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Report: Conservative Movement mulls ordaining gay, lesbian rabbis
Israel's Schechter Rabbinical Seminary to accept gay and lesbian students in the next academic year
The Conservative Movement in Israel is considering ordaining gay and lesbian rabbis, the Jewish Press reported.
According to the website, the Schechter Rabbinical Seminary in Jerusalem has decided to start accepting gay and lesbian students for ordination classes beginning in the next academic year.
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The Schechter Seminary is "affiliated with the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York and trains educational and spiritual, non-Orthodox leaders for positions in Israel," the report said.
"The Schechter Rabbinical Seminary views the serious process leading to this decision as an example of confronting social dilemmas within the framework of tradition and halachah," Hanan Alexander, chair of the seminary’s Board of Trustees, was quoted as saying in a statement.
"This decision highlights the institution’s commitment to uphold Halacha in a pluralist and changing world."
The students ordained by the seminary are certified by a rabbinical court, whose members are also members of the Rabbinical Assembly of the Conservative Movement.
"This unique mechanism is an expression of halachic pluralism, one of the founding principles of SRS," the seminary said in its statement.
"The Seminary is a religious institution of the Conservative Movement, bound by Halacha, whose inclusive approach allows for a variety of halachic opinions," the statement said.
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