Well, here’s the JTA “Breaking News” alert on the CJLS meeting. It answers the question about the two liberal papers (one by the father-son team of Rabbis Bob and David Fine; the other by Rabbi Gordon Tucker) that were apparently ruled as takkanot and defeated in committee. Conservatives open to gays The Conservative movement’s highest…
Here is the article from the Forward.And here is the Press Release from the Rabbinical Assembly that was just sent out from New York regarding the deliberations of The Committee on Jewish Law and Standards on the subject of homosexuality — specifically on how Jewish Law (Halakhah) views homosexuals considering the biblical injunction against homosexuality….
Conservative rabbi and former president of the Rabbinical Assembly, Gerald Zelizer, explains in today’s USA Today how he has experienced a transformation in his views on homosexuality in Judaism and the potential for gay rabbis. A rabbi’s struggle: To allow gay clergy or not? By Rabbi Gerald L. Zelizer Over the past few decades, the…
The Michigan Daily published an article in today’s edition on the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards (CJLS) meeting in which four teshuvot (responsa) were presented regarding Gay commitment ceremonies and the ordination of Gay rabbis and cantors at Conservative seminaries. I spent quite a bit of time on the phone with the author of…
Below is the “Breaking news” from JTA.org that no vote was made on any of the teshuvot (responsa) presented. This was no surprise for me having sat in on several Committee on Jewish Law and Standards (CJLS) meetings while a student at The Jewish Theological Seminary. Teshuvot are presented, studied, debated, and then re-written or…
March 6, 2006 Conservative Jews to Consider Ending a Ban on Same-Sex Unions and Gay Rabbis By LAURIE GOODSTEIN 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…
From the Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles by Amy Klein, Religion Editor Dr. Ismar Schorsch, chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) in New York, will retire in June. In that role, he has been informally considered the closest thing that the Conservative movement has to a leader. Schorsch, 70, met with The Journal…
From The Jewish Week Students at the Jewish Theological Seminary — many of whom favor a more progressive chancellor than retiring Ismar Schorsch — were shut out from a seat on the committee searching for his successor. Now, students at the Conservative movement’s seminary were likely surprised this week to find a letter from the…
A Trick And A Treat Elicia Brown – Special to the Jewish Week I awoke with a jolt. The press release I’d fished out of my junk folder proclaimed that The Jewish Theological Seminary would celebrate 20 years of women in the Conservative rabbinate with an “equity plan”: it would commit to equal pay for…
The Conservative Movement’s Double Standard By RABBI AYELET COHEN FORWARD February 11, 2005 For more than a decade, the Conservative movement has proclaimed its welcoming attitudes toward gay and lesbian Jews. As evidence, Conservative leaders have often cited the movement’s 1992 “Consensus Statement,” which affirms that “gays and lesbians are welcome in our congregations, youth…