Religious Left

JTA News A same-sex commitment ceremony was held in a synagogue in Sydney, an Australian first. Scott Whitmont, 47, and Christopher Whitmont-Stein, 38, stood under a chupah at the Emanuel Synagogue Sunday in front of about 75 guests. The pair, who had a secular commitment ceremony six years ago, exchanged rings, smashed a glass and walked around each other 3 1/2 times. The celebration follows a decision in May 2007 by the Council of Progressive Rabbis of Asia, Australia and New Zealand to allow its rabbis to officiate at same-sex commitment ceremonies. full article

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...