Great news: last week, the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards — which sets policy for the Conservative branch of American Judaism — voted 13-0 to formally approve same-sex weddings. The panel approved two ceremony templates — one more traditional and one more contemporary — that can individual rabbis can customize depending on the needs of each couple. Guidelines for same-sex divorce were also passed.
According to a report by the Associated Press, Conservative Judaism is the second-largest Jewish movement in North America. Contrary to what its name may appear to suggest, Conservative Judaism sits in the middle of the spectrum between the progressive Reform and Reconstructionist branches — both of which already embrace same-sex relationships and solemnize same-sex marriages — and the much stricter Orthodox Jewish branch, which does not.
In 2006, the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards lifted Conservative Judaism’s ban on the ordination of gays and lesbians to the rabbinate.
Oy Vey they will say! But the rest of us think this is wonderful! This is great news, and wonderful for all those who follow this branch of Jewish practice.
God is good!
Mazeltov to all those happy same sex couples in Conservative Judaisim who will now be able to marry. This is wonderful news. Now I better go before I get all verklempt over the good news!
And this is why I left organized religion. People pick and choose the laws they want to follow set before them by their god.
What’s which law is next to go by the wayside for the Conservatives…eating bacon?
BTW – I am all for same sex weddings from a civil standpoint.
As a reform Jew and Republican committeman, I am pleased to learn of this recognition by conservative Jews. We are all God’s children.
I am all for legal equality. But I am not for people ignoring what Judaism is about in order to make up for civil inequality. Jewish marriage is set up to protect the Jewish woman, & to *physically* *produce* children (yes, if you cannot have children, every rabbi in the world will tell you to “get married anyway, a miracle could happen” – but that’s the point). NOTHING that two men or two women do together could ever violate the sanctity of a Jewish female, &, therefore, gays & lesbians do not need to be married as far as Judaism goes. Instead of wasting their efforts destroying Judaism, people should be concentrating on making the government give them the rights gays are being denied.
Susan, fortunately, learned Jews disagree with you. See, you don’t get to decide whether Conservative Judaism thinks that lesbians and gays need to be married. You talk about others making an effort to destroy Judaism, but the committee is comprised of Jews. They are the ones keeping the faith alive. You do more to destroy Judaism by trying to define it for everyone else.
Mazel tov!
Susan—this Conservative Jewish woman disagrees with you completely. Homophobia in the Conservative shul does nothing to protect me or any other Jewish woman, since many of us are LGBTQ-identified anyway. And even if we ourselves are not gay, lesbian, or transgender, homophobia and transphobia are a threat to every person alive. After all, you don’t have to be gay yourself to face homophobic bashing and violence.
Furthermore, can we just stop the bald-face lie that lesbian and gay people don’t have children? Practically every older lesbian/gay Jew I know has kids and/or grandkids.
Remember also that misogynist rabbinical leaders said the same thing about giving semichut (ordination) to women forty years ago. American Jews didn’t have a female rabbi in any denomination until 1973 when Sally Priesand was ordained as a Reform leader. Bringing women into the religious leadership took way too long, just as marriage and rabbinic equality for LGBTQ people has taken too long. But it’s here now, and we ain’t never going back.
I am proud to be Jewish and to know we are against inequality .
Fantastic news, but what was all the hubbub anyway? I am gay, and never have lain with a man as I would a woman…I’d never lay (with)a woman in the first place (bless their hearts), so I don’t violate the ban!
Without Federal Rights its all try nice but just symbolic and ceremonial. But its a gesture without rights.
@ susan
And if the couple do not WANT children should they still get married?
Fact is that the bible’s admonitions are really politically motivated and for the most part are a rebuttal of the practices of the various cultures that persecuted the Jewish Tribes.
The New Testament is the same thing.
In my experience modern Jews are taught to think and question. I can’t believe some still spew the same old crap. Unless of course it serves their purpose of validates their opinions.