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Jewish submissions to Senate enquiry on Marriage Equality
The following Jewish organisations have made a submission to the Senate Enquiry into Marriage Equality:
- Union for Progressive Judaism (for)
- Rabbinical Council of NSW (against)
- Rabbinical Council of Victoria (against)
- Organisation of Rabbis of Australasia (against)
- Institute for Judaism and Civilisation (against)
This list may be incomplete. If you are aware of other Jewish submissions to the Senate Enquiry, please contact Aleph Melbourne.
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Union for Progressive Judaism corrects Rabbinical Council of NSW’s submission to Marriage Equality Senate enquiry
The following note was sent from the Union for Progressive Judaism to the Senate committee on the morning of April 3 2012:
“Good morning
I am aware that submissions to the Senate enquiry have closed. However, I do hope that it is possible to provide some clarification regarding a submission that was made to you by the Rabbinical Council of NSW Inc.
In their submission they state that “The Rabbinical Council of NSW represents all Orthodox and mainstream synagogues in NSW”. However, this is far from the case.
It is true that they represent a number of Synagogues that have an affiliation to the Orthodox denomination of Judaism. However, they do not represent the many thousands of people in the State who are affiliated to the Progressive, Conservative, Reconstructionist and Renewal denominations of Judaism. These Synagogues are definitely part of the “mainstream” of our community even if their views may differ from the Rabbinical Council.
While there are a range of views on this topic in the community there is no question that the views of the people who are members of the Synagogues that are not Orthodox are undoubtedly better reflected in the comments included in the submission made by our organisation to the enquiry panel which is totally supportive of Marriage Equality.
I do hope that this clarification can be shared with the committee,
With thanks for your assistance”
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AJN Letters: Responses to Daniel Meyerowitz-Katz – March 30 2012
30 Mar 2012
The Australian Jewish News Melbourne edition
Letters to the editor should be no more than 250 words and may be edited for length and content. Only letters sent to letters@jewishnews.net.au will be considered for publication. Please supply an address and daytime phone number for verification.
Method not message is wrong on bullying
I FOUND the parallel that letter writer Daniel Meyerowitz-Katz (AJN 23/03) made between opposing the specific homophobia anti-bullying program being promoted by Safe Schools Victoria to “tacitly encouraging the vilification of others” (i.e. homosexuals) to be obscene in the extreme.
Even the biggest critics of this antibullying program were abundantly clear about their opposition to homophobic bullying.
It is the methodology of the specific program in question that has justifiably drawn criticism from some rabbis and concerned members of the community. Entering into a discussion about samesex marriage with kindergarten children, as this program would have us do, is plainly and simply inappropriate.
Moreover, Mr Meyerowit-Katz believes that those rabbis who are opposed to the implementation of this program are adhering to a “medieval idea of morality” and that should they persist in this mentality, they will “only continue to stand there scratching their heads as shul attendance continues to plummet”.
With the deepest of respect, falling shul attendance has nil to do with rabbinic attitudes to current issues and everything to do with the increasing secularisation of our community whereby communal prayer is no longer appealing.
YONASAN KABLINSKI
Caulfield North, Vic
A morality tale for boosting attendance
WE should all be grateful to Daniel Meyerowitz-Katz (AJN 23/03).
He bemoans what he perceives to be the persecution of homosexuals, and then proceeds to offer us the panacea for declining synagogue attendances.
“In advocating that Jews adhere to a medieval idea of morality” he writes, “certain members of the Orthodox rabbinate are tragically out of step with the modern world. Should this mentality persist, they will only continue to stand there scratching their heads as shul attendances continue to plummet”.
So, to be clear, his message is that promoting and practising immorality is the way to get those “bums on seats” in our congregations?
By the way, I think he is also historically inaccurate in implying that homosexuality is a new phenomenon of this modern world that those rabbis are so “out of step” with. It was rampant in many civilisations such as ancient Greece and Sodom. So it is just as “medieval” a concept as morality. Go figure!
ROBERT WEIL
Caulfield North, Vic
Submission to Senate on Marriage Equality by Rabbinical Council of NSW
[Senate link] [PDF]
RABBINICAL COUNCIL OF NSW INC
All correspondence to
The Hon. Secretary
President:
Rabbi Yoram Ulman
Vice-President:
Rabbi Eli Feldman
Honorary Secretary:
Rabbi Chaim Ingram
Honorary Treasurer:
Rabbi Paul Lewin
31 March 2012
STATEMENT FROM THE RABBINICAL COUNCIL OF NSW ON SAME SEX MARRIAGE
To the Honorable Members of the Senate Legal and constitutional Affairs Committee:-
The Rabbinical Council of NSW represents all Orthodox and mainstream synagogues in NSW
The Rabbinical Council of NSW Inc (RCNSW) states and affirms as follows:-
1) The definition of marriage as stipulated in the Marriage Legislation Amendment Act 2004, namely that “marriage means the union of one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others” is consistent with the traditional definition of marriage expressed in sacred Jewish texts and accepted through the ages by the other major world faiths.
2) At Mount Sinai, the giving of the Torah included reiteration of a set of key universal laws and values binding and adopted by civilised societies throughout the world since time immemorial.
3) Central to the key universal values expressed in the Torah are norms relating to human sexuality which endorse the stable sexual union of a man and a woman in a socially recognised relationship of mutual commitment whilst rejecting other sexual unions notably adultery, incest, bestiality and homosexuality.
4) It has been proven and demonstrated globally throughout history that the institution of marriage is central to the formation of a healthy society and to the concept of family. By virtue of their physical make-up, human beings are able to achieve self –actualisation through participation in the higher union of man and woman within marriage resulting in the production of offspring who are raised in a stable and moral home and who possess an innate and close connection with the mother and father who conceived and gave birth to the child.
5) The Torah mandates that all human beings, created as they are in the image of G-D, are to be cherished and loved by their fellows. The lifestyle choices made by individuals do not affect the precept that they be treated with respect and love. Nevertheless it is our firm conviction that all humankind remains bound by the aforementioned universal moral code handed down by G-D at Mount Sinai 3,300 years ago.
6) The RCNSW views with profound concern efforts to redefine marriage and thus legally sanction same-sex marriage. It urges most earnestly that the integrity of marriage in its traditional and time-hallowed form will be preserved.
For further information please call RCNSW Honorary Secretary Rabbi Chaim Ingram.
77 multi-faith clergy call for marriage equality | AME
77 multi-faith clergy call for marriage equality | AME.
Jewish rabbis supporting marriage equality include:
- Rabbi Shoshana Kaminsky, Adelaide.
- Rabbi Jeffrey Kamins, Senior Rabbi, New South Wales.
- Rabbi Jonathan Keren-Black, Victoria.
- Rabbi Paul Jacobson, New South Wales.
- Rabbi Jacki Ninio, New South Wales.
Pinkwashing? try ‘Progwashing’ | JPost
Differing views on marriage inquiry | AJN
30 Mar 2012
The Australian Jewish News Melbourne edition
PETER KOHN
Differing views on marriage inquiry
COMMUNAL organisations representing Orthodox and Progressive Jews are at odds in their submissions to a parliamentary inquiry into gay marriage.
Christopher Whitmont-Stein and Scott Whitmont were the first same-sex couple in Australia to have a commitment ceremony in a shul. In its submission, the Union for Progressive Judaism (UPJ) has called for same-sex marriage to be introduced in Australia.
The UPJ quoted biblical references in support of a universal right to marriage, which it believes the Senate probe should adopt.
But a submission to be made by the Organisation of Rabbis of Australasia (ORA), representing Orthodox Jewry, will oppose amendment of the Marriage Act.
Invoking the Book of Genesis, the UPJ submission, made to the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee Inquiry into the Marriage Equality Amendment Bill 2010, stated that “all people are made b’tselem Elohim, in the image of God, and each person should be treated with dignity and respect, regardless of race, gender or sexual orientation.
“The UPJ therefore condemns all forms of homophobia and discrimination based on sexual orientation. There is no justification for such abuse and disrespect and it is essential that all perpetrators of homophobia are prosecuted and held responsible for such offensive comments, both in the eyes of society and before the law.”
The UPJ submission claimed legislative changes made in recent years to acknowledge same-sex partnerships have already helped to decrease discrimination in Australia’s legal system, but “these changes must be part of larger changes to make same-sex partnerships the equal of heterosexual partnerships”.
However, Rabbi Moshe Gutnick, president of ORA, told The AJN his organisation opposed the changes because they seek to alter the definition of marriage, and this will form the basis of ORA’S submission, to be made in the next few days.
“Judaism is against discrimination in all forms, including discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. However, the position of Judaism, and indeed all Abrahamic faiths, on marriage is clear.
“The institution of marriage is fundamental in that it shapes the entire human race, and it is divinely mandated as being only between a man and a woman. It is an institution that dare not be tampered with. The invocation of biblical verses in support of same-sex marriage is simply a shameless distortion of biblical teaching and tradition,” Rabbi Gutnick said.
The Senate last month launched its inquiry into marriage equality after Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-young introduced a private senator’s bill to amend the 1961 Marriage Act to embrace same-sex marriages.
The Senate inquiry will take submissions until April 2 and will report on its findings in June this year.
AJN Letters: Homophobic bullying – March 23 2012
23 Mar 2012
The Australian Jewish News Melbourne edition
Letters to the editor should be no more than 250 words and may be edited for length and content. Only letters sent to letters@jewishnews.net.au will be considered for publication. Please supply an address and daytime phone number for verification.
Our duty to combat homophobic bullying
AS a member of a people who have fallen victim to a historical “norm” of persecution and ostracism, I find the argument against the program tackling homophobic bullying in schools extremely troubling.
It seems perverse to suggest that it should be the aspiration of our society to converge to the human condition, a condition that has seen the violent oppression of both homosexuals and Jews for millennia.
Now that Jews have finally been afforded a time and place where we are free from such persecution, why would some in our community be tacitly encouraging the vilification of others, some of whom fall within our community, based on their identity?
In advocating that Jews adhere to a medieval idea of morality, certain members of the Orthodox rabbinate are tragically out of step with the modern world.
Should this mentality persist, they will only continue to stand there scratching their heads as shul attendance continues to plummet.
DANIEL MEYEROWITZ-KATZ
Dover Heights, NSW