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In 2015, Rabbi [[Denise Eger]] was elected president of the CCAR. The first openly LGBTQ person to hold this prominent role, Rabbi Eger made ethics a central focus of her presidency. In 2018, Rabbi Hara Person became the first woman to be the chief executive of the CCAR and also pushed for higher ethical standards and accountability.<ref name=":8" />
In 2015, Rabbi [[Denise Eger]] was elected president of the CCAR. The first openly LGBTQ person to hold this prominent role, Rabbi Eger made ethics a central focus of her presidency. In 2018, Rabbi Hara Person became the first woman to be the chief executive of the CCAR and also pushed for higher ethical standards and accountability.<ref name=":8" />


Rabbis Eger, Person and the presidents who followed continued to prioritize ethics. In 2021, the CCAR voluntarily hired a legal firm to investigate its ethics processes and to make recommendations for improvements.<ref name=":7" /> This led to several recommendations that the CCAR has implemented or is in the process of implementing to improve the ethics process, including [https://www.ccarnet.org/ccar-expelled-rabbis/ making public] all but he most minor of ethical infractions of members<ref>{{Cite web |title=CCAR Ethics Updates and Notifications |url=https://www.ccarnet.org/ccar-ethics-updates/ |access-date=2024-03-08 |website=Central Conference of American Rabbis |language=en-US}}</ref>. Additionally, the CCAR issued a lengthy [https://www.ccarnet.org/an-apology-central-conference-of-american-rabbis/ formal apology] in September 2022 that included the following language:
Rabbis Eger, Person and the presidents who followed continued to prioritize ethics. In 2021, the CCAR voluntarily hired a legal firm to investigate its ethics processes and to make recommendations for improvements.<ref name=":7" /> This led to several recommendations that the CCAR has implemented or is in the process of implementing to improve the ethics process, including [https://www.ccarnet.org/ccar-expelled-rabbis/ making public] all but the most minor of ethical infractions of members<ref>{{Cite web |title=CCAR Ethics Updates and Notifications |url=https://www.ccarnet.org/ccar-ethics-updates/ |access-date=2024-03-08 |website=Central Conference of American Rabbis |language=en-US}}</ref>. Additionally, the CCAR issued a lengthy [https://www.ccarnet.org/an-apology-central-conference-of-american-rabbis/ formal apology] in September 2022 that included the following language:


''"With sincerity of heart and intention, the CCAR apologizes for the hurt that our organization and our ethics system have caused. We acknowledge that there have been times when we failed to meet our own high standards and we are deeply sorry. We apologize, and we are committed to working diligently for a better future."''
''"With sincerity of heart and intention, the CCAR apologizes for the hurt that our organization and our ethics system have caused. We acknowledge that there have been times when we failed to meet our own high standards and we are deeply sorry. We apologize, and we are committed to working diligently for a better future."''<ref>{{Cite web |last=CCAR |first=The |date=2022-09-15 |title=An Apology from the Central Conference of American Rabbis |url=https://www.ccarnet.org/an-apology-central-conference-of-american-rabbis/ |access-date=2024-03-08 |website=Central Conference of American Rabbis |language=en-US}}</ref>


While welcomed and celebrated by many, the recommendations were also criticized by some<ref name=":6" /> as not sufficiently addressing concerns,<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|last=Hoffman|first=Sarah|title=Petition the Reform Movement to Stop Sexual Abuse Cover-Ups|url=https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/petition-the-reform-movement-to-stop-sexual-abuse-cover-ups/|access-date=2022-01-31|website=blogs.timesofisrael.com|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Dreyfus|first=Hannah|title=Can Rabbinic Ethics Committees Police Their Own?|url=https://jewishweek.timesofisrael.com/recent-cases-test-expertise-of-rabbinic-ethics-panels/|access-date=2022-01-31|website=jewishweek.timesofisrael.com|language=en-US}}</ref><ref name=":4" /> including allowing for the continued use of untrained lay investigators and for allowing fellow rabbis to decide who could determine whether an offender is fit to return to the pulpit.<ref name=":6">{{Cite web|last=Hoffman|first=Sarah|title=CCAR's External Ethics Investigation: A Participating Survivor's Perspective|url=https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/ccars-external-ethics-investigation-a-participating-survivors-perspective/|access-date=2022-01-31|website=blogs.timesofisrael.com|language=en-US}}</ref> However, this practice of peer review is commonplace across many professional organizations in the United States such as the National Association of Social Workers<ref>{{Cite web |title=Code of Ethics: English |url=https://www.socialworkers.org/About/Ethics/Code-of-Ethics/Code-of-Ethics-English#purpose |access-date=2024-03-08 |website=www.socialworkers.org}}</ref>, the American Medical Association, and the American Bar Association.<ref>{{Cite web |title=American Bar Association Code of Ethics |url=https://www.americanbar.org/groups/professional_responsibility/publications/model_rules_of_professional_conduct/}}</ref>
The report and the actions that followed were welcomed and celebrated by many. Rabbi Mary Zamore, the executive of the [[Women's Rabbinic Network|Womens Rabbinic Network]] was quoted in an 2021 Jewish Telegraph Agency article saying "Something historic is happening,I never thought I would see this day.”<ref>{{Cite web |last=Elia-Shalev |first=Asaf |date=2021-08-11 |title=The Reform movement is investigating itself over history of rabbinic sexual misconduct |url=https://www.jta.org/2021/08/11/united-states/the-reform-movement-is-investigating-itself-over-history-of-rabbinic-sexual-misconduct |access-date=2024-03-08 |website=Jewish Telegraphic Agency |language=en-US}}</ref>
The recommendations were also criticized by some<ref name=":6" /> as not sufficiently addressing concerns,<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|last=Hoffman|first=Sarah|title=Petition the Reform Movement to Stop Sexual Abuse Cover-Ups|url=https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/petition-the-reform-movement-to-stop-sexual-abuse-cover-ups/|access-date=2022-01-31|website=blogs.timesofisrael.com|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Dreyfus|first=Hannah|title=Can Rabbinic Ethics Committees Police Their Own?|url=https://jewishweek.timesofisrael.com/recent-cases-test-expertise-of-rabbinic-ethics-panels/|access-date=2022-01-31|website=jewishweek.timesofisrael.com|language=en-US}}</ref><ref name=":4" /> including allowing for the continued use of lay investigators and for allowing fellow rabbis to decide who could determine whether an offender is fit to return to the pulpit.<ref name=":6">{{Cite web|last=Hoffman|first=Sarah|title=CCAR's External Ethics Investigation: A Participating Survivor's Perspective|url=https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/ccars-external-ethics-investigation-a-participating-survivors-perspective/|access-date=2022-01-31|website=blogs.timesofisrael.com|language=en-US}}</ref> However, it should be noted that the practice of peer review and adjudication is commonplace across many professional organizations in the United States such as the National Association of Social Workers<ref>{{Cite web |title=Code of Ethics: English |url=https://www.socialworkers.org/About/Ethics/Code-of-Ethics/Code-of-Ethics-English#purpose |access-date=2024-03-08 |website=www.socialworkers.org}}</ref>, the American Medical Association, the American Psychological Association<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.apa.org/ethics/complaint |access-date=2024-03-08 |website=www.apa.org}}</ref>, and the American Bar Association.<ref>{{Cite web |title=American Bar Association Code of Ethics |url=https://www.americanbar.org/groups/professional_responsibility/publications/model_rules_of_professional_conduct/}}</ref>


The CCAR continues to improve its ethics process and now [https://www.ccarnet.org/march-2024-annual-ccar-ethics-report-2023/ provides annual progress reports] about the ethics system.
The CCAR continues to improve its ethics process and now [https://www.ccarnet.org/march-2024-annual-ccar-ethics-report-2023/ provides annual progress reports] about the ethics system.

Revision as of 15:12, 8 March 2024

The Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR), founded in 1889 by Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise, is the principal organization of Reform rabbis in the United States and Canada. The CCAR is the largest and oldest rabbinical organization in the world.[1] Its current president is Rabbi Erica Asch.[2]

Rabbi Hara Person is the Chief Executive.[3]

Overview

The CCAR primarily consists of rabbis educated at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, located in Cincinnati, Ohio, New York City, Los Angeles, and Jerusalem. The CCAR also offers membership to those who have graduated in Europe from the Leo Baeck College in London (United Kingdom) and the Abraham Geiger College at the University of Potsdam (Germany), and others who joined the Reform movement after being ordained. Most of the last group graduated from either the Conservative Jewish Theological Seminary or the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College.

The CCAR issues responsa, resolutions, and platforms, but in keeping with the principles of Reform Judaism, their positions are non-binding on individual rabbis or congregations. It is also the publisher of CCAR Journal, a journal of Reform Judaism published quarterly. The group also runs the CCAR Press, a large publishing house that produces Reform siddurim, machzorim, and haggadot with a mixture of Hebrew and English. The most well-known CCAR prayerbooks include Gates of Prayer, Gates of Repentance, and the recently published Mishkan T'filah.

The CCAR in 1937 wrote the Columbus Platform as an official platform of the American Reform movement. The CCAR rewrote its principles in 1976 with its Centenary Perspective and rewrote them again in the 1999 as A Statement of Principles for Reform Judaism. According to the CCAR, personal autonomy still has precedence over these platforms.

Rabbi Bernard Bamberger of Temple Shaaray Tefila on New York's Upper East Side served as president of the CCAR in 1959–61.

In 1964, the CCAR began to take an official position opposing the American war in Vietnam, and in 1972 it began to refuse to pay the federal excise tax on telephone service as a protest against that war.[4]

In 1983, the CCAR took one of its most controversial stands and formally affirmed that a Jewish identity can be passed down through either the mother or the father, if the child is raised with a Jewish identity.

In 2003, Rabbi Janet Marder became the first female president of the CCAR; this made her the first woman to lead a major rabbinical organization and the first woman to lead any major Jewish co-ed religious organization in the United States.[5]

In 2014, the CCAR joined a lawsuit challenging North Carolina's ban on same-sex marriage, which was America's first faith-based challenge to same-sex marriage bans.[6][7]

In 2015, Denise Eger became the first openly gay president of the CCAR.[8][9]

In 2018, Rabbi Hara Person became the first woman to be the chief executive of the CCAR.[10]

Rabbinic Ethics

The CCAR has an ethics code which all members are bound to uphold. It also operates an ethics system to adjudicate ethics complaints and discipline rabbis who violate the code. Because the CCAR is a voluntary membership organization, the ethics system has no jurisdiction over rabbis who are not members of the CCAR.[11] While the vast majority of CCAR rabbis have never been accused of ethics violations, past charges against rabbis have included serious issues such as financial impropriety, plagiarism, theft, and sexual misconduct. For much of the CCAR's history, these matters were handled privately, and it was not uncommon for offending rabbis to continue serving.[12][13][14][15]

In the 1980s a formal Ethics Code and Ethics Committee were established with the goal of protecting both congregants and communities from dangerous rabbis, with the committee being granted the power to discipline rabbis, including permanent suspension or expulsion. While this was a marked improvement from the past, investigations were slow and often rabbis continued to be privately reprimanded and faced little to no consequences for their actions.[16][17] A 1996 Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) report covered the slow process and lack of serious consequences or standards for holding offending rabbis accountable, with one Reform rabbi stating, "when we deal with the difficult issues of rabbinic sexual misconduct, we have not taken seriously our own tradition."[16]

Since the 1996 JTA investigation, a number of prominent cases have drawn media attention and public criticism for their illustration of these concerns. In 2015, a CCAR member rabbi was expelled for sexual misconduct, but his community was not informed.[12] In 2014, a senior rabbi of a Texas synagogue was reprimanded for sexual misconduct and allowed to move to another senior rabbi position in North Carolina, where he was censured for sexual misconduct within 36 months of his new placement, and neither congregation was alerted to the allegations.[18]

In 2015, Rabbi Denise Eger was elected president of the CCAR. The first openly LGBTQ person to hold this prominent role, Rabbi Eger made ethics a central focus of her presidency. In 2018, Rabbi Hara Person became the first woman to be the chief executive of the CCAR and also pushed for higher ethical standards and accountability.[10]

Rabbis Eger, Person and the presidents who followed continued to prioritize ethics. In 2021, the CCAR voluntarily hired a legal firm to investigate its ethics processes and to make recommendations for improvements.[17] This led to several recommendations that the CCAR has implemented or is in the process of implementing to improve the ethics process, including making public all but the most minor of ethical infractions of members[19]. Additionally, the CCAR issued a lengthy formal apology in September 2022 that included the following language:

"With sincerity of heart and intention, the CCAR apologizes for the hurt that our organization and our ethics system have caused. We acknowledge that there have been times when we failed to meet our own high standards and we are deeply sorry. We apologize, and we are committed to working diligently for a better future."[20]

The report and the actions that followed were welcomed and celebrated by many. Rabbi Mary Zamore, the executive of the Womens Rabbinic Network was quoted in an 2021 Jewish Telegraph Agency article saying "Something historic is happening,I never thought I would see this day.”[21]

The recommendations were also criticized by some[22] as not sufficiently addressing concerns,[23][24][14] including allowing for the continued use of lay investigators and for allowing fellow rabbis to decide who could determine whether an offender is fit to return to the pulpit.[22] However, it should be noted that the practice of peer review and adjudication is commonplace across many professional organizations in the United States such as the National Association of Social Workers[25], the American Medical Association, the American Psychological Association[26], and the American Bar Association.[27]

The CCAR continues to improve its ethics process and now provides annual progress reports about the ethics system.

List of presidents

References

  1. ^ "Supporting Rabbi Richard Jacobs," Jewish Telegraphic Agency, May 5, 2011
  2. ^ "Board of Trustees".
  3. ^ "CCAR Staff".
  4. ^ "Rabbis Refuse Phone 'War' Tax" Gospel Herald 8 August 1972, p. 630
  5. ^ "Rabbi Janet Marder becomes president of Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR)". Retrieved 3 December 2014.
  6. ^ "Rabbis group joins N.C. same-sex marriage suit". Archived from the original on 14 July 2014. Retrieved 3 December 2014.
  7. ^ "Rabbis Join Marriage Equality Fight". Advocate.com. 6 June 2014. Retrieved 3 December 2014.
  8. ^ Tess Cutler, "Rabbi Denise Eger seeks to open doors wider to all Jews", The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, March 4, 2015.
  9. ^ "Reform rabbis install first openly gay president, Denise Eger | Jewish Telegraphic Agency". Jta.org. 16 March 2015. Retrieved 2015-03-16.
  10. ^ a b "The Reform movement's rabbinical group appoints its first female leader".
  11. ^ "CCAR Ethics". Central Conference of American Rabbis. Retrieved 2024-03-08.
  12. ^ a b Berger, Paul. "When Reform Leaders Downplay Charges of Rabbis Behaving Badly". The Forward. Retrieved 2022-01-31.
  13. ^ Kohn, Shoshana (2015-05-29). "The Mistress's Rabbi". Archived from the original on 29 May 2015. Retrieved 2022-01-31.
  14. ^ a b Feldman, Ari. "Reform Rabbi Was Secretly Censured For Affair With Congregant". The Forward. Retrieved 2022-01-31.
  15. ^ Hoffman, Sarah. "Rabbinic abuse: 26 power & control tactics". blogs.timesofisrael.com. Retrieved 2022-01-31.
  16. ^ a b "When Rabbis Go Astray (part 3 of 5): Critics Push for Stricter Codes for Handling Sexual Misconduct". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. 1996-09-19. Retrieved 2022-01-31.
  17. ^ a b Shalev, Asaf (2021-08-11). "The Reform movement is investigating itself over history of rabbinic sexual misconduct". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Retrieved 2022-01-31.
  18. ^ Feldman, Ari. "Reform Group Knew About Complaints Against Rabbi, But Didn't Tell His Synagogue". The Forward. Retrieved 2022-01-31.
  19. ^ "CCAR Ethics Updates and Notifications". Central Conference of American Rabbis. Retrieved 2024-03-08.
  20. ^ CCAR, The (2022-09-15). "An Apology from the Central Conference of American Rabbis". Central Conference of American Rabbis. Retrieved 2024-03-08.
  21. ^ Elia-Shalev, Asaf (2021-08-11). "The Reform movement is investigating itself over history of rabbinic sexual misconduct". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Retrieved 2024-03-08.
  22. ^ a b Hoffman, Sarah. "CCAR's External Ethics Investigation: A Participating Survivor's Perspective". blogs.timesofisrael.com. Retrieved 2022-01-31.
  23. ^ Hoffman, Sarah. "Petition the Reform Movement to Stop Sexual Abuse Cover-Ups". blogs.timesofisrael.com. Retrieved 2022-01-31.
  24. ^ Dreyfus, Hannah. "Can Rabbinic Ethics Committees Police Their Own?". jewishweek.timesofisrael.com. Retrieved 2022-01-31.
  25. ^ "Code of Ethics: English". www.socialworkers.org. Retrieved 2024-03-08.
  26. ^ www.apa.org https://www.apa.org/ethics/complaint. Retrieved 2024-03-08. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  27. ^ "American Bar Association Code of Ethics".
  28. ^ "Past Presidents Council". Central Conference of American Rabbis. Retrieved 2023-03-07.

External links

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