Contents:
- CONSERVATIVE DC RABBI ANNOUNC HE’S GAY
- WHEN YOUR RABBI COM OUT AS GAY
- ADAS ISRAEL RABBI: ‘I AM A GAY MAN’
- RABBI GIL STELF OF ADAS ISRAEL COM OUT AS GAY
- HISTORIC D.C. SYNAGOGUE, WHOSE RABBI ME OUT AS GAY LAST YEAR, CELEBRAT SUPREME COURT CISN
- FIRST OPENLY GAY ORTHODOX RABBI ORDAED JESALEM
- ADAS ISRAEL RABBI TO CONGREGATN: “I HAVE COME TO UNRSTAND THAT I AM GAY”
- PROMENT D.C. CONSERVATIVE RABBI COM OUT AS GAY LETTER TO CONGREGANTS
- GAY RABBIS
- IN A D.C. RABBI’S E-MAIL, REVELATN AND RELIEF: ‘I AM A GAY MAN’
- HOW RABBIS ARE TRYG TO MAKE THE CONSERVATIVE MOVEMENT MORE GAY-FRIENDLY
- ADAS ISRAEL RABBI COM OUT AS GAY
CONSERVATIVE DC RABBI ANNOUNC HE’S GAY
On the Monday after Yom Kippur, Stelf, the married senr rabbi at Adas Israel — a large and historic Conservative synagogue Washgton, DC — announced that he is gay. “Wh much pa and tears, together wh my beloved wife, I have e to unrstand that I uld walk my path wh the greatt strength, wh the greatt peace my heart, wh the greatt healg and wholens, when I fally acknowledged that I am a gay man. If he were a 25-year-old rabbi, there would be no drama here, no nothg, fact, bee he would simply be a rabbi who happens to be gay.
I have trouble picturg a synagogue that wouldn’t hire a gay rabbi. A 2006 cisn om the Rabbil Assembly’s Commtee of Jewish Law and Standards paved the way for the ordatn of gay rabbis and the regnn of same-sex unns the Conservative movement. We have arrived at this heartbreakg cisn bee I have e to unrstand that I am gay.
Wh much pa and tears, together wh my beloved wife, I have e to unrstand that I uld walk my path wh the greatt strength, wh the greatt peace my heart, wh the greatt healg and wholens, when I fally acknowledged that I am a gay man. I have trouble picturg a synagogue that wouldn't hire a gay rabbi.
WHEN YOUR RABBI COM OUT AS GAY
— announced that he is gay. A 2006 cisn om the Rabbil Assembly’s Commtee on Jewish Law and Standards paved the way for the ordatn of gay rabbis and the regnn of same-sex unns the Conservative movement. — announced that he is gay.
ADAS ISRAEL RABBI: ‘I AM A GAY MAN’
Rabbi Gil Stelf of Adas Israel Com Out as Gay. Ruth Bar Gsburg and Elena Kagan — two of the Supreme Court Jtic who led the majory today, favor of gay marriage — are regular High Holy Day worshippers at Adas an e-mail to ngregants, the synagogue’s clergy wrote on Friday morng: “Today will be remembered as one of the ccial moments when the arc of history was bent towards jtice.
RABBI GIL STELF OF ADAS ISRAEL COM OUT AS GAY
Jt last year, he me out as gay, and said an e-mail to the ngregatn of more than 1, 400 hoeholds that he and his wife of 20 years would divorce. 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.
HISTORIC D.C. SYNAGOGUE, WHOSE RABBI ME OUT AS GAY LAST YEAR, CELEBRAT SUPREME COURT CISN
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. 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. “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.
FIRST OPENLY GAY ORTHODOX RABBI ORDAED JESALEM
C., received a surprisg email Monday afternoon: Their senr rabbi, Gil Stelf, announced he is gay and that, after havg three kids and beg married for 20 years, he and his wife are divorcg. Stelf’s letter to his ngregants on the same day that gay marriage was legalized Virgia, somethg he says was jt a “pleasant cince.
” The hight legal body the Conservative Judaism movement voted 2006 to allow gay rabbis and same-sex marriage ceremoni. ”Stelf says that his role as rabbi won’t change, though he hop he n be a role mol to young, gay ngregants. Synagogu Warm Embrace for Rabbi's Comg Out Stephen Fry Supports Jewish LGBT Group Pri of Place: DIY Myan Draws LGBT Orthodox Jews Actor Stephen Fry to Wed His Partner Gay Israeli Diplomat to Be Married Philalphia Irish Mister Announc He's Gay On the Monday after Yom Kippur, Stelf, the married senr rabbi at Adas Israel — a large and historic Conservative synagogue Washgton, D.
ADAS ISRAEL RABBI TO CONGREGATN: “I HAVE COME TO UNRSTAND THAT I AM GAY”
In a letter sent to ngregants, Stelf wrote: Wh much pa and tears, together wh my beloved wife, I have e to unrstand that I uld walk my path wh the greatt strength, wh the greatt peace my heart, wh the greatt healg and wholens, when I fally acknowledged that I am a gay man.
” A 2006 cisn om the Rabbil Assembly’s Commtee of Jewish Law and Standards paved the way for the ordatn of gay rabbis and the regnn of same-sex unns the Conservative movement.
PROMENT D.C. CONSERVATIVE RABBI COM OUT AS GAY LETTER TO CONGREGANTS
Rabbi Gil Stelf stggled for s wh an inty that he only acknowledged publicly this the Monday after Yom Kippur, Stelf, the married senr rabbi at Adas Israel — a large and historic Conservative synagogue Washgton, DC — announced that he is gay.
In a letter sent to ngregants, Stelf wrote:Wh much pa and tears, together wh my beloved wife, I have e to unrstand that I uld walk my path wh the greatt strength, wh the greatt peace my heart, wh the greatt healg and wholens, when I fally acknowledged that I am a gay man. ”A 2006 cisn om the Rabbil Assembly’s Commtee of Jewish Law and Standards paved the way for the ordatn of gay rabbis and the regnn of same-sex unns the Conservative movement. The lear of one of the Washgton regn's most proment synagogu on Monday me out as gay, tellg his thoands of ngregants a btally personal e-mail that a lifelong effort to ny his sexualy was over and that he and his wife of 20 years would be divorcg.
GAY RABBIS
“Wh much pa and tears, together wh my beloved wife, I have e to unrstand that I uld walk my path wh the greatt strength, wh the greatt peace my heart, wh the greatt healg and wholens, when I fally acknowledged that I am a gay man, ” Rabbi Gil Stelf wrote to members of Adas Israel Congregatn, Northwt the six years sce Stelf me to Adas, he has pumped energy to the large, 146-year-old synagogue wh efforts aimed at both more tradnal and progrsive Jews.
”In 2014, he emailed a different announcement to his ngregants — he me out as gay and said he and his wife, a fellow rabbi, would divorce. Sce then, he has equently wrten and spoken to advote gay Joseph, print of Adas Israel, said the ngregatn’s two other rabbis, Lren Holtzblatt and Aaron Alexanr, will jotly lead the synagogue until cis on a permanent senr rabbi. Rabbi Amichai L-Lavie left Orthodoxy for the Conservative movement, part due to homosexualy.
It was a paful moment for L-Lavie, now 48, who had already realized he was gay. Des later, part bee tradnal Judaism nmns homosexualy, L-Lavie left Orthodoxy to bee a rabbi the Amerin Conservative movement of Judaism, which ordas LGBTQ rabbis and bls same-sex marriag.
IN A D.C. RABBI’S E-MAIL, REVELATN AND RELIEF: ‘I AM A GAY MAN’
It stcts gay men to avoid anal sex precisely bee of the verse L-Lavie chanted at his Bar Mzvah, and urged bisexual people to pursue relatnships wh those of the oppose sex. But enshrg Jewish law negative attus agast homosexualy and bisexualy amounts to a “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that leav some queer Jews feelg exclud, she argu. The ph to erase the qutnable polici and attus om the Conservative movement’s books uld reopen a bter bate over homosexualy between the movement’s progrsiv, like Lewt, and s tradnalists, like those who opposed the 2006 cisn and still regret .
HOW RABBIS ARE TRYG TO MAKE THE CONSERVATIVE MOVEMENT MORE GAY-FRIENDLY
Their nomatn’s attus on homosexualy reflect the movement’s centrist stat, to Reform’s right and Orthodoxy’s left.
Reform Judaism, which acunts for 35% of Amerin Jews, impos no lims on nsensual sex between adults, and Hebrew Unn College-Jewish Instute of Relign, the movement’s semary, has admted openly gay ndidat sce the early 1990s.
No mastream figur wh Orthodoxy, which mak up about 10% of Amerin Jews, have endorsed gay ordatn or same-sex unns. In the 1990s, the movement weled queer Jews to muny stutns, but refed to adm gay ndidat to rabbil school or to allow s clergy to officiate at mment ceremoni.
ADAS ISRAEL RABBI COM OUT AS GAY
But then, 2006, rabbis Ellt Dorff, Daniel Nevs and Avram Reisner revised that doctre wh a new rabbil opn tled “Homosexualy, Human Digny and Halakha. ” The three argued the document, known as a rponsum, that morn science and moraly necsated approvg some forms of sex between gay upl. “It enabled rabbis to perform same-sex weddgs, and helped gay people marry and live wh a Jewish ntext, ” Dorff, 73, told the Forward, fendg the opn a on.