Limits of Inclusiveness

Naomi Zeveloff’s September 9 article, “Conservative Synagogues Open Door to Intermarried Couples,” offers a thoughtful analysis of some of the issues facing such congregations. The language in the article, perhaps inadvertently, suggests a certain set of assumptions about the challenges of balancing inclusiveness and the integrity of Jewish religious tradition.

Zeveloff writes: “However, non-Jews cannot take leadership positions. They’re not allowed to serve as synagogue president, nor can they chair committees.” Another way of framing the same issues might have been: “Leadership positions, including serving as congregational president or chairing synagogue committees, are reserved for people who are Jewish.”

Would we find it unusual if a church policy suggested that analogous positions were “reserved for people who are Christian”? Using “reserved for” puts the weight on maintaining the not-at-all unusual expectation that such leadership roles in a synagogue ought to be held by people who by birth or by choice identify as Jewish. Such distinctions need not be seen as exclusionary.

Rabbi Richard Hirsh

Wynnewood, Pa.

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.

In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.

At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.

Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we need 500 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.

Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO