Free Republic

The leading liberal Orthodox rabbinical school quietly ordained an out gay rabbi this summer, marking a first for an Orthodox Jewish institution in the U.S. Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, an all-male seminary in Riverdale, New York, ordained Rabbi Tadhg Cleary in a June 12 ceremony alongside three other graduates. Cleary’s ordination, or semicha, came six years after YCT’s controversial refusal to ordain a different gay student whose public wedding engagement went viral. The same rosh yeshiva (head of school) who made that decision, Rabbi Dov Linzer, gave final approval to Cleary’s admission into the program and conferred his ordination, the significance...

A flagship liberal Orthodox synagogue in New York will stop congratulating same-sex couples on their weddings following a complaint by the Orthodox Union. The Hebrew Institute of Riverdale in the Bronx will no longer announce the weddings of its LGBT members in its newsletters in accordance with a policy dictated by the OU, the largest association of Orthodox synagogues in the United States. The policy was set out this month in response to complaints from other member synagogues, which take a harder line on opposing same-sex marriage. Orthodox Jewish law, or halacha, prohibits same-sex marriage, and Orthodox rabbis are not...