Conservative Judaism's Rabbinical Assembly announced Monday that a key panel has "upheld the biblical injunction against homosexual behavior" - at least for now.
The Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, which sets policy on application of halakha (Jewish law), kept in place a 1992 ruling against both ordination of openly gay rabbis and commitment ceremonies for same-sex couples.
The statement said committee members are divided and that their "lively debate" will continue over coming months. The committee, which has discussed the gay issue for two years, met last week near Baltimore.
The committee acknowledged that "for a variety of reasons, the Jewish ideal of heterosexual marriage is unrealistic for many Jews." Panel members said they "emphatically recognize the human dignity" of such Jews and urged synagogues and schools to be "inclusive and welcoming of all Jews regardless of their marital status or sexual orientation." Similar language was part of the 1992 ruling.
The leading Conservative educator, Chancellor Ismar Schorsch of Jewish Theological Seminary, has warned that gay rabbis would be a major break from Jewish law. But Rector Elliott Dorff of the University of Judaism, the law committee's vice chairman, takes a liberal stance.
The law committee consists of 25 rabbis and six nonvoting members who are not rabbis. Its chairman is Rabbi Kassel Abelson of Beth El Synagogue in Minneapolis.