MAZEL TOV

Conservative Jews OK Gay Marriage

Rabbis approve same-sex ceremony.

We’re sure an untold number of Jewish mothers got just a little verklempt when they heard the news: Conservative Jewish rabbis approved a ceremony Thursday for same-sex marriages within the faith, the result of six years of contemplation by the 1,600-member Conservative Rabbinical Assembly, the governing body of the Conservative movement. The rabbis approved two ceremonies for same-sex marriages, as well as one for divorce. “Both versions are egalitarian,” said Rabbi Daniel Nevins. “They differ mostly in style—one hews closely to the traditional wedding ceremony while the other departs from it.” Nevins said that while the rabbis see these ceremonies as theologically distinct from those wedding a man and a woman, “we celebrate them with the same sense of holiness and joy as that expressed in heterosexual marriages.”