First openly gay Orthodox rabbi ordaed Jesalem - Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Contents:

• MEET THE GAY RABBI
• FIRST OPENLY GAY ORTHODOX RABBI ORDAED JESALEM
• LGBTQ+ AFFIRMG THERAPISTS MEDFORD, OR
• GAY RABBIS
• MAJOR US JEWISH GROUP ELECTS 1ST OPENLY GAY RABBI
• EXPLORE GAY ROOMS & RENTALS MEDFORD
• AM I A GAY RABBI, OR AM I A RABBI WHO IS GAY?
• WE ORTHODOX JEWS SPERATELY NEED GAY RABBIS
• ORDAG GAYS AND LBIANS: DENOMATNAL APPROACH
• JEWISH EDIAN MODI ROSENFELD, A MASTAY FOR ORTHODOX DIENC, IS GAY. SO WHAT?
• AND GOD CREATED GAYS: THE FIRST OPENLY GAY ORTHODOX RABBI TALKS ABOUT COMG OUT, PA, AND PARENTHOOD
• MEET AARON KATZ, POLAND'S FIRST OPENLY GAY RABBI

MEET THE GAY RABBI

“A lot of my work is about nstctg homophobia and transphobia whout changg what the Torah says, ” he said. This means we affirm and clu people who are lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, and queer at every level of ngregatnal life— worship, programmg, and social ocsns—welg them as whole people. Rporate an unrstandg of the experience of lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, and queer persons throughout all of our programs, cludg relig tn.

Affirm and celebrate lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, and queer issu and history.

Advote for lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, and queer people, promotg jtice, eedom, and equaly the larger society. We speak out when the rights and digny of lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, and queer people are at stake.

FIRST OPENLY GAY ORTHODOX RABBI ORDAED JESALEM

We regnize that there’s always somethg more to learn, and rema open to epeng our unrstandg of the liv of lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, and queer people.

JERUSALEM (JTA) — A gay rabbil stunt nied ordatn by a liberal semary New York was weled to the rabbate Jesalem, breakg a longstandg taboo agast homosexualy the Orthodox muny.

Many young gay Orthodox Jews who would have prevly left the fold are stayg “and ’s almost unimagable for them to not have a place, ” he ntued.

LGBTQ+ AFFIRMG THERAPISTS MEDFORD, OR

The Renstctnist and Reform movements began ordag gay rabbis the 1980s, wh the Conservative movement followg 2006. For his part, Lans do not believe that the Biblil prohibn of same-sex relatns appli to people for whom homosexualy is “not an act of voln” and thks that there is room for LGBT Jews the wir muny.

GAY RABBIS

Rabbi Nathan Lop Cardozo, another proment rabbi who has ocsnally e to nflict wh the Orthodox mastream, agreed wh Lans, tellg JTA that while he didn’t have a rabbic source to back up, he believ that “the prohibn [on homosexual acts] only appli to those who are purely heterosexual. Assertg that Orthodox views of homosexualy have been slowly changg, he said that there is a new awarens that “they’re not pedophil, they’re not people of falsehood or whatever, they’re good people.

Lans said that the genis of his transformatn om the mastream Orthodox posn, which views homosexualy as a grave s, me several s ago after he explaed to members of his own ngregatn the Uned Stat why he had cled to attend a nference anized by the Central Conference of Amerin Rabbis after the Reform-affiliated group passed a rolutn on LGBT cln. And while the rabbi ially uldn’t image gay Jews wantg to rema the Orthodox muny, let alone bee Jewish scholars unr s spic, he now has a different view.

MAJOR US JEWISH GROUP ELECTS 1ST OPENLY GAY RABBI

“I thk we will start wh the gay muny self and if there is the abily to create a real muny on the relig level will lead to acceptance or maybe will be limed for a long perd, ” he said. gay. Gay Pri flags 370.

The Renstctnist Rabbil Associatn has elected an openly gay rabbi to lead the natnal rabbic Jason Kle, the executive director of Hillel at the Universy of Maryland, Baltimore County, sce 2006, was elected to lead the RRA durg s 39th annual nventn New Orleans, which end on Wednday. It is the first natnal rabbic associatn of one of the major Jewish nomatns the Uned Stat to be led by a gay man, acrdg to the was ordaed by the Renstctnist Rabbil Council 2002 and graduated om Columbia Universy 1997. From private rooms and apartments to LGBTQ-iendly hotels, you have the optn to stay the heart of gay districts as well as other neighborhoods the plac you vis.

EXPLORE GAY ROOMS & RENTALS MEDFORD

A loft Soho, a shared room Barcelona or the Castro, a gay-iendly hotel Le Marais or Chelsea, experience misterb&b all gay travel statns! (JTA) — You uld ll bashert: 15 years after a landmark cisn Judaism’s Conservative movement that paved the way for gay and lbian stunts to enter s rabbil schools and for rabbis to perform same-sex weddgs, would seem like sty that two Conservative rabbis would wed. The Conservative movement adopted legal lgs signed to make gay and lbian Jews “feel accepted and weled” s synagogu and muni.

Rabbil schools admted their first gay stunts. Now, openly gay Conservative rabbis work a variety of settgs — and while many have married, cludg to others who work the Jewish world, none so far have paired off as Rosen and Walker did. Part Two of a two-part story of a gay rabbil stunt the Reform Movement.

AM I A GAY RABBI, OR AM I A RABBI WHO IS GAY?

Yterday Ari shared his place the history of openly gay rabbil stunts. In 2008, I ma the cisn to enter rabbil school as an openly gay man. My ncerns centered on one ma qutn: what would my gay and Jewish muny be like?

WE ORTHODOX JEWS SPERATELY NEED GAY RABBIS

But, I thought, “I am sure that I will not only be weled wh open arms, but I will fd a lovg muny who n help mol for me beg a gay rabbil stunt, and subsequently a gay rabbi…right? I soon disvered, at least for my first year, I was the only openly gay stunt on mp; my therapist always tells me that ’s important to note openly gay, bee you never know, and I do appreciate her optimism. Somehow by flt, I beme a halutz (a pneer), the very inty I had hoped to avoid when I chose to be a gay rabbil stunt the Reform world, as opposed to the Conservative Ccnati, I had to actively thk about how to navigate all of my inti wh a limed support work.

ORDAG GAYS AND LBIANS: DENOMATNAL APPROACH

And of urse the biggt qutn: am I a gay rabbi, or am I a rabbi who is gay?

In my personal statement, I told a story of buildg a relatnship wh a ngregant a muny Northwt Florida who was ially hant about havg an openly gay rabbil stunt; the fact that I had not yet mentned my sexualy to that muny, but rather had been outed by my precsor is a whole other story. I was told that foreground my sexualy too much: It showed me as “the gay rabbi” more than “Ari who is gay”…and also holds many other inti and tras, of equal value and import. While this is certaly te, felt strange to hear om – mostly straight – iends, lleagu, and teachers that would behoove me to “tamp down the gay.

” In a recent article , gay wrer J. Bryan Lowr lamented how some public figur have taken to g out by statg that beg gay is only but one small part of who they are, not their whole sence.

JEWISH EDIAN MODI ROSENFELD, A MASTAY FOR ORTHODOX DIENC, IS GAY. SO WHAT?

JERUSALEM (JTA) — On May 24, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported that I would be ordag a gay Orthodox rabbil stunt who was nied the opportuny to receive smicha om his own Orthodox yhiva. But I also know that our muny sperately needs gay Orthodox rabbis, and we ignore that munal need at our own peril. For gay stunts to survive such an environment, they mt not give any ht to their orientatn, which the hot-hoe of yhiva life soon be a radil form of self-nial.

AND GOD CREATED GAYS: THE FIRST OPENLY GAY ORTHODOX RABBI TALKS ABOUT COMG OUT, PA, AND PARENTHOOD

The terventns feed an even more toxic and powerful nial: “Maybe we do have gay dividuals our school, fay or muny – but they n be fixed. A number would reunt sexual difficulti, sometim wh the news that their hbands were homosexually cled and that they went out to gay bars. If gay Jews leave the relig path, they disappear om our muni – and the theologil nflicts also vanish wh them.

MEET AARON KATZ, POLAND'S FIRST OPENLY GAY RABBI

Durg my rabbic reer, I thought I treated gay Jews my ngregatn and yhiva no differently than straight on. I chose to ignore the fact that gay halachic Jews exist.

The halachic reason is that gay Jews are asked to meet a virtually impossible standard of behavr. But by havg a group of people – gay Jews – who nnot keep the laws surroundg homosexualy, Orthodoxy driv self to an untenable realy.

Homosexualy, viewed through halachic ey, is fundamentally different. It do not have any release, substute or “cure” other than a homosexual relatnship. A few LGBTQ Jews might aspire and acplish te lifelong celibacy, but the homosexual’s nstant state of ohn clearly needs another tegory or scriptn: It is plete both duratn and tensy.