Rabbi Cosgrove writes that “Conservative rabbis should not jump to officiate intermarriages because doing so is against Jewish law “,(“To Officiate Or Not At Intermarriages,” Opinion, March 17). He continues: “Not every choice Jews make deserves to be validated by Jewish law.”
Yet, the Conservative movement now sanctions same-sex marriages. Why/how is one more “prohibited” than the other? At least in an interfaith, heterosexual relationship, there is the possibility that the non-Jew will convert and a kiddushin may take place.
(And please do not respond by calling me “homophobic.”)
If the answer is that the Conservative movement’s Committee on Law and Standards has legitimately validated same-sex marriages, one may ask: Why not interfaith marriages, and won’t it just be a matter of time?
Indeed, if the Conservative movement’s decisions on issues of personal status are now dictated by not wanting to hurt a person’s feelings, it’s time to declare itself a movement “influenced by” but not “committed to” halacha, as the Reform movement does.
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