Jewish Law Experts
Postpone Gay - Issue Vote
By AP from the
NYTimes on the Web, March 8, 2006
A panel that interprets religious law
for Conservative Jews on Wednesday put off a vote on whether the movement should
ordain gays and conduct union ceremonies for same-sex couples.
After a two-day private meeting in Maryland, the Committee on Jewish Law and
Standards said the proposals needed ''extensive revisions'' before any decision
could be made.
The committee plans to take up the issue again in December.
The last major Conservative vote on the issue came in 1992, when the panel voted
19-3, with one abstention, that Jewish law barred openly gay students from
enrolling in seminaries and prohibited rabbis from officiating at homosexual
commitment ceremonies.
Four new legal opinions have been presented to the committee. Two
essentially oppose any policy change, one would overturn the ban, and another,
which was presented as a compromise, contends that Jewish law explicitly bars
only anal sex, but includes no such prohibition on gay relationships, ordination
and unions.
The Conservative movement occupies a middle ground between the liberal Reform
branch and the traditional Orthodox, adhering to Jewish law while allowing some
adaptation for modern circumstances.
Among other branches of American Judaism, the Reconstructionist and Reform
movements ordain gays and support civil marriages for homosexual couples, while
the Orthodox oppose same-gender relationships.
The legal question focuses on the significance of Leviticus 18:22, which states
''Do not lie with a male as one lies with a woman,'' and 20:13, which says such
an act is punishable by death.
Rabbi Joel Meyers, executive vice president of the Rabbinical Assembly, which
represents the Conservative movement's 1,600 rabbis worldwide and administers
the Law Committee, said in an interview that the meeting was ''intense'' and the
panel seemed ''pretty divided.''
''I think in the end there may be two decisions adopted,'' he said.
The committee's complex balloting system allows a proposal to be accepted with
the support of just six of the 25 voting members of the panel -- which means
more than one legal opinion can be approved. If conflicting proposals are
adopted, individual rabbis and presidents of the movement's five seminaries
worldwide will decide which to follow.
The Conservative movement, with about 760 synagogues, is the second-largest
branch of North American Judaism behind Reform, which has more members and
synagogues. Estimates of the total U.S. Jewish population vary from 5.5
million to 6 million.
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