Lieberman Excommunicated by Rabbinical Court

Source: The Washington Times "Inside Politics,"

Date: October 25, 2000

A rabbinical court in Brooklyn has taken the unusual step of excommunicating Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, the democratic vice-presidential hopeful, over his stances on homosexuality and partial-birth abortion. Cybercast News Service reported on 10/24/00 that a specially-convened New York Torah Court said Mr. Lieberman had caused "grave scandal" for Judaism. "While claiming to be an observant Jew, Lieberman has been misrepresenting and falsifying to the American people the teachings of the Torah against partial-birth infanticide, against special privileges and preferential treatment for flaunting homosexuals, and against religious intermarriage of Jews," the news service quoted the court as saying. The court, called a beth din, consists of three Talmudists who convene to consider sanctions when there is a question about how a Jew has conducted himself on Jewish teachings. This declaration against Mr. Lieberman is not comparable to a Catholic excommunication, which binds the whole church. Rabbi Yehuda Levin of New York, who was not a participant, estimated the beth din's ruling represents "tens of thousands of Jews in Brooklyn and other parts of the country," and perhaps as many as 150,000 Orthodox Jews. The Gore-Lieberman press office in Nashville had no immediate response to the excommunication, the news service reported.