Conservative Jewish Movement In Israel Approves Ordination of Gay Rabbis

Dan Avery
Apr 20, 2012

The Masorti movement, Israel’s branch of Conservative Judaism, voted yesterday to approve the ordination of homosexual rabbis, according to Haaretz. It was a clear mandate, with all 18 rabbis present voting in favor of the move. (One rabbi abstained.)

In 2006, The Conservative moment approved contrasting measures that both allowed and banned gay seminarians—in effect giving individual rabbinical schools the freedom to make their own decision. Seminaries in the U.S. opened their doors to LGBT students, while those in Israel and Argentina chose to forbid them.

“I see it as a very important development in Jewish law,” Rabbi Mauricio Balter, President of the Israeli Conservative Movement Rabbinical Assembly, said of the vote: “We were all made in the image of God, and as such we are all made equal. For me this is a very important value. I always said we should admit gay and lesbians into our ranks.”

http://www.queerty.com/conservative-jewish-movement-in-israel-approves-ordination-of-gay-rabbis-20120420/

That's the entire article. Mazel Tov!