Mayer Rabinowitz is a Conservative rabbi and a professor of

Talmud The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of Haskalah#Effects, modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cen ...

at the

Jewish Theological Seminary of America The Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) is a Conservative Jewish education organization in New York City, New York. It is one of the academic and spiritual centers of Conservative Judaism as well as a hub for academic scholarship in Jewish studies ...

. Rabinowitz is a recognized authority on

Jewish law ''Halakha'' ( ; , ), also transliterated as ''halacha'', ''halakhah'', and ''halocho'' ( ), is the collective body of Jewish religious laws that are derived from the Written and Oral Torah. ''Halakha'' is based on biblical commandments ('' mit ...

who served on the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the

Rabbinical Assembly The Rabbinical Assembly (RA) is the international association of Conservative rabbis. The RA was founded in 1901 to shape the ideology, programs, and practices of the Conservative movement. It publishes prayerbooks and books of Jewish interest, an ...

for twenty-five years. His

halakhic ''Halakha'' ( ; , ), also transliterated as ''halacha'', ''halakhah'', and ''halocho'' ( ), is the collective body of Jewish religious laws that are derived from the Written and Oral Torah. ''Halakha'' is based on biblical commandments (''mitzv ...

papers have dealt with the ordination of women as rabbis, the observance of Yom Tov Sheini in Israel, the stunning and bolting of animals, homosexuality, and transsexuality. On December 6, 2006, Rabinowitz resigned from the committee after the acceptance of a paper by Rabbis Elliot Dorff, Daniel Nevins and Avram Reisner on homosexual relationships and ordination of homosexual rabbis, while it upheld the biblical prohibition on male intercourse. His seminal works also deal on highly sensitive issues like halakhic questions of SRS and status of transsexuals.

References

Year of birth missing (living people) Living people 21st-century American male writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American rabbis American Conservative rabbis American male non-fiction writers Jewish American non-fiction writers Jewish Theological Seminary of America semikhah recipients {{US-rabbi-stub