Gay Rabbi To Head Rabbinical Group

Yesterday Rabbi Jason Klein was elected to head the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association. He is the first openly gay man to head any such group in the United States.  Israel's Haaretz reports:

Reconstructionist and Reform seminaries have ordained gay rabbis for decades. The Conservative movement began to allow openly gay rabbis to attend their seminaries in 2006. Orthodox seminaries and rabbinic associations continue to bar gay rabbis. The Reconstructionist movement is the smallest and newest of the non-Orthodox movements in the United States. Its ideas, however, have been particularly influential, and graduates of its seminary, the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Seminary, fill a wide range of positions throughout the Jewish community.

UDPATE: JMG reader Wayne writes to note that the group was earlier headed by openly lesbian Toba Spitzer.