Israel’s Masorti (Conservative) Movement decided to approve the ordination of homosexual rabbis, in a dramatic vote on Thursday.The Schechter Rabbinical Seminary, affiliated with the movement, will admit gay and lesbian students for training as spiritual leaders as of the upcoming school year.In doing so the Israeli Conservative Movement is joining the American branch of the movement, whose rabbinical seminaries have …

Representatives of the non-Orthodox Jewish movements in Israel have complained to the tourism minister and the minister of public diplomacy and diaspora affairs against Israel’s hotels, which they claim are systematically discriminating against tourist groups from abroad by not allowing them to hold prayer services according to their customs.In a letter sent by Gilad Kariv, executive director of the Israel …

Nearly 500 rabbis of all streams urged President Obama in a letter to name a new special envoy to Sudan, saying the work there is not yet complete.The May 24 letter was initiated by Ruth Messinger, president of American Jewish World Service, and Rabbi Steve Gutow, president of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs. It was signed by 492 rabbis …

Rabbi Aaron Panken has been elected president of the U.S. Reform movement’s rabbinical school. The Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion announced the decision made by its board of governors on Wednesday.Panken, 49, of Mamaroneck, N.Y., has taught rabbinic and Second Temple literature at HUC-JIR in New York since 1995. He has served as vice president for strategic initiatives, dean …