To addrs the subject of homosexualy and Judaism, we spoke to a gay Jew and had the followg exchange:
Contents:
- LGBTQ PRI MONTH: OY VEY, WHY ARE SO MANY JEWS GAY?
- THE GAY ORTHODOX UNRGROUND
- FIRST OPENLY GAY ORTHODOX RABBI ORDAED JESALEM
- MEET DR. JSE EHRENFELD: A JEWISH VETERAN, AND THE FIRST OPENLY GAY PRINT OF THE AMA
- “ARE THERE GAY JEWS?”
- HOW N YOU BE GAY AND JEWISH?
LGBTQ PRI MONTH: OY VEY, WHY ARE SO MANY JEWS GAY?
Nohels, the tradnal Jewish posn on homosexualy is still difficult for many liberal-md Jews, and the liberal nomatns have bated the extent to which gays and lbians n be fully tegrated to relig Conservative Halakhah and HomosexualyThe first and least ntroversial step taken by the Conservative, Renstctnist, and Reform movements was to endorse civil equaly for gays and lbians. In addn, the Reform movement approv of rabbic officiatn at same-sex marriag and mment Denomatnal Approach on Ordag Openly Gay and Lbian RabbisDaniel Siegel, the Rabbic Director of ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal, has endorsed same-sex marriage specifilly bee he believ that hols should not be limed only to certa people and certa relatnships. Usg this as her startg pot, Rebec Alpert, a Renstctnist rabbi, has argued that the ernment’s refal to regnize same-sex marriage vlat relig rabbis wh the Conservative movement also ce the ncept of on ( which an dividual has no real choice) permtg homosexual sex.
He wrote rponse to lls at the time to ncel the sodomy law (which was ultimately ncelled only 1988, thanks to Shulam Aloni) I, as an Orthodox Rabbi, Support Legalizg Same-sex Marriage We Sharpened the Assailant's Knife In Their Own Words Livneh was neher ultra-Orthodox nor Orthodox, but rather a Jewish natnalist, yet his ma argument was that homosexualy is foreign to Judaism, nstut a foreign fluence by generate Wtern culture and should be the op-ed he claimed that for hundreds of years Jews the Diaspora succeed prervg their muni om those “sexual perversns, ” or as he phrased : “It is totally absurd to have suffered for many generatns the Diaspora, while strictly prervg, nurturg and refg the heterosexual prciple, only to return to the Land of Israel and renew the ‘gentil’ abomatn’ here. In the 1970s he was a pneer of the mpaign to ncel the prohibn on homosexualy Germany (Paragraph 175) the prohibn on homosexualy often relied on the prohibn Levic 18, Schoeps wanted to make clear the ntext which this prohibn was promulgated. He might have been nsired a kd of msiah of the homoerotic gospel among the Jewish people had his unual kabbalistic theory not been silenced and phed to the his book “The Erotics of Kabbala” published 1923, Langer argued that “brotherly love, ” i.
THE GAY ORTHODOX UNRGROUND
The LGBT liberatn movement appeared only the 1970s, as an Amerin-style, secular, liberal is not necsary to accept the theori propound by Laner, Schoeps and others like them, but their attempts to create a Jewish homosexualy are particularly relevant now. Kameny’s Wiki b also stat that he was an Ashkenazi Jew, and this ma me wonr: Are Jews overreprented the gay muny jt as they areas of our society, such as publishg, televisn, news media, the film dtry, porn dtry, amia, the arts and bankg? The all-important book of Jewish Law, the Talmud, ntas statements to the effect that anal sex among men solar eclips (Skah 29a) and earthquak (Jesalem Talmud, Berachot 13:3), but also distguish between two forms of perasty — anal sex that warrants a penalty of ath by stong, and homosexual sex that don’t volve peratn, about which the rabbis were more lenient (Niddah 13b).
FIRST OPENLY GAY ORTHODOX RABBI ORDAED JESALEM
In his book “Carnal Israel: Readg Sex Talmudic Culture” (1993), the historian Daniel Boyar appli somewhat creative terpretatns of rabbic texts, that lead him to the ncln that late antiquy, Jews engaged homosexualy openly, albe whout anal sex.
While his readgs are tertg and this Talmud page is unqutnably weird, don’t seem plsible that homosexualy was openly practiced among the rabbis, pecially light of the fact that the rabbis permted men to share a bed — notwhstandg the warng of Rabbi Judah that this would lead to illic sex — bee “Jews were not spect of such acts” (Tosefta Kiddh 5:10).
One example om a Greek town near Saloniki, om the year 1561, will suffice: “David bar Nissim me and gave ttimony how last summer he was walkg a town and he saw that Moshko wh a guy which was havg homosexual sex wh him, and when they saw him they ran away separate directns wh their pants undone.
MEET DR. JSE EHRENFELD: A JEWISH VETERAN, AND THE FIRST OPENLY GAY PRINT OF THE AMA
The Civil Rights Movement's drive to abolish sodomy laws the Uned Stat was reported Israeli newspapers, and a liberalized attu towards homosexualy began to proliferate Israeli society, through cema, televisn, lerature and other media. Los Angel prents: The world's first gay synagogue In the Uned Stat, Reform Judaism had been embracg of homosexualy at least sce 1972, when the movement accepted the Beth Chayim Chadashim ngregatn of Los Angel — the world’s first gay synagogue — to s fold.
Instead, chang the valu and polics of Israeli society over the past twenty years or so created the space which a gay and lbian muny uld first gay anizatn was tablished 1975, thanks largely to the work of immigrants om the Uned Stat and other English-speakg untri fluenced by the velopment of gay liberatn and the unterculture of the 1960s.
The very name of this first anizatn, the Society for the Protectn of Personal Rights (then, as today, known as the Agudah, Hebrew), reflected the difficulty of anizg sexual mori at a time when the existence of a sodomy law was thought by many to make homosexualy self illegal. But for many years, Israeli lbians funneled most of their energi to femism, rather than the stggle for gay and lbian velopment of a gay inty was difficult for many at a time when Israeli society was still the midst of s Znist revolutn. Pleadg more prsg issu, the public agenda did not clu the place of mizrahim (Jews who immigrated to Israel om the Arab untri) a society domated by European-born Jews, women’s liberatn, equaly for Paltian cizens of Israel, or gay rights.
“ARE THERE GAY JEWS?”
The certati of Znism gave way to a multu of polil and cultural inti: ultra-orthodox Judaism, growg assertn of a Paltian inty among Israel’s Arab cizens, natnalism, and yearngs for a more Wtern, liberal society peted for the allegiance of, gay inty and polics still did not go public.
And 1994, the Israeli Supreme Court orred El Al Israel Airl to grant a ee plane ticket to the partner of a gay flight attendant, as the airle had long done for heterosexual partners of then, there has been steady progrs, pecially the urts.
HOW N YOU BE GAY AND JEWISH?
Chief among them was the fact that gay activists pursued a very mastream strategy, seekg to nvce the wir public that gay Israelis were good patrtic cizens who jt happened to be attracted to the same strategy, pursued until recently, rerced the perceptn that gay rights was a non-partisan issue, unnnected to the major fissure Israeli polics, the Arab-Israeli nflict and how to rolve .
Prevly, the Israeli gay movement had shunned transgenred people, fearg what their cln would do to s public image, but wh Dana receivg ngratulatory telegrams om the Prime Mister and beg ma an honorary ambassador by the Knset, was now “safe” for the movement to expand s November of that year, Michal En won a seat the Tel Aviv Cy Council, beg Israel’s first openly lbian elected official. The Israeli LGBT movement has not embraced femism ( fact, sexism and tensns between gay men and lbians are both que prevalent), and until recently, the place of gay Arabs the muny was neglected, reflectg the wir society’s difference to Israel’s Arab mory (some 20 percent of Israel’s populatn).
Agast the backdrop of clash between Israel and the Paltian Authory, the 2001 Tel Aviv’s Pri Para, typilly a celebratory, hedonistic affair, got a dose of polics when a ntgent lled “Gays Black” marched wh a banner proclaimg, “There’s No Pri In Occupatn. ” A group lled “Kvisa Sh’hora” (Dirty Lndry) also spng up, lkg the opprsn of sexual mori to what se as the Israeli opprsn of the PriThe holdg of World Pri Jesalem Augt 2006 highlights the succs and challeng of Israel’s gay and lbian muny.