Intermarriage and the inclusion of interfaith couples are among the most important issues that the Rabbinical Assembly (RA) and Conservative/Masorti movement are addressing.
As part of the RA’s Strategic Planning, the Standards Working Group (SWG) spent nearly a year seeking to understand the role and impact of the RA’s standards, particularly around intermarriage and interfaith couples. In January 2024, it issued a report that detailed those efforts and offered a series of recommendations and next steps for the Conservative/Masorti movement.
Why are you addressing these issues now?
Fifty years after the RA formally adopted standards that prohibited members from officiating at interfaith wedding ceremonies, our connections to these families and understanding of their roles in our communities have changed significantly.
In the 1970s, intermarriage was viewed broadly as a “threat” to Jewish survival, and rabbinic authority was defined, to a large degree, about exerting power. That approach failed to dissuade Jewish community members from intermarrying — but succeeded in alienating many families from Jewish life.
Today, the rabbinic relationship is rooted more in trust, and many Conservative/Masorti congregations now include interfaith families who are raising Jewish children, participating meaningfully in Jewish life, and frequently playing leadership roles.
Given these shifts, the RA formed the Standards Working Group (SWG) last year to understand our standards' role and impact, particularly around intermarriage and interfaith couples.
Who was on the RA working group, and how did they approach their work?
The 12 rabbis on the SWG represented a wide range of backgrounds, experiences, approaches, and Conservative/Masorti communities. The group included three members of the RA’s Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, which sets halakhic policy for the Conservative movement, and two rabbis from Israel, where intermarriage is viewed differently than in many American communities.
The SWG spoke with almost 200 rabbinic colleagues through 10 group listening sessions and dozens of one-on-one conversations. The group heard many narratives that felt familiar, as well as the experiences of colleagues that might have seemed foreign.
What are your recommendations?
The working group is recommending that the standards around officiation at interfaith weddings be maintained at this time. However, the group is recommending other significant changes that will empower Conservative/Masorti rabbis and congregations to embrace interfaith couples more fully through their pastoral approach and through updated policies.
These recommendations include:
- Identifying and codifying ways for rabbis to offer blessings outside the context of the wedding ceremony. Examples already include aufrufs on Shabbat morning or mezuzah hanging ceremonies in a couple’s home.
- Increasing pastoral training so rabbis can shift from positions of disapproval and approval to fostering meaningful dialogue as they engage with interfaith couples and families. Such conversation can help the rabbis learn more about who a couple is, what their needs are, and what roles the rabbi can play in their lives for years to come.
- Moving past outdated teshuvot (rabbinic responses) that dictate disapproval of interfaith couples. These include archaic decades-old prohibitions on congregations congratulating families on the birth of an interfaith couple’s baby or on hiring professionals who are in interfaith marriages.
Why are you maintaining the standards that prohibit rabbis from officiating interfaith marriages?
As the working group studied the standards regarding officiation at interfaith weddings, it saw that many Conservative/Masorti rabbis are open to change.
It also recognized that the standards are relied upon by a significant portion of our colleagues; that they represent a commitment to rabbinic relationships between our diverse global regions; and they are central to some members’ sense of identity as Conservative/Masorti rabbis.
However, virtually all the rabbis we engaged in this conversation are seeking meaningful ritual ways to engage couples outside the context of the actual wedding, whether in the synagogue or in their homes. In many cases, these couples include community members the rabbis have known long before their weddings and with whom they hope to remain connected for years to come. The SWG’s recommendations will empower Conservative/Masorti rabbis and congregations to embrace interfaith couples and families more fully.
Some of the recommendations seem abstract – what are some specific changes coming for interfaith couples who are planning to marry and want to lead a meaningful Jewish life?
Some specific ideas are already moving forward, such as empowering rabbis and communities to honor interfaith couples through aufrufs on Shabbat morning or mezuzah hanging ceremonies in a couple’s home. As this process continues, we expect that congregations will be able to explore other approaches that meet the needs of their communities and of particular couples within the context of the RA standards.
Is the prohibition on rabbis officiating at interfaith weddings temporary or permanent? Is this report an inevitable step toward the standards being eliminated?
The Conservative/Masorti movement and Jewish families have been wrestling with these issues for generations and will undoubtedly continue to address them moving forward.
The working group recommends that the standards around officiation at interfaith weddings be maintained at this time and has no preconceived ideas about our colleagues’ approach in the years to come.
Can Conservative/Masorti rabbis truly understand the needs of interfaith couples?
Conservative/Masorti rabbis who are working on the ground in communities interact daily with interfaith families who are raising Jewish children, participating meaningfully in Jewish life, and playing leadership roles. Amongst our own colleagues are those from interfaith families, those whose family members have found partners from other religious backgrounds, and those who have chosen a Jewish path while maintaining strong relationships within their own families.
It has become less sustainable over time for rabbis to say that intermarriage is a threat to “Jewish continuity” while the interfaith families in our communities actively work to build a Jewish future.
Is the RA trying to have it "both ways" with this approach?
Our approach aligns with the values of Conservative/Masorti Judaism, which, for more than a century, has blended fidelity to Jewish tradition with thoughtful responses to modernity.
Our values are rooted in the ideas that Judaism grows with us, that we’re guided by process, and that there is beauty in the balance. Conservative/Masorti Judaism is filled with a wide range of experiences and ideas. We understand holding the tension between extremes as a choice, as a worldview, and as a badge of honor.
Should interfaith couples and their families view this report and its approach as a rejection?
No. These efforts represent one of the most deliberate and clear steps by the Conservative/Masorti movement to recognize and embrace interfaith couples and families who are actively working to build a Jewish future within our communities.
We know that many interfaith families have felt alienated over the decades by the Conservative/Masorti movement. That’s why we have worked deliberatively and passionately to better welcome, support, and honor them through improved pastoral approaches and updated law committee work. We also encourage these familoies to speak with their community's rabbis directly about their own personal stories and vision for leading a Jewish life.
What are the next steps?
The Rabbinical Assembly is actively developing new pastoral training to better support our colleagues in engaging interfaith couples in meaningful ways, and we hope that Conservative/Masorti rabbis can serve as meaningful resources for one another.
In addition, the RA’s Committee on Jewish Law and Standards (CJLS) is already reviewing outdated teshuvot (rabbinic responses) that express disapproval of interfaith couples. CJLS is also identifying additional ways for rabbis and congregations to offer blessings outside the context of the wedding ceremony such as aufrufs on Shabbat morning or mezuzah hanging ceremonies in a couple’s home.
As an important next step, we will continue these discussions over the next year through a working group of RA, United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism (USCJ), and Cantors Assembly (CA) leadership. Co-chaired by RA Board Member Aaron Brusso and USCJ Board Member Shirley Davidoff, the Intermarriage Working Group will explore additional, specific opportunities to engage interfaith families and build on the SWG’s work in meaningful ways across the movement.
Whose “responsibility” is it for rabbis and interfaith couples to have these conversations?
This is a conversation that invites the couple, the rabbi, and tradition to be in honest dialogue with one another about identities and truth.
It is a sharing of responsibility in which the couple is given the dignity of self-definition, trusted to encounter Jewish tradition in all of its religious particularity, and empowered to determine what is authentic for them. Such a conversation can help rabbis learn more about who the couple is, what their needs are, and the roles the rabbi plays in their lives.
We enter these conversations with open minds and hearts.