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Friday September 22, 2006

Beth Sholom resolution favors same-sex unions, gay rabbis

by joe eskenazi
staff writer

In a shot across the bow of the Conservative movement, San Francisco’s Congregation Beth Sholom this week unanimously passed a resolution calling for the ordination of gay and lesbian rabbis and sanctification of same-sex unions.

With the Rabbinical Assembly’s 25-rabbi Committee on Jewish Law and Standards slated to vote on the issues in December, Beth Sholom became one of the first — in what board members hope grows into a national movement — to pass such a resolution, following the lead of Beth Israel Congregation in Ann Arbor, Mich.

“My real wish is more and more synagogues, and perhaps not just in places like Ann Arbor and San Francisco, will join us in this movement seeking change,” said Bob Numerof, a Beth Sholom board member, organizer of the congregation’s gay and lesbian chavurah and driving force behind the resolution, which the board passed with close to 30 unopposed votes on Monday, Sept. 18.

“I think it’s important for the leadership of the Conservative movement to hear from their synagogues.”

And Numerof’s wish may already be coming true: One of the only other synagogues to pass a similar resolution so far in this fledgling movement hails from Aberdeen, S.D. — not exactly a blue state.

“This is the right thing to do,” said Beth Sholom board member Tracy Salkowitz in explaining her vote.

“We should be hammering the RA to take a leadership role. We want to be an inclusive community and we haven’t been.”

With Aberdeen safely off the checklist, Numerof now plans on making the rounds in his own backyard.

“One of the things I’d like to do is contact the other Conservative synagogues in the Bay Area. I want this to be not just a strong statement from Beth Sholom but all Conservative Judaism in the Bay Area,” he said.

Jay Weiner, executive director of the Northern California region of the United Synagogues of Conservative Judaism, was unsurprised by Beth Sholom’s move. “I think they’re jumping the gun on a fait accompli,” he said.

At the upcoming Law and Standards vote, only six of the 25 rabbis have to agree on the halachic validity of a teshuvah — a position paper on Jewish law, so to speak — for it to be admitted as an acceptable perspective within the Conservative movement’s philosophy. With several proposals on the table coming in with three or four authors, Weiner expects no trouble finding two or three additional votes.

The movement is willing to accept a 6-for-25 vote because “we believe halachah [Jewish law] is pluralistic,” Weiner said. “There are synagogues that are not egalitarian and of course the vast majority are based on the process we had several years ago” determining women’s place in Conservative Judaism.

Rabbi Jerome Epstein, the executive vice president of the UCSJ in New York, added that “it is absolutely important to the United Synagogue, as the congregational organization of the Conservative movement, to know the views of our congregants … The members of the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, however, have a responsibility to make their decisions based on their understanding of Jewish law and their interpretation of the sources as they apply to the issues.”

And while Weiner doesn’t think Beth Sholom’s resolution will alter voting patterns in December, he does understand the motivation for passing it.

“In the history of congregational life and the movement, the question is: Does the movement move the people or do people move the movement? And in reality, it’s a combination of both I’m sure,” he said.

“The key is, is there a way to understand the issue through halachah? That’s the real question.”

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