and personal status, to the physical and spiritual welfare of Jews that do not share our views, and to the relations between Jews of the Diaspora and Israel , we must be mindful that we are one people. In spite of diversity and severe conflict, we are all of us bound by that contractual covenant that our ancestors, and we ourselves, made with the God of Israel.
When the North American Reform movement makes a radical decision to abandon a basic tenet of the Jewish heritage relating to marriage, it does not affect its own constituents alone. The Reform, Liberal, and Progressive congregations and movements in Europe , Israel , South Africa , Latin America , and Australia are affected.
Most of them are in the midst of large Orthodox communities, who take advantage of such activities in North America to denigrate the local Liberal Jews . The example of the Progressive rabbis and congregants in Israel is especially difficult. Not only are they fighting for the recognition of Reform conversions, including those from North America , but they have been appealing for the right to officiate at marriages. The fact that their colleagues will officially marry gays and lesbians will weaken their case not only with the intransigent Chief Rabbinate, but also with a large portion of secular Israelis and very possibly with the courts. If same-sex marriages are performed by American Reform rabbis, it will harm the struggle of their Israeli colleagues to attain the right to officiate at weddings and conversions.
We must, therefore, consider the needs of kelal yisrael, not only the Orthodox and Conservatives, who are in religious opposition to this step, but the secular and especially our own Progressive, Liberal, and Reform rabbis and lay people, who suffer because of these unacceptable marriages. MARAM, the Israel Council of Progressive Rabbis, has researched and studied this issue Its rabbis have decided not to officiate at same-sex mar
riages or ceremonies." The Scope of Same-Sex Marriages When we deal with questions relating to homosexuality and les
bianism, one puzzle that appears to remain unsolved is the dimensions and extent of this phenomenon. How many gays