Behind the Headlines: Conservative Jewry is Grappling with Status of Gays in Movement

As the leadership of Conservative Jewry struggles to define the status of gays and lesbians in the movement, one thing is clear: There is no broad consensus on what that position should be.

The movement has few formal policies on homosexuality, relying heavily on the tradition of deferring to local rabbinic authority.

But Conservative rabbis have long understood that they are expected to adhere to traditional interpretations of halacha, which views homosexuality as abhorrent.

Several rabbis who have attempted to deviate from this interpretation have been deterred by strong institutional and social pressure.

In recent years, though, the movement has begun to grapple with the reality that tens of thousands of Conservative Jews are gay.

Two years ago, the movement’s Rabbinical Assembly adopted a statement affirming “full civil equality” for gays and lesbians, deploring violence against them and welcoming them as members of Conservative congregations. But it also affirmed “our tradition’s prescription for heterosexuality.”

That stance was welcomed as a step in the right direction by gay and lesbian Jews, who had long felt the movement had turned its back on them. For years, these Jews, finding their needs unanswered by the religious establishment, had created their own synagogues and rituals.

But times have changed. Gay and lesbian Jews now want to be part of the Conservative movement without having to hide their homosexuality. They are asking for more than tolerance–they are demanding acceptance.

‘THE FAMILY IS UNDER ATTACK’

And while it seems unlikely that the status quo will change dramatically in the near future, quiet support for the gay cause has been growing among Conservative rabbis and at the Jewish Theological Seminary.

At a recent meeting of the Rabbinical Assembly’s Committee on Jewish Laws and Standards, more than a dozen rabbis and students, gay and straight, proudly wore small Magen David pins as they listened to the panel discuss what status homosexuals should have in the movement.

One triangle of the Jewish star was pink, a gay rights symbol modeled after the badges homosexuals had to wear in the concentration camps.

Some rabbinical authorities in the Conservative movement maintain there is no way to reconcile homosexual behavior and halacha.

According to Rabbi Joel Roth, who is in three influential positions as chairman of the law committee, professor of Talmud at the seminary and incoming dean of its rabbinical school starting in July, homosexuality is immutably “toevah,” or an abomination.

He advocates celibacy as the only acceptable sexual behavior for gays and lesbians who do not want to breach halacha.

Rabbi Sam Fraint of Moriah Congregation in Deerfield, I11., and a member of the law committee, says that to confer legitimacy upon homosexuality as a lifestyle co-equal to heterosexuality would be to destroy Judaism’s very foundation.

“Judaism is not carried through the synagogue or rabbi or school, but through the family,” he said in an interview. “The family is under attack, and Judaism depends for its very survival on the health and vigor of the family.”

Representatives of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, the movement’s congregational arm, said that most of its membership agrees with the traditional view.

According to Rabbi Jerome Epstein, United Synagogue’s executive vice president and a member of the R.A. law committee, congregants “want to be very sensitive to homosexuality and not be discriminatory. On the other hand, Jewish life has certain guidelines that should be applied.”

NEED FOR ‘MORE LISTENING AND LEARNING’

Some on the 30-member law committee, which is likely to soon vote on a policy guideline, believe the movement should defer a decision until it can study the issue more thoroughly.

Rabbis Gordon Tucker, currently dean of the seminary’s rabbinical school, and Elliot Dorff, provost of the movement’s West Coast affiliate, the University of Judaism, say the panel should take an exhaustive look at attitudes within the movement and at current scientific theory about homosexuality before it takes action.

“We should do a lot more listening and learning. We don’t have the kind of wisdom we need to chart out a definitive position for the years ahead,” said Tucker.

Shana Gerber, co-founder of the Incognito Club at the seminary, a support and social activity group for gay and lesbian students, agrees that the rabbis would benefit from further study.

“They would be surprised by the results of a survey of the community that they think they know so well,” she said. “And they’re going to make all these decisions when they don’t know who we are. Talk to us,” she urged.

At least two students have left rabbinical school in the last two years over the issue of their homosexuality, she said. The pressure to conform to heterosexual norms is so great that gay and lesbian students at the seminary date members of the opposite sex so they will fit in.

‘JUST A MATTER OF TIME’

“David” spent many years as a Jewish educator and Conservative Hebrew school principal but now works in theater. He never hid his homosexuality from students or their parents and encountered “only love and respect,” he said.

“David” said that leaders of Conservative Jewry are afraid of accepting openly gay people in influential positions, because they believe in “the two myths: that a gay or lesbian teacher will influence students to become gay or lesbian,” and that gays molest children.

“It would be great if the Conservative movement accepted homosexuality and did a great deal to foster tolerance,” he said. “Right now it fosters homophobia,” or prejudice against gays and lesbians.

No matter what the outcome of the law committee’s current discussion, the era has arrived when gays and lesbians will no longer be “closeted” by Conservative Judaism, says Bernard Raskas, rabbi emeritus of Temple of Aaron Congregation in St. Paul, Minn.

“There’s no question that it’s just a matter of time” before Conservative Jewry accepts gay and lesbian Jews fully, “because our understanding of human nature has become greater and more compassionate,” he said. “In time, homosexuals will be ordained.”