Editing Joel Roth (rabbi)

{{Short description|American rabbi}}
{{distinguish|Joel Roth (cyclist)}}
{{BLP sources|date=July 2024}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox religious biography
| background     = #FFA500
| name           = Joel Roth
| image          =
| religion       = [[Conservative Judaism]]
| alias          = 
| location       = 
| Title          = [[Rabbi]], Professor
| Period         = <!--{{Birth year and age||}}-->
| Predecessor    = 
| Successor      = 
| ordination     = 1968
| post           = 
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| death_date  = <!--{{Death year and age||}}-->
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}}

'''Joel Roth''' is an [[Americans|American]] [[rabbi]] in the [[Rabbinical Assembly]], which is the rabbinical body of [[Conservative Judaism]]. He is a former member<ref name="rothresigns">{{cite web|url=http://www.jta.org/page_view_story.asp?intarticleid=17355&intcategoryid=4 |title=Conflicting Conservative opinions expected to open the way for gays |accessdate=December 7, 2006 |author=Ben Harris |date=December 6, 2006 |publisher=Jewish Telegraphic Agency |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20061211044018/http://www.jta.org/page_view_story.asp?intarticleid=17355&intcategoryid=4 |archivedate=December 11, 2006 |quote=Roth and [[Leonard Levy (rabbi)|Leonard Levy]], along with Rabbis [[Mayer Rabinowitz]] and [[Joseph Prouser]], resigned from the law committee to protest its endorsement of the liberal Dorff paper. |url-status=dead }}</ref> and chair of the assembly's ''[[Committee on Jewish Law and Standards]]'' (CJLS) which deals with questions of [[Halakha|Jewish law and tradition]], and serves as the Louis Finkelstein Professor of [[Talmud]] and Jewish Law at the [[Jewish Theological Seminary of America]] (JTSA or JTS) in [[New York City]], where he formerly served as dean of the Rabbinical School.<ref name="JTA">{{cite web |url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-2238131.html |title= Dean of JTS Rabbinical School resigns after making sexual remark to student |accessdate=November 29, 2006 |author=Debra Nussbaum Cohen  |date=April 5, 1993  |publisher=Jewish Telegraphic Agency  |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110516141003/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-2238131.html|archivedate=May 16, 2011|url-status=dead |quote=Rabbi Joel Roth, dean of the Jewish Theological Seminary's rabbinical school, has resigned in the wake of a scandal that has derailed the career of the Conservative movement's most prominent interpreter of Jewish law and tradition.
 }}</ref>  He is also Rosh Yeshiva (head of school) of the [[Conservative Yeshiva]] in Jerusalem, an institution founded and maintained by the United Synagogue for Conservative Judaism and under the academic auspices of JTS. In 2006, Roth took over as chair of the Hebrew Language department at JTS.

==Education==
{{BLP unreferenced section|date=July 2024}}
Roth received a BA from [[Wayne State University]] in his hometown of Detroit. He received his master's degree at JTS, where he was ordained in 1968. That same year, Roth was appointed to the faculty of JTS as he continued his studies toward a PhD in Talmud, which he received in 1973. In the early 1970s Roth taught at the Prozdor of the Highland Park (N.J.) Conservative Temple and Center. Upon receiving his Ph.D., he was made an associate professor at JTS. Roth has held four key administrative positions, serving as dean of students of [[List College]] (then called Seminary College), director of the Melton Research Center for Jewish Education, and both associate dean and dean of the rabbinical school.

==Career==
Roth served as dean of the rabbinical school from 1981 to 1984 as well as in 1992–1993, resigning both times after a major scandal.  Roth resigned in 1984 as part of a settlement of a potential lawsuit by the family of a student whom Roth had allegedly sexually harassed.<ref name="JTA" />  The accusation was kept secret at the time, though it came to light when an anonymous letter surfaced in 1993 during Roth's second term as dean.<ref name="JTA" />  Then, on March 29, 1993, Roth resigned after he allegedly made a sexually explicit statement to a student at the seminary's West Coast affiliate, the Los Angeles-based [[University of Judaism]] (now the [[American Jewish University]]), during a group interview.{{citation needed|date=July 2024}}

An expert in Conservative approaches to, and interpretations of, the halakhah, Roth was appointed to the [[Committee on Jewish Law and Standards]] in 1978, and served as chairman for eight years.  Many of his responsa for the CJLS have been published in a number of collections by the Rabbinical Assembly and the [[United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism]].  In addition to articles and responsa for the committee, Roth has written ''The Halakhic Process: A Systemic Analysis'' and ''Sefer ha-Mordecai: Tractate Kiddushin.'' He is most well known for writing an influential [[responsum]] supporting the ordination of women as rabbis, which was considered by the JTS faculty as part of its 1983 women's ordination decision.  Roth is also author of a responsum arguing that homosexuality is forbidden specifically to Jews, supporting reaffirmation of the Conservative movement's then current stance  excluding open homosexuals from JTS rabbinic and cantorial schools, but arguing against a view that homosexuality is generally immoral or a social wrong.

On December 6, 2006, Roth resigned from the [[Committee on Jewish Law and Standards]] 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.<ref name="rothresigns" /> The committee also adopted Roth's own, diametrically opposed responsum, maintaining a complete prohibition on homosexual conduct.<ref>{{cite web|title=Joel Roth, Homosexuality Revisited, Rabbinical Assembly, December 6, 2006 |url=http://www.rabbinicalassembly.org/docs/Roth_Final.pdf |accessdate=January 23, 2007 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070422081604/http://www.rabbinicalassembly.org/docs/Roth_Final.pdf |archivedate=April 22, 2007 }}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060526010354/http://www.jtsa.edu/rabbinical/women/roth.pdf#search='roth%20women%20rabbi' Joel Roth, ''On the Ordination of Women as Rabbis'']
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060510060513/http://www.uscj.org/POINTRoth6331.html Joel Roth, ''We Can't Legitimate Homosexuality Halakhically'']
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20101127125019/http://rabbinicalassembly.org/teshuvot/docs/19912000/roth_homosexual.pdf Joel Roth, ''Homosexuality'' (1992)]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20080410070551/http://www.jtsa.edu/x1363.xml?ID_NUM=100491 Rabbi Roth's Bio at www.jtsa.edu]

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[[Category:Year of birth missing (living people)]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:American Conservative rabbis]]
[[Category:American male non-fiction writers]]
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[[Category:Jewish Theological Seminary of America semikhah recipients]]
[[Category:Clergy from Detroit]]
[[Category:Wayne State University alumni]]
[[Category:Conservative rosh yeshivas]]