Resolution Adopted by the CCAR
Equal Rights Amendment
Adopted by the CCAR at the 90th Annual Convention of
the Central Conference of American Rabbis
Phoenix, Arizona, March 26-29, 1979
The Reform Movement in Germany, and in the USA and Canada. has consistently espoused
the concept of the equality of women: The 1845 Frankfurt-am-Main decision to count
women in the minyan
; the 1846 Breslau concern for total religious equality of women; the 1893 USA clarification
that women have an equal congregational vote; the 1922 decision of the CCAR to support
the ordination of women; and the 1975 CCAR resolution which encourages egalitarian textbooks, life cycle ceremonies, the election of women as rabbis and cantors,
and the election of women to boards of Reform organizations.
In 1975 the CCAR resolved to “urge speedy ratification of ERA” and “pledged efforts
in the various states to work for its ratification ” This support of the ERA has
also been echoed by the other major organizations of Reform Judaism, including the
UAHC, the NFTS, and the NATE.
Resolved
, therefore, that the CCAR will convene future conventions only in ratified states
until the question of ERA is decided. The members of the CCAR will also work to further
the passage of ERA in their states and will seriously assume the leadership and educational role necessary to upgrade the status of women in Reform Jewish Communities.