JCRC Endorses Civil Rights for Gay Couples. Measure Sidesteps Marriage Question
JCRC Endorses Civil Rights for Gay Couples. Measure Sidesteps Marriage Question
by Eric Fingerhut
Staff Writer
For Lee Walzer of Arlington, the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington’s resolution endorsing civil equality for same-sex couples is an anniversary gift of sorts.
"As my partner and I ... celebrate the 10th anniversary of our kiddushin," religious commitment ceremony, "I’m happy the Jewish community is taking steps to ensure we’re treated equally before the law," Walzer said about the JCRC statement, which passed overwhelmingly earlier this month.
The resolution expresses support for "government action that provides civil status to committed same sex couples and their families equal to the civil status provided to the committed relationships of men and women and their families, with all associated legal rights and obligations, both federal and state."
It also expresses the JCRC’s opposition to any attempts to limit or deny legal benefits to same-sex couples and their families, and affirms the Jewish group’s opposition to discrimination against persons based on sexual orientation.
JCRC vice president Paul Greenberg said the resolution "sets out a framework" that the council can use to evaluate proposed legislation dealing with same-sex relationships.
For instance, Greenberg said the JCRC -- which represents more than 200 area Jewish organizations in the public policy arena -- would support legislation that passed the Maryland Senate last week allowing unmarried couples who are living together the right to make health and funeral decisions for each other.
A similar bill is expected to come before the House of Delegates before the end of the General Assembly session.
The Maryland Jewish Alliance, which represents the Washington and Baltimore Jewish communities in Annapolis, cannot lobby on the issue because Baltimore does not have a position on the matter, but the JCRC is free to advocate for the bill on its own.
Greenberg said copies of the resolution have gone out to all Washington-area legislators and government officials.
The council’s desire to stake out a position on this issue stems from the litany of local legislative efforts on same-sex relationships, particularly in Virginia.
JCRC immediate past president Sophie Hoffman noted that the commonwealth last year passed a law outlawing any kind of partnership contract between persons of the same sex -- a bill that Virginia’s Gov. Mark Warner (D) last May urged the JCRC to oppose.
"We really looked at this as discrimination, and we wanted to talk to the legislature about it" when visiting Richmond, she said.
While the JCRC resolution calls for gay and lesbian committed relationships to have legal status equal to that of married couples, it avoids the terms "marriage" or "civil unions" to describe such relationships.
"We want to be focused on legal status and not get wrapped up in terminology," said Greenberg, who headed the task force that wrote the resolution. The resolution avoids saying there is "one answer," but instead stakes out "broadly what our goals are," he said.
Avoiding such terms seemed to ensure a broad consensus on the council’s board -- the resolution passed by a 24-1 margin.
The term "marriage" was not totally avoided in the document, though. In a lengthy preamble to the resolution, the statement distinguishes between "religiously-sanctioned marriage" and "civil marriage."
The JCRC "strongly affirms the right of faith communities to prescribe their own standards for recognizing religious marriage," but states that "civil recognition of committed relationships is different from the sanctification of religious marriage."
For example, the resolution points out that many rabbis will not preside at an interfaith marriage, yet such relationships are routinely licensed by the government.
"An effort was made to be as sensitive as we could to the entire Jewish community," said JCRC vice president Susan Weinberg, who attends the Orthodox Young Israel Ezras Israel of Potomac and supported the resolution.
Weinberg, who noted she voted "in the best interests of the Jewish community," said the same-sex relationships issue is a difficult one for Orthodox Jews.
They want to "assure equal rights for all," she explained, but also do not want to "endorse the lifestyle."
Beverly Nissenbaum helped draft the resolution as the delegate to the council from the District-based gay and lesbian synagogue Bet Mishpachah. She sees the resolution as reflecting the Orthodox and Conservative communities, while also representing broad agreement on the legal status of same-sex relationships.
"If any one of us wrote this document, it would be very different, but because it represents the Jewish community, what you find is consensus," she said, adding that "it was a full democratic policy-making process."
While Walzer believes that gay and lesbian couples will never gain true equality with heterosexual married couples without "full civil marriage," the attorney was still pleased with the consensus produced by the JCRC resolution.
"The Jewish community as usual is far ahead of the general public in its commitment to social justice," he said.
This article appeared on March 31, 2005, in www.washingtonjewishweek.com