Mixed Minyan

In traditional Judaism, a service can be held without a rabbi but not without a minyan (congregation) often men aged 13 or over. In emergencies nine men and a young boy will do; women have not counted at all. The liberal Reform branch of Judaism has no such sex rule, and last week the middle-of-the-road Conservative branch announced that it too was abandoning the tradition. The 9-4 vote by the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards is a natural outgrowth of the Conservative branch's earlier move to provide religious education for women, and of those women's desire for equal rights.

One committeeman who voted against the move, Rabbi David M. Feldman, still had doubts: "I wouldn't want to see a unisex law." The ruling nudges Conservatives away from Orthodoxy, and last week the heads of both the largest body of Orthodox rabbis and of the Reform synagogue union implied that U.S. Judaism might now end up with only two branches -those who keep the strict traditions and those who do not.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.