CCAR Disapproves of Members Officiating at Mixed Weddings

The Central Conference of American Rabbis, at its 84th annual convention here, adopted last night a resolution expressing strong disapproval of its members officiating at mixed marriage ceremonies. Nonetheless the Conference upheld its traditional position of acknowledging each Reform rabbi’s right to act according to his own interpretation of Jewish tradition.

The resolution was passed by a vote of 321-196 after a spirited 5-hour debate at the convention’s headquarters in the Sheraton-Biltmore Hotel.

The debate was based on a resolution presented to the Reform rabbinic body by its mixed marriage committee, a 10-member body headed by Rabbi Herman Schaalman of Chicago. The committee had made an intensive two-year study covering the various theological, sociological and psychological factors regarding the entire problem of mixed marriage.

The mixed-marriage committee had recommended that the CCAR suggest minimum standards that rabbis choosing to officiate at mixed marriage ceremonies should abide by. The suggested guidelines were defeated by a vote of 221-198.

A strong plea for the disapproval of Reform rabbis performing mixed marriages was made by Rabbi Roland Gittelsohn of Boston on behalf of eight CCAR past presidents. Rabbi Gittelsohn said there is a greater danger of disunity within the World Union for Progressive Judaism, the international body of the Reform movement, if the rabbis fall to take a stronger position than if they take “bold and vigorous action.” Nevertheless, the past president further expressed opposition to “any curb on the freedom of each colleague to act according to the dictates of his own conscience.”