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Stances of Faiths on LGBT Issues: Judaism

The four major movements within Judaism take starkly different positions regarding the spiritual rights of gay and lesbian Jews.      

Orthodox Judaism
Members of the Orthodox Jewish community, which with 900,000 members is the most traditional branch of Judaism, welcome all Jews as members but view gay sexual behavior as an “abomination.” It is silent on transgender issues.

Synagogues do not excommunicate members for sexual attraction toward someone of the same sex. However, a person who felt such attraction would be considered in need of religious guidance.

The Orthodox movement defines marriage as a sacred institution between a man and a woman. On the other hand, it does not endorse the Federal Marriage Amendment, which would write discrimination against same-sex couples into the U.S. Constitution, although some individual Orthodox rabbis have come out in support of it.

The movement would not ordain an openly gay person who was in a sexual relationship. But one ordained rabbi, Steve Greenberg, came out as gay in 1999. Greenberg, who said he is proof that one can be both Orthodox and gay, published a book in February 2004, Wrestling with God & Men: Homosexuality in the Jewish Tradition.

“I would find it as difficult to abandon the pieces of myself that are committed to the tradition as I would to abandon the pieces of myself that are, and always have been, attracted to men,” he told The Boston Globe. “I would be as self-contorting to call myself a Conservative or Reform Jew as I would to call myself a straight person.”

Conservative Judaism
Regards gay relationships as against Jewish law. This movement, with 1.4 million members, forbids its clergy to officiate at weddings for same-sex couples or to ordain openly gay or lesbian rabbis. It is officially silent on transgender and bisexual people except with regard to employment.

However, gay and lesbian people are welcome “in our congregations, youth groups, camps and schools,” according to a 1992 policy statement from the Rabbinical Assembly's Committee on Jewish Law and Standards entitled the CJLS Consensus Statement of Policy Regarding Homosexual Jews in the Conservative Movement.


The Rabbinical Assembly’s Committee on Jewish Law and Standards ruled in 1992 that Conservative rabbis could not officiate at same-sex union ceremonies. While it is unusual for congregations to defy rulings by the committee, rabbis are allowed to rule case by case, and in September 2003, the Beth El Congregation of Baltimore voted to allow its rabbi to perform same-sex unions under Jewish ritual. The vote marked the first official instance of a board of directors at a Conservative synagogue allowing their rabbi to perform same-sex unions. Observers suggest, however, that many more rabbis quietly perform these rituals nationwide.

The Conservative movement fails to prohibit discrimination against GLBT people. The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, which includes about 800 Conservative congregations nationwide, maintains that each synagogue has the right to refuse employment to GLBT people seeking positions in which they may be regarded as role models.

Some members of the Conservative Judaism movement have argued that the ban against openly gay rabbis is unjust. In 1990, the Rabbinical Assembly adopted a resolution supporting full civil equality for gay and lesbian people. And in 1999, reform-minded rabbis pointed to that resolution as they sought, unsuccessfully, to change the assembly's position on gay clergy.

Reform Judaism
The Reform movement, the largest Jewish movement in the United States with 1.7 million members, welcomes LGBT people as members and clergy. The Central Conference of American Rabbis passed a resolution in 1977 that changed the movement’s official interpretation of Jewish law, making gay sex no longer a violation. The same year, the CCAR called for an end to discrimination of gays and lesbians.

In 1990, the CCAR made it illegal for the movement’s rabbinical schools to discriminate based on sexual orientation in admissions decisions. A resolution proposed by the Ad Hoc Committee on Homosexuality and the Rabbinate and adopted that year by the Central Conference of American Rabbis stated: “All Jews are religiously equal regardless of their sexual orientation.”

Reform rabbis are allowed to officiate at same-sex unions “through appropriate Jewish ritual,” according to a resolution passed in 2000, entitled the Resolution on Same Gender Officiation. It states: “We do hereby resolve, that the relationship of a Jewish, same-gender couple is worthy of affirmation through appropriate Jewish ritual.”

The movement does not consider same-sex unions to be marriages under Jewish law, but rabbis may choose to officiate at religious same-sex union ceremonies. The practice, however, remains controversial. “[W]e recognize the diversity of opinions within our ranks on this issue,” the 2000 resolution stated. “We support the decision of those who choose to officiate at rituals of union for same-gender couples, and we support the decision of those who do not.”

In 2003, representatives of the Union for Reform Judaism co-signed a statement opposing the anti-gay Federal Marriage Amendment along with officials from other religious groups, including the Anti-Defamation League, the United Church of Christ and the Unitarian Universalist Association.

Hebrew Union College, the Reform movement’s premier seminary in Cincinnati, admitted its first transgender student, Reuben Zellman, to its rabbinical program in 2003. Zellman informed the college of his gender identity before applying and was informed that he would be considered for admission based solely on his academic record, like every other applicant.

Reconstructionist Judaism
Reconstructionist Judaism, the smallest of the four major movements with 130,000 members, fully supports gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people, welcoming them as members and as clergy.

It forbids employment discrimination based on sexual orientation. Reconstructionist rabbis have been given permission to perform same-sex wedding ceremonies following traditional Jewish rituals since 1993.

Officially, the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association has left the issue of performing same-sex union ceremonies up to individual rabbis.
Reconstructionist religious schools also offer workshops designed to educate students about same-sex parents and their children.

Resources for LGBT Jews