Out, Proud, and Kinda Loud at Yeshiva University

Students are challenging the Modern Orthodox school’s traditional stance on LGBT issues

By Daniela Alexandra Porat for Tablet Magazine

Dasha Sominski rushed into the Shabbat service reeking of smoke and perfume, her curly blue bangs covering her right eye. She had skipped all the prayers and rituals.

It was a Friday night last fall in Manhattan’s Washington Heights neighborhood. Sominski, 21, had been chosen by Eshel, an LGBT Orthodox Jewish organization based in New York City, to speak to a room full of observant Orthodox Jews about what it’s like to be openly queer at Yeshiva University, the flagship Modern Orthodox school.

The attendees had gathered in a makeshift prayer room to kick off a Shabbaton, a Friday-night and Saturday program of activities and services organized by Eshel and aimed at affirming the possibility of living a devout Jewish life while identifying as queer. The small group of attendees was a mix of older individuals, some of whom were from out of town, a few Y.U. alums, and several young professionals. At one point during the service, a young male congregant had delivered a homily about “Lekha Dodi,” the liturgical song in which the Sabbath is personified as a bride. He spoke of the need to reinterpret this song because several people in attendance would not be privy to such a holy union—between God and his bride, between man and woman.

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