Claudia Peschiutta
GLENDALE -- Members of Temple Sinai of Glendale are trying to keep the
issue of deciding whether to continue sponsoring a Cub Scout pack from
becoming a divisive one within their community.
The temple's board of directors chose this week to form a committee of
congregation leaders and scouting parents to consider the matter. The
move comes less than a month after Reform Jewish authorities called on
congregations to cut ties with the Boy Scouts of America, due to the
organization's ban on homosexual leaders.
"It's a very complicated issue warranting a good deal of study,"
Temple President Jerry Burman said Friday.
"We have to talk to each other and listen to each other and come to
understand all of the principles contained in all of the arguments," he
said.
The pack's sponsorship could come up for a vote at the board of
director's meeting in February.
Burman declined to discuss his own views on the issue.
"I still have to take in a lot of information," he said.
A joint commission of two national Reform Jewish groups said in a
statement released earlier this month that working with the Boy Scouts is
"incompatible with our consistent belief that every individual --
regardless of his or her sexual orientation -- is created in the image of
God and is deserving of equal treatment."
The statement comes in response to last year's U.S. Supreme Court
decision that allows the Boy Scouts to exclude openly gay men from the
organization.
Temple Sinai's Rabbi Carole Meyers has said she has long had qualms
about maintaining ties to the Boy Scouts because of the group's
discriminatory policy.
"I think we were hoping that the situation would somehow resolve
itself," Burman said.
But the statement from the Union of American Hebrew Congregations and
the Central Conference of American Rabbis has forced Temple Sinai members
to grapple with the issue themselves.
Burman said it has caused "very, very little" tension within the
congregation.
Michael Deaktor, leader of Cub Scout Pack No. 180, said he would like
to see Temple Sinai amend its scouting charter and begin a letter-writing
campaign urging the Boy Scouts to change its policy.
Parents with children in the Cub Scout program are concerned about the
issue, said Deaktor, who has a son in the pack.
"We hear expressions like, 'Don't throw out the baby with the bath
water,' " he said. "We feel the temple needs to make some other attempts
to do more work before they throw out the program."
The pack's activities will continue as usual, for now, Deaktor said.
