The Issue of Gay Marriage in the Jewish Community

On Wednesday December 6 something very historic happened in the Jewish movement. The Conservative branch of Judaism had been wrestling with the idea of having a gay rabbi. The Orthodox Movement had already ruled that it would not allow gay people to be gay rabbis. Meanwhile the Reform movement announced that it would allow for gay marriages and in the future might even accept gay marriages. The Orthodox community has repeatedly said that they would not allow for gay marriages. The Conservative movement found itself stuck in the middle and that is why its recent Jewish Theological Seminar of conservative rabbis and authorities was so important.

After much debating, the Jewish Theological Seminar finally made a decision. In the end, they finally made their decision but it was not a unanimous all encompassing decision. Only 8 people are required to vote for a law to be passed and the JTS seminar is made up of 25 rabbis. Thus there is sometimes alternating opinions and this was the case at this seminar. Three opinions came out.

The first opinion allowed for gay people to be rabbis without any strings attached. The second opinion and decision from the committee stated that a gay man can become a rabbi as long as he is not a practicing gay person and does not openly practice being gay not does he publicly endorse being gay or make speeches about being gay. The third and final opinion was that it was ok for gay people to be rabbis as long as they went for psychological counseling. This was the most radical of the opinions and was totally unexpected.

The JTS is led by a new chancellor, Arnold M. Eisen and his personal stance has been more openness in the Conservative Movement.

The JTS has been leaning towards more liberal views and many rabbis and scholars believe that the Conservative movement will be split apart. Rabbi Dorth who is a voting member of the JTS and voted against gays becoming rabbis threatened to leave the JTS. Many people do believe that the Conservative movement will become divided and that this ruling on gay rabbis will be the straw that breaks the camels' back. The ruling of allowing women to become rabbis was also met with skepticism but generally accepted in most conservative temples. However there has been a lot of disagreement in allowing gays to become rabbis.

The family is very important under Jewish law and custom and many people feel that a gay rabbi would not encourage the growth of the family and the sanctity of marriage. Jewish law also has the commandment of being fruitful and multiplying and that is not possible with a gay rabbi, according to some.

It will be interesting to see what happens within the Conservative Movement in the next couple of months. Already the Israeli Jewish Conservative body said that they would reject the Jewish Theological Seminar ruling which was held in New York.