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Canadian Jews
Censor Magazine

New York (JTA) — Canada's
Conservative Jews have long
been discomfited by the willing-
ness of their colleagues south of
the border to ordain women. And
recently, some refused to be good
campers about it.
The Canadian arm of the Con-
servative movement's camp sys-
tem refused to distribute the
Summer 1994 issue of Ramah —
the Magazine because it includ-
ed an article about female camp
alumnae who now serve as Con-
servative rabbis and cantors.
The magazine's former editor,
Lori Forman, has charged that
the Conservative movement's
leadership in New York did not
s-ufficiently push the Canadians
to send out the issue because it
was afraid of losing the funding
the Canadians provide to the
Jewish Theological Seminary.
That charge was disputed by
a seminary spokesman.
According to the director of
Camp Ramah in Canada, camp
officials refused to distribute the
issue because they felt that the
article on clergywomen repre-
sented American, rather than
Canadian, Conservative values,
said Rabbi Mitch Cohen, director
of the camp.
"Anything having to do with
women's rights in the movement
is very, very sensitive here," said
Rabbi Cohen. "But this has less
to do with women's rights than
with American control over Cana-
dian values.
"Camp Ramah in Canada still
has a form of religious practice
which is not completely egalitar-
ian," Rabbi Cohen said.
"That form of religious practice
still needs to be respected, and is
not by many people in our move-
ment."
The Committee on Jewish Law
and Standards, which serves as
the official interpreter of Ha-
lachah for the Conservative
movement, decided in 1983 to
allow the ordination of women as
rabbis.
But the Conservative move-
ment in Canada remains far
more conservative than its Amer-
ican counterpart. Most Canadi-
an Conservative congregations
are not egalitarian, and only one,
in Halifax, Nova Scotia, has hired
a female rabbi, compared to
dozens in the United States.
According to Ms. Forman, the
Canadians feared the article
about clergywomen would be
"bad publicity" and could drive
away the 75 campers from Or-
thodox homes who attended the
camp.
But, said Ms. Forman, herself
a Conservative rabbi who spent
eight summers of her youth at-

tending Ramah camps, more
than half the campers at the
Camp Ramah in Canada are
Americans from Detroit, Cleve-
land and Pittsburgh, whose egal-
itarian practices should be
respected.
Ms. Forman has since left the
magazine, as scheduled, to be-
come interreligious program con-
sultant at the American Jewish
Committee.
The Ramah system includes
seven camps — six in the United
States and one in Canada —
which serve about 4,000 campers
a year.
Camp Ramah Canada, locat-
ed two hours north of Toronto in
Utterson, Ontario, employs a
modified form of egalitarianism
in its worship services. According
to Rabbi Cohen, girls are per-
mitted the honor of being called
up to the Torah, but are not
counted toward a minyan.
The controversy over the mag-
azine has been simmering since
the spring, when Ms. Forman dis-
tributed proofs of the magazine
to Camp Ramah officials.
Citing opposition to the article
about the clergywomen, leaders
of Canada's camp refused to send
Ms. Forman the mailing labels
for the magazine.
Ms. Forman and 46 other fe-
male rabbis and cantors sent a
letter to Rabbi Ismar Schorsch,
the chancellor of the Jewish The-

The controversy over
the magazine has
been simmering
since the spring.

ological Seminary and head of the
Leadership Council of Conserva-
tive Judaism, and asked him to
intervene.
By June, according to Ms. For-
man, Canadian rabbis were
threatening to withhold money
from JTS if the magazine was
distributed in Canada. Rabbi
Schorsch and Sheldon Dorph, na-
tional Ramah director, went to
Canada to make sure funding
was not cut off, she said.
"Canada has threatened over
and over to leave the movement"
over the issue of ordaining
women, she said, "and the semi-
nary is trying very hard not to
lose them for fund-raising rea-
sons."
According to JTS spokesman
Shammai Engelmayer, "The
Canadian office has a right to dis-
tribute magazines as they see fit.
Not everyone in Canada agrees
with egalitarianism.

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