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—
San Francisco (JTA) —
Stung by accusations of sex-
ual misconduct in the rab-
binate, the governing body
for Reform rabbis has ap-
proved what it calls its most
stringent ethical guide- lines
ever.
The new code, which is
designed to remove the
secrecy that often accom-
panies charges of ethical
misconduct, was passed by
the movement's Central
Conference of American
Rabbis this summer in Mon-
treal at its annual con-
ference.
The committee made three
main changes in its original
ethics code, which was last
amended in 1991. Under the
new rules:
• CCAR's national Com-
mittee on Ethics and Ap-
peals is permitted to in-
vestigate a rabbi when it be-
lieves an ethical violation
has occurred, even if no one
has filed a formal complaint.
• If a full-scale ethics
committee investigation of
a rabbi ensues, the com-
mittee can recommend that
the rabbi be frozen out of the
CCAR's placement service.
That could seriously limit a
rabbi's chances of finding a new
pulpit while under investiga-
tion of misconduct.
• Once a rabbi has been
reprimanded or censured,
news of the punishment will
be printed in the CCAR's
monthly newsletter. The
newsletter, which goes out to
the 1,700 North American
Reform rabbis, will not,
however, print the nature of
the ethical violation.
"These are enormous
changes," said Rabbi Con-
stance Golden, a member of
the Committee on Ethics
and Appeals who emphasiz-
ed the need for greater
openness about the in-
vestigation process.
"There's a big rumor mill
out there," said Rabbi
Golden, a pulpit rabbi in
Philadelphia. "It used to be
that the ethics committee
couldn't do anything unless
there was something in
writing. If no one brought it
to us, (an ethics violation)
would have gone by the
wayside."
The changes in the code
follow a string of highly
publicized sexual miscon-
duct allegations that have
rocked the Reform move-
ment — as well as the
Catholic Church and several
Christian denominations —
over the past few years.
Before those allegations
began to surface, sexual
misconduct among clergy
was not seen as a major
problem, said Rabbi Julie
Spitzer, Mid-Atlantic Coun-
cil regional director of the
Union of American Hebrew
Congregations' in Washing-
ton, D.C., an organization
that represents Reform syn-
agogues throughout North'
America.
"When there were kids in-
volved, or gross multiple
violations, those things were
considered rare, particularly
in the Jewish community,"
said Rabbi Spitzer, also a
member of the advisory
board of the Center for
Prevention of Sexual and
Domestic Violence.
"Among religious leaders
in America right now," she
added, "sexual misconduct is
probably the hottest topic."
The Rabbinical Code of
Ethics — the formal name
for the new CCAR
Once a rabbi has
been reprimanded
or censured, news
of the punishment
will be printed in
the CCAR's monthly
newsletter.
guidelines — includes sec-
tions on the "avoidance of
commercialism" by con-
gregational rabbis to
discourage the selling of
spiritual services; regula-
tions against rabbinic sexual
relationships with congrega-
tion, staff and other rabbis;
and descriptions of how
violations of the code will be
investigated.
Reform rabbis are required
to follow all aspects of the
code.
The recent changes in the
code "are in reaction to what
has transpired not only in
the rabbinate, but in
organized religion in gen-
eral," said Rabbi Arnold
Sher, CCAR director of
placement in New York.
"The CCAR tried to give
more teeth to its ethics
code," he said.
"The ethics committee can