26 April 11 • 2019
jn
yeshivah does not discuss particular
students and why any student may or
may not be receiving semicha.
”
Linzer added that the yeshivah
could have handled the process of
informing Atwood in a much better
manner.
“I’
ve never been more disappointed
in Modern Orthodoxy and its institu-
tions,
” Lopatin said. “We are supposed
to stand for an unfearing loyalty to
Halachah, and it seems to me there are
so many who are acting out of fear and
not who they really believe halachically
can be a rabbi. We’
re supposed to fear
God alone; we’
re not supposed to fear
what other Jews are going to say about
it … It’
s a real shameful moment”
Several graduates of the school said
alumni are divided over the school’
s
handling of this decision.
“People look to Chovevei to be a
beacon for people who are trying to
stay committed to the Orthodox world
and at the same time not have to com-
promise their moral values,
” said Rabbi
Aaron Potek, an alumnus and now
the rabbi at GatherDC in Washington,
D.C. “If the leadership at Chovevei
can’
t find a way to make space for gay
Orthodox rabbis, that sends a pretty
devastating message to that commu-
nity and to the broader Orthodox
community about what is and is not
possible to be included in that world.
”
Others defended the school, noting
the requirement for YCT students
to be fully committed to Orthodox
Halachah and Atwood’
s recent engage-
ment to his partner with whom he
lives. In 2010, YCT faculty members
issued a document urging compassion
and inclusion for LGBT members of
the Orthodox community, but also
asserted that “Halakhic Judaism can-
not give its blessing and imprimatur to
Jewish religious same-sex commitment
ceremonies and weddings, and hal-
akhic values proscribe individuals and
communities from encouraging prac-
tices that grant religious legitimacy to
gay marriage and couplehood.
”
Linzer, who has been the rosh
yeshiva of YCT since its founding
and assumed the role of president last
fall, has long been an advocate for
acceptance of LGBT members of the
Orthodox community. ■
continued from page 24
jews d
in
the
Iraqi Detroiters Detained
by ICE Face Deportation
After a two-year legal battle, some
Metro Detroit Iraqi nationals detained
by U.S. Immigration & Customs
Enforcement face deportation after the
full U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals
on April 2 upheld an
earlier ruling by a three-
judge panel from that
court, according to
a story in the Detroit
News.
In June 2017, the
Jewish community
immediately reached
out to support the
Chaldean community when 114
Iraqi Christian immigrants in Metro
Detroit were rounded up by immigra-
tion authorities. A team of volunteer
attorneys went into Federal District
Court and got the emergency order
they sought, an immediate stay of
removal from Judge Mark Goldsmith
that applied nationwide. Goldsmith is
a member of the Woodward Avenue
Shul.
Goldsmith issued a subsequent
ruling that the detainees should be
given bond hearings and could not be
deported until they had a chance to
plead their cases in immigration court.
That ruling led to hundreds of detain-
ees being released to their families late
last year after having spent up to 18
months in detention.
The U.S. government appealed that
ruling and a three-judge panel ruled
in December that Goldsmith had
overstepped his authority. The full U.S.
Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed.
The ACLU, which argued that
detainees sent back to Iraq could face
torture or death for their Christian
faith or for having served in the
U.S. military, brought the case titled
Hamama v. Adducci on which the
ruling was based. ACLU attorneys say
they have now run out of options.
Members of Michigan’
s congres-
sional delegation signed a bipartisan
letter to the Department of Homeland
Security on April 8 demanding a stop
to the mass deporation of Iraqi nation-
als until individual cases can be con-
sidered and evaluated by both DHS
and immigration judges, epsecially
considering the risk of persecution
faced by Iraqi Christians. ■
Judge Mark
Goldsmith
JERRY ZOLYNSKY
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or call him at 248-351-5147.
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