Israel's Conservative seminary says no to homosexual students*

By Amiram Barkat

Gay and lesbian students will not be admitted to Jerusalem's Schechter
Rabbinical Seminary, the rabbinical school of the Conservative (Masorti)
Movement in Israel, following a decision by the seminary's dean, Rabbi
Dr. Einat Ramon. In December, the world Conservative movement decided to
permit the ordination of homosexuals.

Ramon's announcement came a day after the movement's flagship
educational institution, New York's Jewish Theological Seminary, moved
to admit gay and lesbian rabbinical school applicants. In explaining her
decision, Ramon cited the "historic centrality of heterosexual unions to
Judaism." She said that Jewish law did and does unconditionally oppose
sexual relations between people of the same gender, and that Schechter
accepts only those students who are committed to an observant lifestyle.

"I am sorry that Rabbi Ramon, who as a feminist has enjoyed the option
afforded to women to become rabbis, has not continued the trend begun by
Jewish feminism," Rabbi David Lazar, rabbi of the Masorti (Conservative)
Congregation Tiferet Shalom in Tel Aviv, said in response. Lazar
supports the ordination of gay and lesbian rabbis and gay marriage. He
said Ramon does not realize that the institution of the family has
developed recently and that many homosexual couples give birth to children.