Last week marked a historic moment for our country, with the Supreme Court’s decision to repeal DOMA. In recent decades, the American Jewish community has wrestled with the issue of welcoming and including our GLBT brothers and sisters into our midst as full and equal members of the Jewish community. Jewish law and tradition has historically evolved, changed, and been influenced by science and society, while simultaneously striving to hold onto Jewish traditions, values, laws, and beliefs. The acknowledgement, acceptance, and celebration of this tension is one of the hallmarks of Conservative Judaism.
With all of this in mind, I am proud to say that in recent years the more liberal streams of Judaism, including the Conservative Movement, have evolved quite significantly when it comes to validating and honoring our GLBT brothers and sisters as human beings who, like all of us, are made betzelem elohim, in God’s image, and who deserve to be treated accordingly. As a religion that celebrates the dignity and worth of all human beings and promotes justice and equality for all, we can be proud of this historic time.
I encourage everyone to take a moment to think about ways we, the Torat El community, can be more proactively inclusive of LGBT Jews in our greater community.
Below are some Jewish perspectives on the repeal of DOMA as well as some other related literature:
1) The RabbinicalAssembly celebrates Supreme Court’s Rulings on Gay Marriage:
2) Lynn Schusterman- DOMA Victory: A Huge LeapForward Even As Much Work Remains
3) Undoing DOMA- Rabbi Martin Cohen
4) Rituals and Documents of Marriage forSame-Sex Couples– Rabbis Elliot Dorff, Daniel Nevins and Avram Reisner (A Legal Responsa from our movement)
5) An interesting modern Orthodox perspective from Rabbi Hyim Shafner (who was Hillel rabbi when I was a student at Washington University) who leads a congregation in St. Louis.