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October 24, 2003/Tishri 28 5764, Vol. 56, No. 5
Conservatives to debate gay issues
JOE BERKOFSKY
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Homosexuality is officially out of the Conservative movement's closet.
The United Synagogue, the movement's congregational arm, is due to hold the movement's first officially sponsored forum on gays on Oct. 28, at its 2003 biennial in Dallas.
In recent years, the issue of where Judaism's centrist denomination stands on gay ordination and marriage has sparked intense debate in synagogues, movement gatherings and the halls of its academies, the Jewish Theo-logical Seminary in New York and University of Judaism in Los Angeles.
As the informal debate continues, the movement's Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, which decides issues of halacha, or Jewish law, has been gearing up to decide where the movement stands on homosexuality.
Earlier this year, the New York seminary hosted a daylong teach-in on the matter, fueled in part by calls for discussion from Keshet, a student group for gay rights.
In March, the Rabbinical Assembly held a well-attended workshop on gays and halacha at its annual convention in Los Angeles.
Now, at the movement's upcoming biennial, a panel on "Halachic Views on Homosexuality" will consider arguments for and against changing the movement's longtime adherence to Jewish law forbidding homosexuality.
Arguing to change the ban will be Rabbi Elliot Dorff, vice president of the law committee and a leading supporter of ordaining gay rabbis and allowing same-sex commitment ceremonies.
"There is a new probing of what the law says, based on how the community has changed over time," Dorff says.
Insisting on upholding the Jewish ban on homosexuality will be Rabbi Joel Roth, a leading law committee member who argued in 1992 that halacha should be maintained.
Roth says his stance "is not radically different than it was when I wrote my paper the last time the law committee discussed this issue. Neither the science nor the halacha has changed."
Back then, the law committee upheld the traditional Jewish ban on homosexuality - enume-rated in Leviticus 18:22 - but also echoed calls by the United Synagogue and Rabbinical Assembly to welcome gays and lesbians into synagogues, day schools and camps.
Dorff is due to replace the committee's current chair-man, Rabbi Kassel Abelson, who favors upholding ha-lacha, in 2004 or later - though Dorff and others say he will wait to assume the post until after the debate on homosexuality.
The law committee is scheduled to hold a retreat next March to discuss its next steps on the contentious issue. The panel typically studies interpretations of Jewish law, called teshuvot, by various rabbis on either side of an issue before voting. Dorff says the process should take another two years.
Thinking in the Con-servative movement has evolved since the last law committee ruling, says Dorff, a philosophy professor at the University of Judaism.
"Many Conservatives know gays or have gay relatives," he says, which sensitizes them to gay concerns.
And "the laws have changed" in the secular world as well, he adds: The Supreme Court struck down anti-sodomy laws, some states have allowed same-sex marriages and Canada has legalized homosexual unions.
Those against revising the Conservative movement's stance on the issue, like Roth, say it should take more than cultural and legal develop-ments to change the move-ment's position, which is based on the Bible.
"The Torah is pretty clear," Roth says. "The correct question is not what's the motivation for upholding the law, but what's the motivation for overturn- ing the law, since the uncontested halachic tradi-tion since time immemorial is that homosexuality is forbidden behavior."
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