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Conservative movement maintains its ban on officiating at intermarriages but urges its rabbis to engage more with interfaith families
(JTA) — The Conservative movement will continue to prohibit its rabbis from performing interfaith weddings, according to a landmark report issued Monday.
But it recommends an array of changes — ranging from new rituals to updated hiring regulations — that aim to make the movement more open to interfaith families.
The 21-page report — the culmination of 18 months of discussion among a working group of 12 rabbis — comes as the vast majority of non-Orthodox Jews are marrying non-Jewish partners. It is being released amid years of debate in the movement over what role, if any, Conservative rabbis should play in the interfaith weddings of their congregants.
The document maintains the ban on officiating, saying that the existing standards “represent a commitment to relationships” among rabbis from across the world who have differing opinions on intermarriage.
It adds that for some rabbis, the intermarriage ban is “connected to their sense of identity as Conservative rabbis” in a world where lines between non-Orthodox denominations may be blurring. Reform and Reconstructionist rabbis are allowed to perform or co-officiate intermarriages. The Orthodox movement prohibits intermarriage.
But the report recognizes that the approximately 1,600 Conservative rabbis should take a more welcoming approach to intermarried couples and their families — and that not being able to perform those weddings makes that more difficult. To that end, the report recommends “other significant changes that will empower Conservative/Masorti rabbis and congregations to more fully embrace interfaith couples through their pastoral approach and through updated policies.”
“I hope that people will see this report as a step forward in the desire of our movement to engage people of other backgrounds who are part of Jewish couples and families,” Rabbi Jacob Blumenthal, CEO of both the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism and the movement’s Rabbinical Assembly, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
“And that they will see that we are going to work on new approaches in Jewish practice, new approaches within our communities, and new pastoral approaches among our rabbis to be in relationship with and engage members of our communities and their beloved partners,” he added.
Traditional Jewish law, or halacha, prohibits Jews from marrying non-Jews, and the Conservative movement explicitly banned intermarriages half a century ago. But in recent years the rate of intermarriage has increased, and the movement’s standards have changed. In 2017, the movement voted to allow non-Jews to become synagogue members, and the next year, it allowed rabbis to attend interfaith weddings.
Throughout that time, the movement has tried to signal to interfaith couples that they should feel welcome in Conservative synagogues, even if the rabbi couldn’t perform their wedding. In 2020, the USCJ hired Keren McGinity as interfaith specialist. And some synagogues have found creative ways around the ban on officiation: Recently, a Conservative synagogue in Massachusetts hired a cantor who was ordained outside of the movement — and who can perform interfaith weddings outside the synagogue.
The report builds on the idea that Conservative synagogues and their rabbis can embrace interfaith families at every point besides the wedding day. It recommends three specific areas where it says the movement can “[move] away from policies built around rabbinic approval and ‘yes or no’ approaches and towards those built around dialogue and shared responsibility with couples and families.”
The first and most substantive of the three recommendations is to do a fast-track review of “outdated” rabbinic rulings. The movement, according to the report, will reconsider “archaic” rulings that prohibit congregations from congratulating interfaith couples and their families on their engagement, and that bar synagogues from hiring intermarried professionals.
The other two areas are increased pastoral training to welcome interfaith families, and the creation of a “brit,” or covenantal document, to “articulate a positive definition of who Conservative/Masorti rabbis are, instead of relying on standards that are more focused on ‘what we don’t do.’”
The report also discusses offering blessings to couples outside the wedding ceremony itself and helping families affix mezuzahs on their homes.
“We’ve already started to see creativity among our rabbis, among our colleagues, in terms of rituals that they might develop,” Blumenthal said. “I hope that this report will encourage our colleagues to push their creativity, to welcome these folks into our communities and to create opportunities for them to participate within an ever evolving halacha.”
Those changes come as more and more Jews are getting intermarried. A 2020 study from the Pew Research Center found that between 2010 and 2020, nearly three-quarters of non-Orthodox married Jews wed non-Jewish partners. A majority of Conservative respondents said rabbis should officiate interfaith weddings.
Rabbi Aaron Brusso, who leads the Bet Torah synagogue in Mt. Kisco, New York, and who chaired the working group that researched and published the report, told JTA that many Conservative rabbis had already adopted some of these customs. The working group’s members held individual and group sessions with around 200 of their colleagues to gather perspectives on the issue of intermarriage.
“Some of these rituals that we’re doing and talking about are reflective of what some colleagues have already done,” Brusso said. “We’re just going to more evenly distribute the information to make it more mainstream.”
Rabbi Ashira Konigsburg, the USCJ’s COO and the RA’s head of strategy, said that the conversations initiated by the report are themselves a sign of progress for the movement.
“I would say the previous culture of the organization was not to really be in discussion about this topic,” she said, referring to intermarriage. “So it was a little bit hard to know, actually, where people were going to land.”
Konigsburg added that the movement’s existing policy on intermarriage was too restrictive and does not match the demographic reality of today’s Jewish population.
“If the starting point is ‘no,’ and this is the definitive red line in the sand, then there’s no room to have the conversation within halacha about what could and couldn’t work because the answer is effectively no,” she said. “If the answer is ‘It’s complicated, let’s figure it out together,’ then there’s room within halacha potentially to maneuver. We can at least explore it with the right people.”
One of the tensions that emerged during the working group’s research, which is reflected in its findings, is geographical differences between rabbis across the Conservative movement. Rabbis in Israel and other countries are less open to intermarriage, and the report relays the concern of one Israeli rabbi that policies such as openness to intermarriage in the United States make it harder for Conservative rabbis to be seen as legitimate in Israel.
This disconnect, along with some Conservative rabbis’ desire to distinguish themselves from their Reform colleagues, is the impetus for the report’s recommendation to create a “brit,” or agreement, to “articulate a positive definition of who we are as Conservative/Masorti rabbis,” rather than focusing on what Conservative rabbis are prohibited from doing.
“What I would love to see is that we define who we are as a movement and as Conservative/Masorti rabbis through the lens of halacha, and what we do, rather than through what we don’t do, or messages about who we might not include,” Blumenthal said. “That to me, first of all, isn’t authentic to who I am as a rabbi. And I think it is doing a disservice both to people who are interested in being part of our communities and also in terms of the relationships that we can build.”
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As Gaza War Continues, Hamas Calls for Global Protests While Israel Marks Breakthroughs in Medical Innovation
A pro-Hamas march in London, United Kingdom, Feb. 17, 2024. Photo: Chrissa Giannakoudi via Reuters Connect
As the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas calls for global protests amid stalled Gaza ceasefire talks, Israel has broken new ground despite the ongoing conflict, achieving a major medical breakthrough in synthetic human kidney development.
The contrast illustrates a stark contrast between the priorities of Hamas, an international designated terrorist group that has ruled Gaza for nearly two decades, and Israel, the lone democracy in the Middle East that has long been a leader in tech and medical innovation.
On Wednesday, Hamas urged worldwide protests in support of Palestinians, calling on the international community “to denounce Israel’s genocidal war and starvation policy in Gaza.”
“We call for continuing and escalating the popular pressure in all cities and squares on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday … through rallies, demonstrations and sit-ins outside the embassies of the Israeli regime and its allies, particularly in the US,” the statement read.
The Palestinian terrorist group also called to expose what it described as “the terrorism of the Zio-Nazi occupation against defenseless civilians.”
Hamas’s latest move against Israel comes amid stalled indirect negotiations over a proposed 60-day ceasefire and hostage release deal, which collapsed last month after the group vowed it would not disarm unless an independent Palestinian state is established — rejecting a key Israeli demand to end the war in Gaza.
In its statement, Hamas demanded the opening of all border crossings to allow immediate aid into the war-torn enclave and urged a global condemnation of “the international community’s inaction on the Israeli crimes.”
Amid mounting international pressure to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, Israel announced new measures to facilitate the delivery of aid, including temporary pauses in fighting in certain areas and the creation of protected routes for aid convoys.
Israeli officials have previously accused Hamas of diverting aid for terrorist activities and selling supplies at inflated prices to civilians, while also blaming the United Nations and other foreign organizations for enabling this diversion.
Hamas’s statement also emphasized that the “global resistance movement must continue until Israeli aggression on Gaza ends and the siege on the coastal strip is lifted.”
Meanwhile, as Israel faces escalating hostilities and the heavy toll of war, the Jewish state continues to push the boundaries of innovation and resilience, achieving new medical breakthroughs while confronting ongoing challenges.
In a major medical breakthrough, scientists at Sheba Medical Center and Tel Aviv University have successfully grown a synthetic 3D miniature human kidney in a lab using specialized stem cells derived from kidney tissue — one of the most promising advances in regenerative medicine.
Dr. Dror Harats, chairman of Sheba’s Research Authority, described this achievement as a reflection of Israel’s leading role in global medical innovation.
“Despite growing efforts to isolate Israel from international science, breakthroughs like this prove our impact is both lasting and essential,” he said.
In a landmark study, a team from Sheba’s Safra Children’s Hospital and Tel Aviv University’s Sagol Center for Regenerative Medicine created synthetic kidney organs that matured and remained stable for 34 weeks — the longest-lasting and most refined kidney organoids developed to date.
Nearly a decade ago, the research team became the first to successfully isolate human kidney tissue stem cells — the cells responsible for the organ’s development and growth.
Previous attempts to grow kidneys in a lab using general-purpose stem cells were short-lived, typically lasting only a few weeks and often producing unwanted cell types that compromised research accuracy.
However, this Israeli research team used stem cells taken directly from kidney tissue — cells that naturally develop into kidney parts — allowing them to create a much purer and more stable model with key features found in real kidneys.
This medical breakthrough could have far-reaching implications, redefining the current understanding of kidney diseases and advancing the development of innovative treatments.
Researchers believe the model could help assess how medications impact fetal kidneys during pregnancy and move science closer to repairing or replacing damaged kidney tissue with lab-grown cells.
The discovery came days after researchers from Hebrew University of Jerusalem and international partners discovered a way to boost the immune system’s cancer-fighting ability by reprogramming how T cells, which are white blood cells critical to the immune system, produce energy.
The researchers explained in a study published in the peer-reviewed Nature Communications that disabling a protein known as Ant2 in T cells greatly enhances their effectiveness against tumors.
“By disabling Ant2, we triggered a complete shift in how T cells produce and use energy,” Prof. Michael Berger of Hebrew University’s Faculty of Medicine, who co-led the study with doctorate student Omri Yosef, told the Tazpit Press Service. “This reprogramming made them significantly better at recognizing and killing cancer cells.”
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Netherlands to Push EU to Suspend Israel Trade Deal but Won’t Recognize Palestinian State ‘At This Time’
Netherlands Foreign Affairs Minister Caspar Veldkamp addresses a press conference, in New Delhi on April 1, 2025. Photo: ANI Photo/Sanjay Sharma via Reuters Connect
The Netherlands is spearheading efforts to suspend the European Union-Israel trade agreement amid rising EU criticism of Israel’s actions in Gaza, while simultaneously refusing to recognize a Palestinian state, contrasting with other member states as international pressure mounts.
On Thursday, Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp announced that the Netherlands will push the EU to suspend the trade component of the EU-Israel Association Agreement — a pact governing the EU’s political and economic ties with the Jewish state.
This latest anti-Israel initiative follows a recent EU-commissioned report accusing Israel of committing “indiscriminate attacks … starvation … torture … [and] apartheid” against Palestinians in Gaza during its military campaign against Hamas, an internationally designated terrorist group.
Following calls from a majority of EU member states for a formal investigation, this report built on Belgium’s recent decision to review Israel’s compliance with the trade agreement, a process initiated by the Netherlands and led by EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas.
According to the report, “there are indications that Israel would be in breach of its human rights obligations” under the 25-year-old EU-Israel Association Agreement.
While the document acknowledges the reality of violence by Hamas, it states that this issue lies outside its scope — failing to address the Palestinian terrorist group’s role in sparking the current war with its bloody rampage across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Israeli officials have slammed the report as factually incorrect and morally flawed, noting that Hamas embeds its military infrastructure within civilian targets and Israel’s army takes extensive precautions to try and avoid civilian casualties.
In a Dutch parliamentary debate on Gaza on Thursday, Veldkamp also announced that the government would not recognize a Palestinian state for now — a position that stands in sharp contrast to the recent moves by several other EU member states to extend recognition.
“The Netherlands is not planning to recognize a Palestinian state at this time,” the Dutch diplomat said.
“This war has ceased to be a just war and is now leading to the erosion of Israel’s own security and identity,” he continued.
This latest decision goes against the position of several EU member states, including France, which has committed to recognizing Palestinian statehood in September.
The United Kingdom has likewise indicated it will do so unless Israel acts to ease the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and agrees to a ceasefire.
For its part, Germany said it was not planning to recognize a Palestinian state in the short term, and Italy argued that recognition must occur simultaneously with the recognition of Israel by the new entity.
Spain, Norway, Ireland, and Slovenia all recognized a Palestinian state last year.
Israel has been facing growing pressure from several EU member states seeking to undermine its defensive campaign against the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in Gaza.
On Thursday, European Commission Vice President Teresa Ribera strongly condemned Israel’s actions in the war-torn enclave, describing the situation as a “grave violation of human dignity.”
“What we are seeing is a concrete population being targeted, killed and condemned to starve to death,” Ribera told Politico. “If it is not genocide, it looks very much like the definition used to express its meaning.”
Until now, the European Commission has refrained from accusing Israel of genocide, but Ribera’s comments mark one of the strongest European condemnations since the outbreak of the war in Gaza.
She also called on the EU to take decisive action by considering the suspension of its trade agreement with Israel and the implementation of sanctions, while emphasizing that such measures would require unanimous approval from all member states.
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Graduate Student Unions Promoting Antisemitism, Reform Group Says
Students listen to a speech at a protest encampment at Stanford University in Stanford, California US, on April 26, 2024. Photo: Carlos Barria via Reuters Connect.
Higher-education-based unions controlled by United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of America (UE) are rife with antisemitism and anti-Zionist discrimination, according to a new letter imploring the US Congress’s House Committee on Education and the Workforce to address the matter.
“Tracing its roots to communism in the 1930s, the UE is a radical, pro-Hamas labor union that has a long history of antisemitism,” the National Right to Work Foundation (NRTW), one of the US’s leading labor reform groups, wrote on July 30 in a message obtained by The Algemeiner. “The UE openly supports the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement, which is designed to cripple and destroy Israel economically. Today, the UE furthers its antisemitic agenda by unionizing graduate students on college campuses and using its exclusive representation powers to create a hostile environment for Jewish students. The hostile environment includes demanding compulsory dues to fund the UE’s abhorrent activities.”
NRTW went on to describe a litany of alleged injustices to which UE members subject Jewish student-employees in the US’s most prestigious institutions of higher education, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to Cornell University. At MIT, the letter said, “union officers” aided a riotous group which illegally occupied a section of campus with a “Gaza Solidarity Encampment,” participating in the demonstration and even denying access to campus buildings. UE members at Stanford University, meanwhile, allegedly denied religious accommodations to Jewish students who requested exemption from union dues over that branch’s supporting the BDS movement. And Cornell University UE was accused of denying religious exemptions in several cases as well and followed up the rejection with an intrusive “questionnaire” which probed Jewish students for “legally-irrelevant information.”
The situation requires federal oversight and intervention, NRTW said, including Congress’s possibly clarifying that student-employees are not traditional employees and are therefore afforded protections under sections of the Civil Rights Act which apply to the campus.
“These continuing patterns of antisemitism are illegal, immoral, and must be stopped,” the letter continued. “We encourage you to do all that is in your power to investigate and help bring an end to the UE and its affiliates’ nonstop harassment and intimidation of Jewish students … The Trump administration can also use tools available to it under Title VI and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act against colleges who work with unions to create a hostile environment for Jewish students.”
July’s letter is not the first time NRTW has publicized alleged antisemitic abuse in unions representing higher education employees.
In 2024, it represented a group of six City University of New York (CUNY) professors, five of whom are Jewish, who sued to be “freed” from CUNY’s Professional Staff Congress (PSC-CUNY) over its passing a resolution during Israel’s May 2021 war with Hamas which declared solidarity with Palestinians and accused the Jewish state of ethnic cleansing, apartheid, and crimes against humanity. The group contested New York State’s “Taylor Law,” which it said chained the professors to the union’s “bargaining unit” and denied their right to freedom of speech and association by forcing them to be represented in negotiations by an organization they claim holds antisemitic views.
That same year, NRTW prevailed in a discrimination suit filed to exempt another cohort of Jewish MIT students from paying dues to the Graduate Student Union (GSU). The students had attempted to resist financially supporting GSU’s anti-Zionism, but the union bosses attempted to coerce their compliance, telling them that “no principles, teachings, or tenets of Judaism prohibit membership in or the payment of dues or fees” to the union.
“All Americans should have a right to protect their money from going to union bosses they don’t support, whether those objections are based on religion, politics, or any other reason,” NRTW said at the time.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.