November 17, 2005

Once a rabbi, always a rabbi Kaye quits rabbinic assn.; retains title

WASHINGTON (DC)
Washington Jewish Week

by Eric Fingerhut
Staff Writer

Rabbi David Kaye has resigned from Conservative Judaism's rabbinical association, but the title of "rabbi" cannot be taken away from him.

Such a designation is earned when one graduates from rabbinical school, according to leaders in the Conservative and Reconstructionist movement.

Kaye submitted his resignation to the Rabbinical Assembly a few days before the airing of the Nov. 4 Dateline NBC hidden camera investigation of sexual predators on the Internet in which he was ensnared.

A former rabbi at Congregation Har Shalom in Potomac, Kaye also resigned his position with the teen educational group Panim: The Institute for Jewish Leadership and Values due to the Dateline program.

Rabbi Joel Meyers, the R.A.'s executive vice president, said that giving up membership in the organization essentially means that Kaye is "no longer a member of the Conservative rabbinate" and "can't function as a Conservative rabbi."

Posted by kshaw at November 17, 2005 07:34 PM