Free Republic

Israel's Masorti (Conservative) Movement decided to approve the ordination of homosexual rabbis, in a dramatic vote on Thursday. The Schechter Rabbinical Seminary, affiliated with the movement, will admit gay and lesbian students for training as spiritual leaders as of the upcoming school year. In doing so the Israeli Conservative Movement is joining the American branch of the movement, whose rabbinical seminaries have been admitting gay students for some years. The question whether or not to ordain gay and lesbian rabbis has been rattling the Conservative Movement in Israel and the U.S. for the past decade. Unlike the Reform movement that...

May. 29, 2003 Jerusalem Masorti synagogue vandalized again By ARYEH DEAN COHEN Kehilat Ya'ar Ramot, the Masorti synagogue in Jerusalem's Ramot Bet, was vandalized on Thursday, the words "Bet Knesset me'urav l'erev rav" (a mixed synagogue for the rabble) drawn on the synagogue's glass-encased bulletin board and on an adjoining wall, along with a hand making an obscene gesture. The "erev rav" was the "mixed multitude" of non-Jews who according to the Bible left Egypt with the Israelites. The synagogue has been vandalized in the past, with the sanctuary suffering fire and smoke damage after an arson attack three years...