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February 27, 2004/Adar 5 5764, Vol. 56, No. 23
Jews split on banning gay marriage
MATTHEW E. BERGER
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
BOSTON - If President Bush hoped to galvanize American conservatives with his proposed con-stitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, it has had the reverse effect among Jews.
Jewish liberals are raring for a fight, while the more conservative streams are less than enthusiastic.
David Luchins, a longtime vice president of the Orthodox Union, said he believed his organization would support the amend-ment but would not be among its most vocal backers.
"This is not a battle, this is not a fight we're looking forward to or we're enjoying," Luchins said at the Jewish Council for Public Affairs plenum in Boston, where organi-zational officials coin-cidentally were debating the issue Feb. 24 at the very hour of Bush's announce-ment.
"If we are to prevent the meaning of marriage from being changed forever, our nation must enact a constitutional amendment to protect marriage in America," Bush said on Feb. 24, throwing down the gauntlet to Congress and the states to push the issue forward.
Liberal groups were outraged at what they say is an encroachment on a document many consider sacrosanct - the U.S. Constitution.
"It raises the issue of tampering with the Con-stitution, and that is of significant concern to this community," said David Saperstein, the executive director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism.
Luchins faced tough questions from the crowd in the conference room at the gathering of the umbrella group for local community relations councils and national organizations. In the audience were gay-rights supporters and students attending the Hillel Forum on Public Policy, which took place simultaneously with the JCPA forum.
Luchins said he believed the Orthodox community should do its best not to be "dragged into the pits of gay bashing and demor-alization" in a national debate on the marriage amendment.
"I will do everything in my power to make it crystal clear that the Torah teaches that every human being is important," Luchins said.
The Orthodox Union and Agudath Israel of America are not expected to formally join the Alliance for Marriage, a broad coalition of groups supporting the amendment, because some members of the board of advisers are linked to anti-Israel and anti-Semitic organizations.
Abba Cohen, Washington director and counsel of Agudath Israel of America, which represents fervently Orthodox Jews, said his organization has supported the amendment for several years. He applauded Bush's announcement.
The Orthodox Union is expected to formally decide to back the amendment within the next few weeks.
Nathan Diament, director of the O.U.'s Institute for Public Affairs, said the Orthodox had never sought a battle that divides more than it unites.
"We feel this has been forced upon us by the gay-rights activists, and they are the ones bringing litigation and forcing this issue upon the American people," said Diament.
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