It is with great dismay that Agudath Israel of America receives the news of the passage of the Respect for Marriage Act, legislation that will further enshrine same-sex marriage into American law.
The repudiation by Congress of millennia-old traditional values that strictly limit marriage to a union between a man and a woman will unjustly serve to further push Torah-observant Jews, and millions of others who share those values, into a disfavored and derided caste. No legislative finding will change that reality.
Moreover, the statute’s weak and incomplete religious protections will not only leave sincere, religious individuals and institutions vulnerable but will also, unfortunately, be used as an inadequate template for future legislation.
The new law, we fear, will sow the seeds of division, not unity.