http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/...inary-Gays.php
Conservative NYC Jewish seminary decides to accept gay students
The Associated PressPublished: March 27, 2007
NEW YORK: A conservative Jewish seminary announced that it had decided to accept gay and lesbian students into its rabbinical and cantorial schools, a move that could be as controversial as the decision to admit women to study to become rabbis 25 years ago.
The Jewish Theological Seminary in Manhattan made the decision after three months of debating the issue, the school announced Monday in a statement on its Web site.
"Convictions and feelings are strong on both sides," wrote Chancellor-elect Arnold M. Eisen in a letter to the seminary community posted on its Web site. "Some will cheer this decision as justice long overdue. Others will condemn it as a departure from Jewish law and age-old Jewish custom."
Rabbi Joel Roth of the Jewish Theological Seminary told WABC-TV that Jewish law forbids homosexual acts. "To have rabbis who reflect something that Jewish law forbids is almost an oxymoron," Roth told the TV station. "And it is on those grounds that I oppose the ordination of gay rabbis."
But seminary students told WABC-TV that they were in support of the decision. "Jewish law has never stood still," said Elizabeth Richman. "And we know from looking at our history that even things that it says in the Bible, Jewish tradition has changed according to its own legal traditions. We're confident that the conservative movement has found a way according to Jewish tradition to make changes."
The decision was effective immediately, the seminary announced.
Founded in 1886, the Jewish Theological Seminary is a major school for the teaching of rabbis in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan.
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