Kesher Talk

Latest on gay rabbis debate. As I previously reported, The Jewish Theological Seminary (which produces rabbis for the Conservative Movement as well as scholarship in Jewish studies) continues to make its way through a minefield of halacha and inter-denominational politics to figure out how to fully include gays in Conservative Jewish life. Poignantly, the issue came home for Rabbi Elliot Dorff, one of the most respected and well-known Conservative leaders, in the same way it has for many people in public life. Personal ties are probably as big an agent of societal change as laws or editorials or protest marches.

Speaking of gay Jews,

A lot has happened in the queer Jewish world since the anthologies Nice Jewish Girls, by Evelyn Torton Beck and Twice Blessed, by Avi Rose and Christie Balka examined the intersection between Jewish and sexual identity. In fact, Aviv came up with the idea to do Queer Jews when she realized that Twice Blessed was already 12 years old . . . .

"Oppression is no longer the only way queer Jews approach their sexual identity," said Shneer. "Queer and Jewish are no longer just things to be overcome or reconciled; in fact, for many of the authors, they are mutually empowering." . . . "It's a really unapologetic anthology," said Aviv. Basically, what the writers are saying is "we refuse to abandon Judaism. We're integral participants in Jewish life, and we're queer and you all have to deal with it."

I previously wrote about gays in Judaism here, here, and here. Last year Moment (a great cross-denominational monthly magazine about Jewish issues) had a piece about Orthodox gays.

UPDATE: BeliefNet covers the current debate in the Conservative movement . They also ran a nice profile of the maker of the documentary "Trembling Before G-D."

posted by Judith @ 1/03/2003 04:31:07 AM