Religious Left

by Ethan Jacobs Bay Windows In 2005 the film Hineini, a documentary about a student at a Boston Jewish day school trying to start a gay/straight alliance (GSA), helped jumpstart a debate on LGBT inclusion in Jewish schools and communities. The film, a collaboration between the Boston-based LGBT Jewish advocacy group Keshet and filmmaker Irena Fayngold, became a powerful teaching tool for Keshet, which has sponsored screenings at schools and synagogues across the country. On Sept. 21 Keshet and Fayngold will party to mark the DVD release of Hineini at Club Café, where attendees can meet Fayngold and the film’s subject, Shulamit Izen, and hear a performance by local folkster Catie Curtis. full article Video Excerpt:

Dr. Daniel Snyder wrote a wonderful article on The Asheville Citizen Times. Here are a few excerpts: Exodus is an inspiring story and has been used in countless sermons and spiritual writings. It is the founding narrative not only for Jews and Christians, but its underlying archetypal image is found in nearly all religious traditions. I find it, therefore, deeply disturbing that The Exodus, of all narratives, would be used to describe a conference being held the week of July 15 at Ridgecrest, the Southern Baptist regional conference center near Black Mountain. Exodus International is an organization for people who presume to “heal” homosexuality. What I find particularly distressing, in addition to the obvious homophobia, is the desecration of a foundational narrative of a religious tradition I cherish. It is a sacrilege. Heal the homophobia I have read the Exodus International Web site and considered your arguments; now I would invite you to consider the possibility that God might be ...

by Kilian Melloy EDGE, Boston In contrast to previous years, Ultra-Orthodox Jewish leaders have decided that they will not protest this year’s Pride Parade in Jerusalem, scheduled for June 26. Said Jerusalem Open House Executive Director Yonatan Gher, "We have met with many public leaders of the haredi and Orthodox communities to promote understanding and especially to prevent unnecessary violence in the city." But even as Pride organizers and their conservative religious opponents managed to make overtures toward quelling further violence, the country’s politicians sought to ban the parade through legislative means. While the Ultra-orthodox say they intend to stay away from the parade and not to mount protests, the politicians have said that they will step into the gap, with plans to gather in ten places around Jerusalem on June 26 to demonstrate in protest of the Pride event. full article

Over at Yeshive World News Yechiel Spira reports : Backed by Shas officials, students from Or Yehuda yeshivas gathered hundreds of copies of the new testament along with missionary materials, which were later taken to a central location in the city and set ablaze last Thursday night. Shas officials in Or Yehuda explain that missionaries are working with fervor in the city, which they point out is against Israeli law. Attorney Meyers, representing the missionaries, told Galei Tzahal (Army Radio) on Tuesday that the action of the Orthodox Jews is illegal and immoral, drawing an analogy to the Nazis who burned Jewish books, leading to violence and the Holocaust. While over at The Jerusalem Post, Amir Mizroch writes : Or Yehuda deputy mayor: I'm sorry about burning New Testaments The burning of hundreds of New Testaments by yeshiva students in Or Yehuda last week was regrettable and unplanned, the city's deputy mayor, the man who spurred the students to act, told The Jerusalem Post...

Asher Gellis talks about his life with a modest but clear-eyed sense of wonder that fits his role as a young community activist who is just beginning to hit his stride. Next week, JQ International, an organization that has helped to nurture his development as a leader, will host a seder that will include readings from a new haggadah weaving the history of gay and lesbian people into the story of the Exodus. "There was no place to be Jewish and gay in Los Angeles," he said. "Some temples had gay programming, but they seemed more oriented toward people who were partnered, had kids." As a young man just discovering himself, Gellis said, he simply didn't connect with communities oriented around family identity -- conventional or otherwise. Then he discovered a scattered group of like-minded young gays and lesbians who were beginning to coalesce into a community. They had a variety of backgrounds -- from secular Jews who had been involved in JCCs to Orthodox Jews who...

Nehirim is a national, nondenominational organization which creates innovative programming, builds community, and offers authentic, life-affirming spiritual paths for Jewish members of sexual or gender minorities. At our weekend retreats and other programs, we create transformative spiritual and cultural community, and celebrate the unique gifts of being Jewish and queer. We have three major events coming up in the Spring of 2008. Nehirim West , our first west coast retreat, is taking place March 7-9, in Petaluma, CA. You can register now . Our first gathering for Nehirim community members will happen March 14-16 near Albany, New York. And our flagship event, the Nehirim Retreat at Isabella Freedman , is taking place May 30-June 1, and will feature Rabbi Dawn Rose, Amichai Lau-Lavie, David Brodsky, Jill Hammer, Marla Brettschneider, Cantor David Berger, and many other wonderful teachers. The core idea of Nehirim is that being queer and Jewish is a gift, not a predicament. We have uniq...

From eating figs and reciting psalms as his Rabbi suggested, to biting his tongue every time he felt attracted to a man, David tried to change. But after twenty years of trying, David realized that he couldn’t. “I don’t want to be less Jewish because I’m gay,” said the man on the screen. He was one of the dozen gay and lesbian Orthodox and Hasidic Jews featured in the 2001 documentary “Trembling Before G-d,” shown Tuesday night as one of Sex Week’s numerous events to portray different aspects of sexuality. A discussion led by Northwestern Rabbi Josh Feigelson and campus minister Reverend Julie Windsor Mitchell followed the documentary. Hillel, University Christian Ministry, NUCOR, Rainbow Alliance and A&O Films co-sponsored. In the candid discussion that followed the screening, Feigelson and Mitchell shared their thoughts on the documentary from their perspective as religious leaders. Mitchell said she was struck by “this choice that so many people felt that they were faced with in...

By Anthony Weiss Atlanta - When Gayanne Geurin Weiss and her husband went looking for an Atlanta synagogue to join, they soon found one that had everything they wanted; it was warm, friendly and spiritual. There was just one catch: It was for gay men and lesbians, and Weiss and her husband are straight. Gay and lesbian synagogues first began to appear in the early 1970s, in the wake of the 1969 Stonewall rebellion, which spurred the rise of the gay movement. Feeling unwelcome in mainstream synagogues, and inspired by the founding of gay-friendly churches, Jews in New York and Los Angeles formed congregations of their own. “If the world is going to change, we have to model that change. Gay and straight people need to build community together as Jews,” said Rabbi Denise Eger, Kol Ami’s founding rabbi. “We didn’t want to be a gay ghetto.” In that same spirit, when families such as the Weisses asked to join Bet Haverim in the mid-1990s, the congregation’s members felt that they couldn’t ju...

Gay rights groups on Thursday fiercely criticized Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann for bowing to pressure by religious parties in his decision to redraft inheritance laws. The revised bill would preclude homosexual couples from inheritance laws that apply to people in common-law marriages. The chairman of the Israeli Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Association, Mike Hamel, said that "since the beginning of his miserable term, the Justice Minister has been resolute to set Israel back 30 years." Friedmann's new bill contradicts the recommendations of a public commission headed by retired Supreme Court Justice Jacob Turkel. The commission was appointed in 1999 to reform the 1965 inheritance law. The minister decided to limit the proposed inheritance law to "a man and a woman who lead a family life in a joint household." The original bill, which the committee approved, however, proposed to regard all "partners who live together in a common household...