Talk:Conservative Judaism and sexual orientation

Scope, name and origin
This article began for two reasons. First, as a necessary spin-out from Conservative Halakha, due to its length. Second, to allow some spin-out of the growing material in Homosexuality and Judaism.

Thus, much credit should be extended to the editors who wrote the original material.

The name is consistent with a series of articles on Homosexuality and religion. The scope follows naturally from this series of articles. In other words, this article need not focus only on Conservative halakhah, it can also examine the social history, culture, etcetera of LGBT issues in Conservative Judaism.

Assistance with categories, wikify, edit histories, etc would be appreciated. Thanks. HG | Talk 16:50, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

LGBT project
I've just rated this a "Start", though it could probably be "B". There are waay too many quotations in the article, though. Just a thought :) -- SatyrTN (talk | contribs) 17:35, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Homosexual Relationships - A Halakhic Investigation
Having read the paper Homosexual Relationships - A Halakhic Investigation, I feel it to be relevant to the article, yet do not have the specialist knowledge of the topic to cite it in a correct position. Perhaps a more skilled editor could consider it for inclusion?

This paper played a substantial background role in the decision to ordain gay rabbis in the Masorti movement. Fiddle Faddle (talk) 11:56, 14 November 2009 (UTC)

Joel Roth opposed homosexuality, but his objections are problematic because
The only leading rabbi in the Conservative Movement's CJLS to "oppose" homosexuality was Rabbi Joel Roth. But he apparently had a history of sexually harassing male rabbinical students and candidates. This article, as it currently is written, does not parallel the way that other Wikipedia articles deal with similar scandals from Christian clergy.

Here are two articles:

April 5, 1993 - JTA
Rabbi Joel Roth, dean of the Jewish Theological Seminary’s rabbinical school, has resigned in the wake of a scandal that has derailed the career of the Conservative movement’s most prominent interpreter of Jewish law and tradition. Roth resigned from the position March 29, several days after allegedly making a sexually explicit statement to a student at the seminary’s West Coast affiliate, the Los Angeles-based University of Judaism. Roth was one of six members of a committee interviewing a candidate for admission to the rabbinical school. According to an eyewitness, he made sexually suggestive remarks to the male student, leaving the other committee members stunned and angry. “He said inappropriate things to the student,” said Rabbi Eliot Dorff, the university provost and a member of the committee conducting the interview. Roth has “some deep-seated problems for which he needs help,” Dorff said. Roth did not return phone calls, and a family member, reached at home, said he was unavailable for comment. But Rabbi Ismar Schorsch, the seminary’s chancellor, said Roth resigned last week “because he felt he was becoming increasingly ineffective in his post as dean and was concerned it would impair the school, as well as the seminary.” The incident is significant in part because Roth has been a leading opponent of the Conservative movement taking a more liberalized approach on matters of sexuality. He recently led a campaign in the movement’s Committee on Jewish Law and Standards to prohibit the ordination of gay and lesbian rabbis. It is also not the first time Roth has been accused of sexual impropriety. In fact, the Los Angeles incident occurred after a month in which Roth was surrounded by a storm of controversy over a much earlier incident in which he allegedly harassed a student sexually. That incident, which allegedly occurred nine years ago, was brought to the attention of everyone at JTS through an unsigned letter distributed at the seminary four weeks ago. 1984 INCIDENT RESURFACES The anonymous letter, which many believe was written by a rabbinical student, charged that Roth had sexually harassed a student in 1984 and that the JTS administration had not publicly admitted or dealt with what had transpired. Roth served as dean of the seminary’s rabbinical school for several years until 1984, when he stepped down. According to several seminary graduates, Roth’s 1984 resignation was part of a settlement to avert a threatened lawsuit from the family of the alleged sexual harassment victim. Roth, who is married, also promised at the time to seek counseling according to these accounts. In 1984, all rabbinical students were male. Seminary officials confirm that something inappropriate transpired between Roth and a student nine years ago, but they refuse to confirm or deny that it was of a sexual nature. After resigning in 1984, Roth continued to teach at the seminary and later served as chairman of the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards. Rabbi Gordon Tucker succeeded him as head of the rabbinical school and occupied the position from 1984 until the summer of 1992, when he left on a two-year sabbatical. Roth resumed as dean of the rabbinical school at the beginning of the current academic year. According to Schorsch, he will continue as a seminary faculty member, where he is a widely respected professor of Talmud and rabbinics. In the course of several meetings of the law committee devoted to discussion of homosexuality in late 1991 and early 1992, Roth presented two responsa that some supporters of gay and lesbian rights said were based on outmoded scientific sources and homophobic reasoning. And while some said that the way Roth framed his views created a climate of rejection of gay and lesbian Jews at the seminary, the anonymous letter circulated in March is widely believed to have been written by a heterosexual woman student. COMMUNITY TROUBLED BY CONTROVERSY: The seminary community has been ripped apart by the controversy surrounding Roth. Both those who support Roth and those who feel that the seminary has mishandled the incident are concerned about the destructiveness of lashon harah, or gossip, and about what some have described as the administration’s insensitivity to the sexual harassment of students. Schorsch defended Roth after the anonymous letter was circulated and, in an interview with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency after Roth resigned, portrayed the former dean as the victim of the letter writer. “The anonymous letter placed him under the searchlight and made it difficult for him to conduct the affairs of the rabbinical school normally and naturally,” said Schorsch. A rabbinical student at the seminary criticized the chancellor for backing Roth. “Schorsch is out on a limb,” the fourth-year student said. “He really undermines his support among the students.” The student, who requested anonymity for fear that he would be punished by the administration for speaking out, said that even before the anonymous letter was circulated many rabbinical students knew of the earlier alleged incident of harassment. The administration’s reluctance to deal head on with the questions about Roth’s conduct have caused students great pain, the student said. “Many students, as individuals, both before and after the letter, asked the administration to deal with this pastorally, to work this out in a communal way, so we would feel less isolated. It still hasn’t happened and never will,” he said. When asked if there were any special programs slated in which the students’ concerns would be addressed, Schorsch said, “We have counseling staff available and a very active student life office.” http://www.jta.org/1993/04/05/archive/dean-of-jts-rabbinical-school-resigns-after-making-sexual-remark-to-student

Rabbi Joel Roth Allegedly Helped Cover Up Inappropriate Sexual Relationship At Jewish Day School
Rabbi Joel Roth is a former dean of the Jewish Theological Seminary, the Conservative Movement's flagship institution, He was forced to resign that position 20 years ago, allegedly after sexually harassing a male student at the Conservative Movement's West Coast seminary in Los Angeles. Roth had held the title of dean of JTS once before that but lost it – allegedly for similar bad behavior.

Nonetheless, Roth was allowed to remain on staff at JTS as a full professor – a position he still holds. Roth was also a senior member ot the Conservative Movement's Committee on Jewish Law and Standards – a position he held even after the alleged harassment took place.

Joel Roth's son Akiva pleaded guilty in 1997 to charges related to the sexual abuse of pre-teen boys he was teaching in preparation for their bar mitzvahs. Even so, Akiva Roth went on to teach at JTS while he was still serving his probation-only sentence, and he was hired to teach at Yeshiva University this school year (YU fired Akiva Roth after his history of child sex abuse was exposed) – even though YU's high school students were allowed to take Akiva Roth's classes, even though Roth was located nearby YU's affiliated high school's dorms, and even though YU is in the middle of a massive child sex abuse lawsuit based on its previous mishandling of child sex abuse allegations.

Why Joel Roth still teaches at JTS, and why his was allowed to hold any position of responsibility within the Conservative Movement, is still unclear. But the following story highlights the danger of having a person like Roth on staff and in positions of power.

A reader writes:

I used to teach at a Jewish Day School and about eight years ago I was very disturbed about the sexual relationship a rabbi at the school was having with someone he was supervising. The head of the school had offered him her protection from the board in exchange for his acting as her "spy.” It was an awful situation - for example, he would report confidential conversations to her. I decided to report this unethical behavior. Since he was a member of the Rabbinical Assembly, I was given by my rabbi at the time the name and number of the contact person on the Rabbinical Assembly's Committee on Jewish Law and Standards. This was [Rabbi] Joel Roth. He dismissed everything I said as a "He said, she said" situation. I told him that I could corroborate everything I said but he ignored me. When I pointed out that I had read in the New York Times that day that a CEO had lost his job for a similar sexual impropriety, he said, "This won't make the New York Times.”  At the time I was unaware of how compromised Roth was. How the Rabbinical Assembly could put him in that position of authority is beyond me.(Actually, I do understand it - that and other Chillul HaShems I saw have transferred me into someone who is very bitter about institutionalized Judaism).

http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/failed_messiahcom/2013/10/rabbi-joel-roth-allegedly-helped-cover-up-inappropriate-sexual-relationship-at-jewish-day-school-567.html

from the Joel Roth Wikipedia article
Roth served as Dean of the Rabbinical School from 1981 to 1984 as well as in 1992-1993, resigning both times after a major sexual scandal. Roth resigned in 1984 as part of a settlement of a potential lawsuit by the family of a student whom Roth had allegedly sexually harassed.[2] The accusation was kept secret at the time, though it came to light when an anonymous letter surfaced in 1993 during Roth's second term as Dean.[2] Then, on March 29, 1993, Roth resigned after he allegedly made a sexually explicit statement to a student at the seminary's West Coast affiliate, the Los Angeles-based University of Judaism (now the American Jewish University), during a group interview. “He said inappropriate things to the student,” said Rabbi Eliot Dorff, the university provost and a member of the interview committee. Roth has “some deep-seated problems for which he needs help,” Dorff said.[2]

Rabbi Joel Roth's son also at center of sex scandals
On Tuesday, the Forward reported that Akiva Roth, a newly hired Hebrew instructor at Yeshiva University, pleaded guilty in 1997 to lewd conduct involving several bar mitzvah students. Omitted in that story and today’s follow-up editorial, however, was another aspect of Roth’s biography: he taught summer courses in Hebrew Grammar at the Jewish Theological Seminary just a few years after he was convicted in court.

Roth’s online resume at Radaris states: Position: Instructor of intensive ulpan in hebrew grammar    Jun 2000 to 2004. Company: Jewish theological seminary of america – New York, NY

These revelations about Roth’s prior employment, first noted by blogger FailedMessiah and subsequently confirmed by Tablet, suggest that Roth’s past conduct was either not investigated or overlooked by two of America’s preeminent Jewish educational institutions. Notably, Roth’s father, Rabbi Joel Roth, is a professor of Talmud and Jewish Law at JTS who previously stepped down as dean of its rabbinical school after allegedly making a sexually explicit statement to a student.

http://tabletmag.com/scroll/148490/convicted-sex-offender-taught-for-years-at-jts

Yeshiva University fires Akiva Roth
On Tuesday, the Forward reported that Yeshiva University had hired Akiva Roth, who pleaded guilty in 1997 to lewd conduct with minors, as a Hebrew instructor. Yesterday, Tablet reported that Roth had taught Hebrew Grammar at the Jewish Theological Seminary just a few years after his conviction. JTS denied knowledge of his offense. Now Yeshiva University has let Roth go, stating that he had begun teaching before their screening process was complete. ....

http://tabletmag.com/scroll/148764/yeshiva-university-drops-convicted-sex-offender

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