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.
A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
