Conservative Jews Mull Same-Sex Unions, Gay Rabbis

N.Y. Times:

In a closed-door meeting this week in an undisclosed site near Baltimore, a committee of Jewish legal experts who set policy for Conservative Judaism will consider whether to lift their movement’s ban on gay rabbis and same-sex unions.

Rabbi Elliot N. Dorff [pictured at right] has written a proposal that he says will “enable gays and lesbians to have a love life sanctioned by Jewish law.”

In 1992, this same group, the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, declared that Jewish law clearly prohibited commitment ceremonies for same-sex couples and the admission of openly gay people to rabbinical or cantorial schools. The vote was 19 to 3, with one abstention.

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Jacqueline Bohnert / The New York Times