March 09, 2006
A panel that interprets religious law for Conservative Jews has postponed a vote on whether the movement should ordain gays and conduct union ceremonies for same-sex couples. After a two-day private meeting in Maryland, the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards said the proposals needed "extensive revisions" before any decision could be made. The committee plans to take up the issue again in December. The last major Conservative vote on the issue came in 1992, when the panel voted 19-3, with one abstention, that Jewish law barred openly gay students from enrolling in seminaries and prohibited rabbis from officiating at homosexual commitment ceremonies. Four new legal opinions have been presented to the committee. Two essentially oppose any policy change, one would overturn the ban, and another, which was presented as a compromise, contends that Jewish law explicitly bars only anal sex, but includes no such prohibition on gay relationships, ordination and unions. Among other branches of American Judaism, the Reconstructionist and Reform movements ordain gays and support civil marriages for homosexual couples, while the Orthodox oppose same-sex relationships.
