Gay Jews celebrate ‘High Homodays’ New York - The Jesalem Post

Contents:

• MEET THE KG OF NEW YORK’S GAY JEWISH NIGHTLIFE
• THE GAY ORTHODOX UNRGROUND
• FIRST OPENLY GAY ORTHODOX RABBI ORDAED JESALEM
• MYAN REVIEW – TENR G-OF-AGE TALE OF A GAY JEWISH NEW YORKER
• GAY JEWS CELEBRATE ‘HIGH HOMODAYS’ NEW YORK
• “ARE THERE GAY JEWS?”

MEET THE KG OF NEW YORK’S GAY JEWISH NIGHTLIFE

After an ultra-Orthodox upbrgg and yhiva tn, Jayson Ltman has bee a lear the gay Jewish muny. Bily navigatg this scene — at tim a headset so he uld ordate the chaos — was Jayson Ltman, the eveng’s host and one of the most dynamic figur New York’s gay Jewish muny.

Wh nearly 1, 000 partygoers this past December — most om New York, but others travelg om Boston, Philalphia and Washgton — the Jewbilee has bee a major event on the regn’s gay Jewish lendar, as well as a way for revelers to nnect often-separate parts of their inty.

THE GAY ORTHODOX UNRGROUND

Wh nearly 1, 000 partygoers this past December -- most om New York, but others travelg om Boston, Philalphia and Washgton -- the Jewbilee has bee a major event on the regn’s gay Jewish lendar.

“The people at my parti are what I ll cultural or urban gay Jews, ” says Ltman, 34, a former yhiva boy who spent two years after high school studyg Israel. Even after tellg his parents at 22, he grappled wh the prospect of what he lls “livg gay, ” and then for half a “cid that I didn’t want to be gay” after all.

“Gog to a gay-affirmg therapist jt wasn’t an optn at that pot, ” he adds. I never would have been able to go om beg really relig to beg gay” whout a amework that alt wh both. Like practilly everythg else New York, his turn toward gay Jewish learship hged partly on real tate.

FIRST OPENLY GAY ORTHODOX RABBI ORDAED JESALEM

Instead of droppg the ia, he ntacted Vlada, a gay bar Manhattan’s Hell’s Kchen neighborhood that was perfectly happy to sell drks and play mic on what would otherwise have been a silent night. In the years sce, Ltman — whose day job is fance — has found He’bro, a nightlife anizatn that hosts three gay Jewish parti an average year. (The next, a Purim celebratn he’s llg “Homotashen, ” will take place March 10 at Manhattan’s Marime Hotel.

Some gay partygoers have also exprsed disfort at the more outré elements, but that hasn’t moved Ltman to alter the ftivi. While he looks forward to highlightg Israel’s posive rerd on gay rights — pecially parison to s neighbors’ — he says he hated about formg the new anizatn bee of the issue’s divisivens. “We are supposed to agree, ” he says of the gay muny, referrg to marriage equaly and other issu.

MYAN REVIEW – TENR G-OF-AGE TALE OF A GAY JEWISH NEW YORKER

But he predicts that Israel will bee an creasgly proment topic the gay world, and hop his group will be an out-and-proud source of support, even if don’t necsarily agree wh or weigh on every Israeli actn. For Israel are jt two more outlets for gay Jews New York, jog the cy’s s-old gay synagogue and other anizatns.

GAY JEWS CELEBRATE ‘HIGH HOMODAYS’ NEW YORK

But for those at his parti, he’s offerg a new way to nnect both sis of their stat as double-mori: gay a mostly straight world and Jewish a untry that mostly isn’t. “I found out that you n’t e out as gay and then put your Jewish inty the closet, ” he says of his own experience.

There is no official membership, and only a handful of people are willg to put their nam on support-group Ashkazy, a gay-rights activist and Orthodox Jew who liv New York Cy, says he has spoken wh over 200 gay Orthodox Jews over the past few years. Filmmaker Sandi DuBowski, who produced and directed Tremblg Before G-d, terviewed hundreds of gay um (observant) Jews over the past few years for his movie.

“ARE THERE GAY JEWS?”

And those volved gay muny outreach say there are many more out there. Open and Secret Support Groups In the New York area, home to the largt ncentratn of gay Orthodox Jews, at least four support groups have spng up to meet their needs.

"Every gay um Jew who fds out about [the support works] says, ‘I thought I was the only one. ’" The three founrs of the Gay and Lbian Yhiva Day School Alumni Associatn chose that name specifilly to attract a gay group wh an Orthodox background. The first Wt Coast support group was found Los Angel by "Jab, " a 54-year-old Orthodox gay Jew who had been married and livg a New York suburb until ten years ago, when he nfsed to his wife that he was gay.

He started attendg an Orthodox synagogue, but was treated as a send-class member (he did not receive aliyot [he was not lled up to the Torah], for example) bee he was gay. The anonymy provid by the Inter has been a godsend to Orthodox gays. Another Web se, Orthogays, provis rourc and answers to the most equently asked qutns.