Legacy runs deep in Judaism, shaping both who we are and the choices we make.

For me, that legacy is embodied by my grandfather, Rabbi Alexander M. Shapiro, who was a leader in the Conservative movement through a time of profound transformation. His tenure as president of the Rabbinical Assembly in the mid-1980s — amidst debates over women’s ordination — was marked by a willingness to create a home for many points of view and a principled courage to ensure that women were set on equal footing as men to be rabbinic leaders in the Conservative movement.

As he said in his address at the 1985 Rabbinical Assembly Convention in Miami,

To reach the point finally in which women rabbis will be accepted and then to find that what is present is not openness of the spirit and readiness to hear, but instead anger and resentment is for me a betrayal of many of the hopes of those who participated in the very long process of finding a proper and honorable place for women within Jewish life.

My Sabba’s lessons, spoken four decades ago, are more relevant to me now than ever, as I wrestle with my own journey and the struggles of the movement I once called home.

I recently made the difficult and deeply personal decision to officially resign from the Rabbinical Assembly, the union of rabbis my grandfather led 40 years ago. Why? Because I could not in good conscience remain a member while being prohibited from co-officiating intermarriages — ceremonies that I, from deep study and pastoral experience, have come to believe are not only possible within the halakhic, or Jewish legal, tradition, but are also vital for the future of American Judaism.

This decision was not........

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