Forward I am writing to urge you to reconsider the HUC-JIR requirement that
all prospective rabbinical students sign an agreement that “any student
engaged, married, or partnered/committed to a person who is not Jewish
by birth or conversion will not be admitted or ordained.”
It matters to me: I am a HUC-JIR rabbi, ordained in 1991 and
partnered with a non-Jew since 1984. In 1993 I founded a now thriving
congregation that has engaged hundreds of people in Jewish life. I have
worked toward conversion with dozens of candidates. The HUC-JIR
requirement might have prevented me from becoming a rabbi, as it will
future rabbis whose efforts would be as significant as mine.
My partner is a woman. I was an LGBT student at a time when this
status was not recognized at the college and there was no such required
agreement to sign. We were married under a chuppah on our 20th
anniversary, in 2004, and were legally married when we could do so in
New York State, in 2011. We have a grown daughter who celebrates the
Sabbath and holidays. In 1988, my partner began welcoming the Sabbath in
our home even when my student pulpit took me away. She attends services
in my congregation, reads Jewish texts with interest and annually
counts the Omer with me.
As far as I can tell, Purim is about 11 months away. The azus of using this rhetoric to make unacceptable behavior into the norm is absurd. The newspaper that publishes this, as if there were basis for legitimacy is proclaiming its own anti-Torah bias.
ReplyDeleteI believe it is time for this rag to be banned, or ignored by the frum community, whichever will work best to let it become obsolete.
First thought: Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!
ReplyDeleteSecond thought: How does such a person justify their own red lines? I mean, clearly pretty much all of halacha is irrelevant to Reform so how do they justify making a stand on this?
Third thought: nothing wrong with Purim Torah during the summer. After all, we already spend an entire year worrying about where the chometz is getting into...
I thought it was obvious - all they need to do is count Omer together in Hebrew.
DeleteAbsolute paradigm of Torah living.
ReplyDeleteutterly reprehensible. It's a shame to accredit it with a blog spot. There's a limit to how far we can stretch the ish in JEW-ISHHHHHHHHHHH without losing the Jew.
ReplyDeleteI think this report reached it
What! They got married without signing the RCA prenup agreement? If one of them walks out, the other one could easily be left an agunah! More proof that halacha is unfair to women!
ReplyDeleteIts time that the HUC-JIR started being more sensitive to women. But there's nothing to worry about. If one of them does leave, I'm confident ORA will rescue the agunah.
Rav Eidensohn,
ReplyDeleteWhy did you choose to post this on your blog? It appears that this is about as far from "Da`as Torah" (in any understanding of the expression) as one can get. If that was your point, so what? Put more respectfully, what, if anything, do you think can be done about it?
I think it's just a little comic relief.
DeleteJust a thought. Under Jewish law, a child's religion is determined through the maternal line . As the daughter has 2 mothers, one Jewish the other a gentile, is she Jewish or not?
ReplyDeleteAnd if the ovum comes from one of the mother's but the other one is a surrogate, then you can enjoy some real Halachic acrobatics!
Deletehttp://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4382643,00.html
ReplyDeleteObsession with modesty killing us
Op-ed: Haredi journalist says modesty epidemic serving as tool for exclusion, humiliation of women in her society
From one extreme to another...