Texas Jewish Post (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 61, No. 6, Ed. 1 Thursday, February 8, 2007 Page: 3 of 36
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TJP V61-06, 02-08-07 p01-03 2/6/07 6:44 PM Page 3
-e
February 8,2007
In Our 61st Year
Texas Jewish Post
Focus on Issues
Issue of gay ordination still open
despite signals in avor, leaders say
By Ben Harris
NEW YORK (JTA) — Leaders of the
Jewish Theological Seminary insist
the ordination of gay rabbis is not a
foregone conclusion despite the
appointment of a rabbinical school
dean committed to the move and a
recent survey showing that a
majority in the Conservative move-
ment would support the step.
The seminary's incoming chan-
cellor, Arnold Eisen, said a survey of
movement leaders released Jan. 31 is
just "one factor among many" in his
decision whether to admit openly gay
students to the JTS rabbinical and
cantorial schools.
The survey found that roughly
two-thirds of Conservative rabbis
and cantors believe JTS shoul d admit
gay and lesbian students for rab-
binical study. Percentages in favor
were slightly higher among the
movement's professional and lay
leadership, and slightly lower among
student rabbis and cantors.
Similar margins of support were
found when respondents were asked
whether Conservative rabbis should
officiate at same-sex commitment
ceremonies.
Eisen commissioned the survey fol-
lowing a December decision, or
teshuvah, from the movement's highest
rabbinical authority, the Committee on
Jewish Law and Standards, permitting
the ordination of gay clergy.
The committee also endorsed two
contrary opinions on the status of
homosexuals within the movement,
leaving it to individual Conservative
institutions to decide their policy on
the question.
On Jan. 29, the seminary named
Rabbi Daniel Nevins, one of three
authors of the permissive teshuvah,
as dean of the JTS rabbinical school.
Nevins, a Harvard-educated rabbi
from Farmington Hills, Mich., dis-
missed the suggestion that his selecti on
made gay ordination inevitable.
"Don't overplay it," Nevins told JTA.
'You might find yourself surprised."
Within the movement, though,
preparations are under way for the
consequences of a change in policy.
Rabbi Jerome Epstein, executive
vice president of the United Syna-
gogue of Conservative Judaism, the
movement's synagogue association,
told JTA he has enlisted a consultant
to help his staff cope with synagogues
that may choose to hire a gay rabbi.
"We don't see our role as pro-
moting change," Epstein said. "We see
our role as promoting pluralism."
In Canada, where the survey showed
that 82 percent of clergy oppose a policy
change, some synagogues are reconsid-
ering their affiliation with the
Conservative movement.
"My feeling is that there is some
skepticism, and people do ask the
question about why we continue to
affiliate with a movement that is
going in the direction that it seems to
be going," said Paul Kochberg, presi-
dent of the United Synagogue's
Canadian region.
Kochberg said no synagogues in
Canada were likely to change their
practices as a result of the law com-
mittee decision, which he called a
"non-event."
JTS was eager to emphasize survey
findings that demonstrated the
movement's theological coherence
even as its leadership insists no deci-
sion will be made until spring.
A seminary press release high-
lighted the fact that consensus exists
on several key questions believed to
distinguish Conservative Judaism
from other streams.
By substantial majorities, respon-
dents said they believe the movement
is "halachic," that rabbis should not
officiate at mixed marriages, that
patrilineal descent should be rejected
and that women should serve as
rabbis and cantors.
"The consensus around these
issues speaks to the underlying unity
and distinctiveness of the Conserva-
tive movement," said Steven Cohen,
the Hebrew Union College sociologist
who conducted the survey pro bono.
Conservative Judaism's struggle
with the homosexuality issue has
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Should JTS accept openly gay and lesbian rabbinic students?
Percentage saying 'yes'
consumed the movement for
months and led to dire predictions
from supporters and opponents of a
more permissive attitude.
Supporters have cautioned that
failure to liberalize would further accel-
erate the movement's decline. Once
American Judaism's dominant reli-
gious stream, Conservative Judaism
has lost ground to both the Reform and
Orthodox movements in recent years.
Opponents counter that liberaliza-
tion could splinter the movement,
warning that the commitment to
Jewish law, or halachah — the prin-
cipal distinction between Conservative
and Reform Judaism — would be
severely undermined if millennia of
Jewish legal precedent were reversed.
The survey provided some
ammunition for that claim, con-
firming the view that American
clergy are far more supportive of gay
ordination than their counterparts in
Canada and Israel.
Support for a more permissive
approach is also far more prevalent
among those who are less religiously
observant, who describe themselves
as "liberal" and who have friends or
family that are gay.
Among those who call themselves
theologically liberal, 91 percent support
gay ordinati on; among the theologically
conservative, 57 percent oppose it.
In one particularly striking
finding, 35 percent of the rabbis, can-
tors and JTS students surveyed
agreed that the liberal teshuvah was
"outside the pale of acceptability of
halachic reasoning," while only half
rejected the proposition.
Rabbi
Cantor
JTS rabbinic student
JTS cantor student
JTS other student
Educator, exec, other prof'l
Lay leader
Non-JTS students, USY, others
3 65%
67%
□ 58%
□ 58%
=i 70%
176%
□ 68%
=170%
0% 20% 40% 60% 80%
That survey qu estion was a nod to
Rabbi Joel Roth, who used similar
language in explaining his resigna-
tion from the law committee to
protest the liberal responsum.
Sixty-seven percent of Conserva-
tive clergy reported that they were
"somewhat embarrassed" by the
committee's decision.
The survey was conducted
entirely online, with 18,676 invita-
tions e-mailed to Conservative
rabbis, cantors, seminary students,
and lay and professional leadership;
4,861 responded. An additional 722
responded through a Web site.
Cohen said the survey's margin of
error was "n egligible" due to the high
percentage of respondents, though he
acknowledged that the survey repre-
sents the views only of the movement's
leadership, not its rank-and-file.
"The technology allowed us to
reach leaders, people who are already
on mailing lists," Cohen said. "We
were as inclusive as we could be."
{cCyuyuyleAj^.
The Board of Trustees, Faculty and Staff
of
Ann and Nate Levine Academy
WISH A HEARTY
YASHER KOACH
ro "ivy11
To our Head of School
FREDERICK NATHAN
on his receipt of an
Honorary Doctorate
from the
Jewish Theological Seminary
Jewish Educators Assembly
Fred,
for all you do for us and
for Jewish education
we salute you!!!
iving
caaemy
N SCHECHTER SCHOOL J
18011 Hillcrest Road, Dallas, TX 75252
972-248-3032 www.levineacademy.org
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Wisch, Rene. Texas Jewish Post (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 61, No. 6, Ed. 1 Thursday, February 8, 2007, newspaper, February 8, 2007; Fort Worth, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth188135/m1/3/: accessed May 8, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .