Jewish seminaries doing it right (and by it, I mean ‘it’) [Sex!]

Big news, folks. Three American Jewish seminaries have been pronounced “sexually healthy:”

1. Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, the Reform seminary with branches in Cincinnati, New York City and Los Angeles
2. Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, the — you guessed it — Reconstructionist seminary in Philly
3. Jewish Theological Seminary, the Conservative seminary in New York City

The Religious Institute (rather expansively names for an institution that says calls itself “a multifaith organization dedicated to advocating for sexual health, education, and justice in faith communities and society”) has announced that 20 Jewish and Christian seminaries in America are doing it  right.

I shudder to think what conditions are like at seminaries that didn’t make the cut. Throngs of sexually unhealthy seminarians roaming the halls…

Conspicuously missing from the list:

1. Yeshiva University’s Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, the flagship seminary of centrist Modern Orthodoxy — no surprise there
2. Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, the seminary of Open Orthodoxy — perhaps a little surprise there
3. American Jewish University’s Ziegler School of Rabbinical Studies, JTS’s West Coast counterpart — definite surprise there
4. Hebrew College, the pluralist seminary in Boston — big surprise there

The announcement only has details on a few of the institutions listed. About HUC, it says:

Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York now includes gender identity and gender expression in its non-discrimination policy, and will display a groundbreaking collection of Jewish art that addresses gender and sexuality issues at its museum in Fall 2012, the first ever at a Jewish museum.

And about JTS:

The Jewish Theological Seminary developed two full-semester courses on sexuality issues, and now requires at least one full-semester sexuality-related course as well as clergy sexual misconduct training for all rabbinical students prior to graduation. Going forward, almost all Conservative rabbis in the U.S. will have at least one full course on sexuality issues, including education on sexual orientation and gender identity, as well as a professional sexual misconduct training—all as a direct result of this project.

No details are given on RRC.

In addition to the three Jewish seminaries listed, there are some noteworthy Jew-ish institutions on the list as well:

1. Andover Newton Theological School in Newton Centre, Mass. also houses Hebrew College on its campus (conspicuously missing from the list, as I said before)
2. Drew Theological School, which represents the far left wing of the United Methodist Church, is really only notable for the fact that it’s part of my alma mater, Drew University. Drew, by the way, has a Jewish president, a Jewish dean of the undergraduate college and a Jewish dean of the grad school. In fact, the only non-Jew left in one those top positions is the head of the Theo School, Jeffrey Kuan. (And as I learned while interviewing him when he was new at Drew, he’s a scholar the Jewish Bible, anyway.)