Marriage Equality and Passover: "From Degradation to Praise"
This Passover, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) will hear two cases that have enormous impact on equality and liberty in our country. On the first two days of Pesach, oral arguments in California's Prop 8 case and the Defense of Marriage Act case will be heard.
Let My People Go... Forth to the Wedding Chapel!
As a rabbi and president-elect of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, I come here to be with you this morning at the Supreme Court on the very first day of Passover to say: Our nation is ready for marriage equality. This is one of the holiest days of the Jewish calendar. It marks the day in Jewish tradition when we mark the Exodus from slavery in ancient Egypt; it marks the beginning of a journey to freedom. Today is our day to march toward that freedom, the freedom to marry. I represent more than 2,500 Reform rabbis. We support marriage equality and have filed Friends of the Court briefs in both today's Prop 8 case and tomorrow's DOMA case. Do not let others tell you that all religions oppose LGBT equality rights. We Reform Jews welcome, support, include, and, yes, advocate full rights and equality, including the right to marry the ones we love.
Faith and LGBT Equality in the News
In recent months, LGBT equality has come to the fore in a number of denominations.
Gay Pride: Not Always a Cinch
The cake from Temple Beth El's Gay Pride Shabbat, held last month. Photo taken by Temple Beth El member Barbara Herman.
The author, John Hirsch (left), and Herb Leiman before their wedding at Temple Beth-El of Great Neck, Great Neck, NY, 2012.
Union for Reform Judaism’s Highest Award Winners Include Interfaith Trailblazers, Diplomatic and Advocacy Leaders for Israel, and the First Woman Ordained as a Cantor
November 6, 2019, New York, NY – Preeminent Jewish and interfaith global leaders will receive Reform Judaism’s highest honors at the 75th URJ Biennial in Chicago, Illinois, in December 2019.
Breaking the Glass
It’s wedding season and we are booked. Our weekends are filled witnessing couples walking down the aisle and standing together under the Chuppah.
Reform Wedding at the Knesset Pt. 2
Today there was a Reform wedding outside the Knesset. Lin and her new husband exchanged vows in a ceremony officiated by Rabbi Gilad Kariv and Rabbi Kinneret Shiryon. Friends, family, members of the Israeli Reform Movement and its youth group, rabbinical students, and five members of the Knesset (known as MKs) attended the wedding.
HHS Announces Dangerous Moves to Strip Away Key Civil Rights Protections in Health Care and Social Services
Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) took two alarming steps to permit taxpayer-funded discrimination in our health care and social service systems.