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GOP Jews Back Same-Sex Marriage Efforts

Business leaders also join a growing chorus

by
Adam Chandler
March 04, 2013
Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein(Getty)
Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein(Getty)

Last week, our intrepid senior writer Allison Hoffman detailed the friend-of-the-court briefs penned by various Jewish groups in support of efforts to overturn the Defense of Marriage Act. Hoffman wrote:

Among the many groups filing in favor of overturning the federal ban on gay marriage are the central bodies of every major Jewish denomination except Orthodoxy–the Union for Reform Judaism; the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, the Conservative Rabbinical Assembly, and the the Jewish Theological Seminary; the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association and College–and a lone Orthodox rabbi, Akiva Herzfeld of Shaarey Tphiloh in Portland, Maine. They join civil rights groups and a list of 278 prominent American corporations, from Citigroup to Apple, asking the court to recognize same-sex marriage.

As it turns out, there are other Jewish notables making headway into the fray and, over the weekend, we found out more about them. First, gracing the cover of the Times business section was Lloyd Blankfein, the CEO of Goldman Sachs, who in speaking out in favor of gay marriage last month, thought he was part of a new wave. It turned out he was alone, but not for long.

It’s not lonely anymore. This week, Goldman Sachs was one of more than 100 corporations that lodged their support for same-sex marriage in two briefs filed with the Supreme Court. “I think people wanted to attach themselves to what may be the last great civil rights issue of our time,” Mr. Blankfein said.

Some Jewish Republicans and conservatives are also starting to come around. Long-time Republican strategist Rich Galen tweeted this on Saturday:

Rich Galen (@richgalen)
Honored to be 1 of 2 father-son teams to sign the GOP’s amicus brief pro gay marriage. Me and @reedgalen as well as Ben & Josh Ginsberg

It’s not a startling number yet, but it’s a start.

On a related note, conservative blogger Jennifer Rubin, who has spoken out in favor of a Republican reassessment of the issue of gay marriage, took some heat this week for denouncing the Conservative Political Action Conference’s exclusion of GOProud, a conservative gay group, which ironically enough, aims to aid the Republican capture of minority votes.

Adam Chandler was previously a staff writer at Tablet. His work has appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Atlantic, Slate, Esquire, New York, and elsewhere. He tweets @allmychandler.