A rabbinic code of ethics adopted here last week by the Central Conference of American Rabbis spells out explicitly how Reform rabbis are expected to behave in their professional and personal lives.
The code, adopted at the Reform rabbinical group’s 102 annual convention here last week, is lengthier and more specific than one adopted in 1982, and it reflects some of the trends in American society that have arisen in the last decade.
The last code of ethics began by urging rabbis to avoid any semblance of commercialism when officiating at life cycle events and conversions.
While the new code mentions that issue, it begins by stressing the need to balance family demands with those of the congregation.
And a central focus of the new code is its admonition not to submit to the temptations of “yetzer ha-ra,” the evil inclination, “particularly in matters of sexuality and substance abuse.”
The new code states frankly that it is unethical to take “advantage of our position with those weaker than ourselves or dependent on us.”
The rabbis are also warned against “embezzlement, non-payment of just debts or other illegal monetary dealings.”
Most of the rabbis interviewed here last week agreed that a general code of ethics is a positive document for the Reform rabbinate to adopt.
“We need an objective standard,” said Rabbi Michael Eisenstat of Temple Judea in Coral Gables, Fla.
‘THINGS RABBIS ARE SUPPOSED TO KNOW’
But the specificity of the code has left many rabbis distressed about the image of the rabbinate it reflects.
“It’s demeaning,” said one rabbi. “These are things that rabbis are supposed to know.”
Another rabbi, who also spoke on the condition that he not be identified, said, “It doesn’t make us like very good if we need these kinds of things spelled out.”
But Rabbi Donald Rossoff of Temple B’nai Or in Morristown, N.L, likes the clarity of the new document. “It’s in good Jewish tradition that the intuitively obvious be made explicit, ” he said. “If we expect to apply any standards to the Jewish community at large, we must be able to apply standards to ourselves.”
Another rabbi who asked not to be identified said that the code is merely symbolic and “almost worthless,” because “it has no teeth. How are they going to enforce it?
There is no one policing us,” the rabbi said. “We know right from wrong, and if we’re going to do wrong, this won’t have much effect.”
The CCAR has an ethics and Appeals Committee, which makes a formal review of any allegations of rabbinic impropriety submitted to it in writing by congregates, temple employees, other rabbis or even people with other dealings with a Reform rabbi, like an associate from an outside business.
If found guilty of a breach of ethics, a rabbican be punished at any one of four levels: reprimand, censure, suspension or ultimately expulsion from the CCAR.
But only one rabbi has been expelled from the organization in recent years, said Rabbi Herbert Schaalman, chairman of the Ethics and Appeals Committee.
The rabbi was expelled for being unrepentant about not following the Reform movement’s placement system of matching rabbis with congregations. But he was readmitted to the organization just a year later.
‘NOT LOOKING TO JUDGE, BUT TO HELP’
Each year there are a handful of rabbis who commit more serious violations of morality, said Schaalman. But none of these rabbis has been expelled.
In cases where the rabbi has clearly transgressed, he will often leave his community and go to a new one, Schaalman said.
The committee is “not looking to judge, but to help the rabbi,” Schaalman explained.
“Some rabbis have left the rabbinate, and others have overcome difficulties in their past and gone on to be productive and responsible,” explained Rabbi Samuel Karff of Congregation Beth Israel in Houston, who just ended a two-year term as CCAR president.
The new ethics code “is not intended to be punitive,” he said. “We want to help a colleague renew his or her life, rather than destroy it.”
A desire to rehabilitate is not the only factor informing the ethics committee’s decisions, according to one rabbi at the convention. “None of us wants to judge the other,” he explained. “We try to protect each other.”
The need for a code of ethics stems from the fact that Reform rabbis, while committed to serve as positive role models for their congregates, are not bound by halacha, the Jewish legal standards which set limits for three Orthodox and Conservative colleagues.
Since the previous code of ethics did not venture into many of the areas that pose special challenges to rabbis, there were no universally accepted boundaries in the Reform rabbinate on some delicate, though important, areas of behavior.
The timing of the two-year process which led to the newly adopted code of ethics is no accident, said Karff.
PUBLIC CONCERN ABOUT PERSONAL MORALITY
Society as a whole “is much more concerned about the personal morality of those in public places,” said Karff, citing the current controversy surrounding the travel practices of White House Chief of Staff John Sununu and a series of past scandals involving Evangelical Christian preachers, such as Jim Bakker.
About 400 of the CCAR’s 1,500 members attended the group’s conference, which was held here June 24 to 28.
Sessions covered a wide range of topics such as social justice, interreligious affairs, Israel; feminism and rabbinic spirituality. But no single issue galvanized the rabbis as it did last year, when the viability of ordaining openly gay and lesbian rabbis was passionately debated.
Turnout at the individual sessions, even the one on the code of ethics, was light.
But in many respects, the stage was set for controversial and complicated issues that are likely to arise next year, when the agenda is to include discussion of ceremonies of sanctification for homosexual couples and the “reappropriation” of traditional rituals that had been shed by the Reform movement, such as the use of mikvahs.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
