Saddened By Decision
By Rabbi Howard Morrison
Beth Emeth Bais Yehuda Synagogue Toronto
While I sympathize with the decision made today by The Jewish Theological Seminary, I am also very saddened by it on many levels. (“Opening The Closet Doors,” March 30)
Given that the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards recently issued multiple rulings on the subject, halachic pluralism would have been best served had the University of Judaism adopted the Rabbis Dorff-Nevins-Reisner teshuva (religious responsum) and JTS adopted the teshuvot of Rabbis Roth and Levy.
Why? Both schools would have shown kavod (respect) to their own respective scholars given that one of the co-authors of the DNR teshuva has given his career to the University of Judaism, whereas the two other authors have given their careers to the Jewish Theological Seminary.
Did the culture change so fast from 1992 to 2007 that JTS dismissed all of the many and still-recorded teshuvot of 1992 and also dismissed two of the three recorded teshuvot of this past year? As a 1980’s graduate of the JTS rabbinical school who has served exclusively in non-egalitarian traditional synagogues, all affiliated with the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, I also lament the demise of genuine pluralism.
The era of egalitarianism did not guarantee a meaningful place of movement leadership for those who disagreed halachically and ideologically. Such traditionalists have been tolerated at best as a small but insignificant part of the Conservative movement since the 1980s.
Undoubtedly, the trend will continue.
The Jewish Week