its 1992 decree opposing the blessing of same-sex couples and the ordination of open homosexuals as rabbis. Both the Orthodox and Reform Jewish movements have resolved the issue of gays in Judaism — with the Orthodox branch barring gay rabbis and condemning homosexuality, and the Reform branch both ordaining gays and blessing gay relationships — but the Conservative branch has taken a sometimes uneasy middle-of-the road position that’s been compared to the U.S. military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy: refusing to bless gay couples or “knowingly admit avowed homosexuals” into clerical organizations and schools, but also frowning upon discrimination or “witch hunts” among already-ordained clergy and students in rabbinical or cantorial schools. The committee’s decision to review the 1992 policy comes at the request of Judy Yudof, lay president of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, and after a prominent New York synagogue broke from the Conservative movement over its position on homosexuality, but some Conservative leaders warn that a changed policy will erase any distinction between the Conservative and Reform branches and that it may lead to an Anglican-style divide.

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