I am delighted to share that the Conservative Movement’s Committee on Jewish Law and Standards has officially accepted a teshuvah (responsum), by Rabbi Gail Labovitz, that offers egalitarian alternatives to the traditional, non-egalitarian, marriage ceremony commonly in use. This new responsum offers two possible ceremonies. As the responsum acknowledges, one of them is based substantially on my own writing and teaching on this topic over many years.
I am grateful to Rabbi Labovitz for taking my work seriously and rescuing it from the neglect that it suffered. I pray that now many couples – gay and straight – will benefit in their search for a deeply Jewish wedding ceremony that is a more honest expression of their hopes and values.
Read the tshuvah – With Righteousness and With Justice, With Goodness and With Mercy: Options for an Egalitarian Marriage Witin Hallakhah by Gail Labovitz
Read the article by Rabbi Greenstein – Equality and Sanctity: Rethinking Jewish Marriage in Theory and in Ceremony.
image: “Chuppah” by Ped-X-Ing is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
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