R.A. Decision on Gay Synagogues Gets Mixed Reaction from Other Movements

The Rabbinical Assembly’s recent decision to allow Conservative rabbis to work at gay and lesbian congregations has prompted strong reaction from the other branches of American Judaism.

The response is, predictably, split along ideological lines between the movements to the right and the left of Conservative Jewry.

Rabbi Pinchas Stolper, executive vice president of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, was unequivocal:

“The new Conservative position represents a capitulation to immorality,” he said in a statement issued this week. “It institutionalizes and legitimizes repugnant moral standards.

“It is shocking that a religious movement which claims to speak on behalf of Jewish tradition is rushing down the slippery slope in the abandonment of Jewish law and in embracing that which is repugnant and ugly in the eyes of the Lord,” he added.

Rabbi Ronald Price, executive vice president of the Union for Traditional Judaism, which began as a breakaway group of right-wing Conservative rabbis after the movement decided to ordain women, said that allowing rabbis to serve gay and lesbian congregations implies halachic acceptance of sexual behavior that is barred by traditional interpretations of Jewish law.

There is “a tension between the desire to serve the community and that which the Torah says very clearly is not permitted,” he acknowledged.

But he complained that “secular egalitarianism has become a religious mandate” for the Conservative movement, “so it cannot be limited only to the relationship between men and women, but has to apply to all lifestyles that people choose to live.”

He said the decision on gay and lesbian synagogues was therefore inevitable and in keeping with the direction in which Conservative Jewry is moving.

‘TINY STEP IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION’

The largest liberal Jewish movements, the Reform and Reconstructionists, applauded the Rabbinical Assembly decision.

It’s “a tiny step in the right direction, which is equal justice regardless of gender or sexual orientation,” said Rabbi Albert Vorspan, national director of social action and senior vice president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, the Reform movement’s congregational arm.

“Equal acceptance of all Jews, period, is coming inevitably in most of American Jewish life,” he said.

Rabbi Mordechai Liebling, executive director of the Federation of Reconstructionist Congregations and Havurot, congratulated Conservative rabbis on their decision.

“I hope that this is a precursor to full and complete acceptance of gay and lesbian Jews at all levels of Conservative Jewry,” he said.

Rabbinical Assembly President Rabbi Gerald Zelizer was not surprised by any of the other movements’ reactions, which he found predictable.

“This decision is a direct application of our classic position of tradition and change, a position not shared by any of our critics,” he said.