Conservative rabbis failed to reach agreement on a proposed resolution calling for a “timely draw-down” in American troops from Iraq. At a passionate debate during the annual Rabbinical Assembly convention in Cambridge, Mass., the rabbis could not agree on a measure that described the military effort in Iraq as a failure while reaffirming their support for the troops. The assembly will take up the issue in an online discussion. “It was a pretty divided house,” said Rabbi Joel Meyers, the assembly s executive vice president. The Iraq debate extended far beyond the allotted time and precluded the assembly from taking up a resolution, raised by petition, calling on Conservative rabbinical schools to accept gay and lesbian students. In a meeting Thursday morning, the assembly s executive committee effectively killed that resolution, saying it did not conform to the movement s principle of pluralism.
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