Interdenominational activities - The Jewish Standard

It is good that Rabbi Goldin reminds us that he and other Orthodox leaders “place a high premium on interdenominational activities” (Letters, January 10). I hope he can elucidate his statement by explaining to us why the Forward reported that the installation of Rabbi Asher Lopatin to succeed Rabbi Avi Weiss at YCT, which featured an interdenominational panel of distinguished (non-Orthodox) leaders, attracted few if any rabbis in the YU-RCA circle.

I suggest that the incident which provoked the reactions by Rabbis Goldin and Zahavy (an Orthodox rabbi pointedly refusing to enter a Conservative service) (“Dear Rabbi, January 3) might be explained further by the following statement by Rav Soloveitchik (z”l): “It would be better not to hear the shofar [on the High Holydays] than to enter a synagogue whose sanctity has been profaned [by mixed seating].”

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