For Transgender Jews, The Ritual Bath Is Fraught With Questions About Inclusion

by Lauren Markoe for The Jewish Week

Converting to Judaism about a year ago, a transgender man in Washington, D.C., asked his rabbi a pointed question about the last step in the process, which calls for dunking naked in a ritual bath.

Could he locate a transgender man to serve as the required witness for this immersion?

Dozens of Jewish leaders in the region, including Rabbi Laurie Green, got the email asking if they could produce such a witness, who, according to Jewish law, would have to be Jewish.

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What happened when an Orthodox Jewish congregation went to a gay bar to mourn Orlando

By Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld for The Washington Post

When our synagogue heard about the horrific tragedy that took place at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, it was at the same time that we were celebrating our festival of Shavuot, which celebrates God’s giving of the Torah.

As Orthodox Jews, we don’t travel or use the Internet on the Sabbath or on holidays, such as Shavuot. But on Sunday night, as we heard the news, I announced from the pulpit that as soon as the holiday ended at 9:17 p.m. Monday, we would travel from our synagogue in Northwest Washington to a gay bar as an act of solidarity.

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Israeli, Ethiopian and Gay

By Team Be'chol Lashon for MyJewishLearning.com

What does it mean to be young, Ethiopian, Israeli and gay? Recently to of the leaders of KALA an Israeli Ethiopian LGBT group dropped by the Be’chol Lashon offices to discuss their experiences and thoughts about identity. They were touring in the United States with A Wider Bridge to raise awareness of the unique challenges they face and their vision for the future. Sara, who works with a youth movement, is one of the founders of KALA. Liel works with the police and has been with KALA almost from its start two years ago.

BL: Tell us a little about yourselves and your backgrounds

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Orthodox parents of LGBT children seek communities that care

By A Mother for The Times of Israel   

When my husband and I married, neither of us fully appreciated the role community would play in our family’s life. It proved to be a most crucial component in creating and forging a Jewish household and in passing on our traditions. A life lived according to halachah (Jewish law), needs a community. In Orthodox families, kids grow up seeing themselves as part of a much larger whole.

As our children grew up, we were comfortably ensconced in our shul. Then, about 18 years ago, our younger daughter told me she was gay. She was in her last year of college and in a relationship with a young woman who was also from an observant home. Trembling in my arms, she begged me not to tell her father, and tearfully asked if I wanted her out of our home. She had packed her bags and was prepared to leave.

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Unique birthing course for LGBT community in Tel Aviv

By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH for JPost.com

The course will be an inseparable part of the variety of services that the hospital offers to the residents of the area.

Lis Maternity Hospital, part of Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, has launched a special childbirth course for members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual community. The “Mammi Lis Club” said the course will be held in the “intimate and supportive atmosphere” required by the community starting from the 30th week of pregnancy.

The unique course will consist of two sessions of fourand- a-half hours each. It will be taught by a trained midwife, Adi Ben-Moshe, and put emphasis on support for women and men as they undergo the process of pregnancy (the men through surrogates or others), delivery and parenting in a family setting that is not the traditional one, the hospital said.

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Get to Know Hovi Star

A Wider Bridge Staff

Israel’s 2016 Eurovision Song Contest delegate is Hovi Star, a flamboyant 29-year-old singer and reality idol. Star, whose real name is Hovev Sekulets, was voted to the top spot of the Rising Star television song contest, thereby winning the ticket to Eurovision.

Star first came to public attention when he took part in another televised song contest, Kochav Nolad (‘A Star is Born’), in 2009. He also does voice overs for cartoons. “Hovi star is a nickname I received from my friends, because I’m, like, a diva,” he told Israeli website NRG. “But I’m not really a diva, because there’s no such thing in Israel. There’s Shiri Maimon, and there’s Dana International, and that’s it. In Israel you don’t get to do things in a big way.”

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A Gender-bending, Observant Jewish Indie Rocker

Gabe Friedman For Haaretz.com

Ezra Furman has successfully developed his music career in recent years, something he thinks is closely linked to his greater comfort with his religious and gender identity.

Ezra Furman is an acclaimed indie rocker who, while hanging on his tour bus, has been known to lay tefillin.

Striking, too, is Furman’s typical getup: The singer and guitarist often eschews the standard millennial indie rocker uniform – skinny jeans, tight T-shirt – in favor of lipstick, pearl necklaces, colorful dresses and patterned baseball caps.

It’s safe to say the 29-year-old is probably the only publicly visible musician who navigates the worlds of both Orthodox Judaism and gender nonconformity. Though Furman doesn’t identify as strictly Orthodox, he observes Shabbat and reads the Torah portion on tour each week. Most notably, he no longer plays shows on Friday nights nor travels on Saturdays – prime times for working musicians.

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Yes, I’m a Bisexual Jewish Dad…But No, My Sexuality Didn’t Cause My Divorce

Dr. Leon Mendlowitz for Kveller

The Super Bowl party was at the rabbi’s house, and while I don’t enjoy watching sports on TV, it’s hard to pass up fried macaroni and cheese balls. My son is more of a sports fan than I am, and while I have an extensive hockey jersey collection, he’s the one who can actually sit and watch any game on TV. During most of the football game, I sat socializing with folks, including my ex-wife, who was also invited.

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The Day Barbie Decided Ken Wasn’t Her Cup of Chai

From Her Royal Thighness

When my daughter was three, I considered it part of my motherly duty to expose her to all kinds of music from country to classic rock. We had a little game, where I would play a song and see how quickly she could identify the artist.

“Who’s singing?” I’d ask.

“Pink Floyd!” she’d shout. “

“What about this one?”

“Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers!”

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Sitting Down with Emma: A 15-Year-Old Social Media Maven

By Jordyn Rozensky for Keshet on MyJewishLearning.com   

Tell us a little about yourself:
My name is Emma, I’m 15, and I live in Chicago. My passions include cuddling, watching Netflix, social media, social justice, and feminism.

You attended the Keshet LGBTQ & Ally Teen Shabbaton on the East Coast, and now you’re joining us on the West Coast. What was your experience like at the Shabbaton?
I’ve been looking for a queer Jewish community for a long time, and when I heard about the Shabbaton (a gathering that spans Shabbat) through Facebook, I signed up as soon as possible.

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Gay Synagogue Moves From the West Village, But Takes Its Rich Civil-Rights History With It

By Justin Davidson for New York Magazine

On Sunday, when the members of Congregation Beit Simchat Torah (CBST) march from their Bethune Street home to their new quarters at 130 West 30th Street, they’ll be hauling a lot of history. There’s the rainbow-colored chuppah that Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum used to celebrate the first same-sex Jewish weddings in front of City Hall on June 24, 2011. There’s an upholstered chair, bequeathed by a member who, in the last months before he died of AIDS in 1992, found the old metal folding chairs a torment. There are the candles carried in a shopping bag, just as they were on the Friday evening in 1973, when a dozen people answered a tiny ad in the Village Voice (“Gay Synagogue,” it announced) and gathered in a church annex.

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As Same-Sex Parents, We Weren’t Expecting This

B.J. Epstein for Kveller

Our daughter has my thick dark hair and my need for little sleep. She has my wife’s stubbornness and independence. She loves books, like me, and appears to enjoy singing, like my wife. She is clearly the product of Fi’s and my marriage.

The only thing is that she doesn’t actually have any genes from Fi; our child has two moms, but only genes from one of us.

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Diva D, the Godmother of Jerusalem Drag, Can’t Leave the Holy City Alone

By Jacob Newberry for Tablet Magazine  

For one of the founding practitioners of Israel’s cross-dressing performance art—chased out to Tel Aviv by ultra-Orthodox antipathy—Purim is just another day to do battle for her right to be her

On stage, Diva D looked tiny. She weighed maybe a hundred pounds, mostly bone and made-up skin in a strapless black cocktail dress. But like most drag queens under a spotlight, she was loud. And mean. She also speaks four languages and performed weekly in what was then Jerusalem’s only gay club, the Mikveh.

“Who here’s from America?” she called out on a recent night there. “Who’s new?”

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LGBTQ Rights, Israel & Zionism

From Hadassah Magazine

Meet Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum

The spiritual leader of a synagogue that celebrates diversity, Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum is spiritual, straight-talking, controversial, inspiring and passionate about Israel. Hear what she has to say about being gay in Israel; challenges within the legal system; and why she is a Zionist.

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Coming Out for Purim

The Purim Superhero, a new picture book for Jewish children, includes gay parents. It’s about time.

By Marjorie Ingall for Tablet Magazine   
Nate has a dilemma: Purim is coming, and the other boys in his Hebrew school class are all going to dress as superheroes, but Nate wants to be an alien. What to do? With the help of his Daddy and Abba, Nate figures out a solution that delights everyone. And his story, The Purim Superhero, draws connections between his problem, the message of the holiday, and the process of coming out.

    “Abba?” Nate asked. “Do you ever just want to be like everybody else?”

    Abba looked at Nate. “You know the Purim story,” Abba said. “Queen Esther saved the Jews because she didn’t hide who she was. She told King Ahashuerus she was Jewish, and that her people were in danger.

    “Sometimes showing who you really are makes you stronger, even if you’re different from other people.”

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Israel touts gay-friendly climate, but rights fight faces religious firewall

By Ben Sales for JTA

As last Tuesday ended, it felt like Israel’s gay community had taken a major step forward.

On Feb. 23, eight separate Israeli parliamentary committees convened to discuss a broad set of issues facing the country’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. Lawmakers from a range of parties talked about protecting LGBT Israelis in the classroom, at home, in government offices and in the army. That afternoon, the parliament officially recognized “Gay Rights Day in the Knesset.”

But 24 hours later, the atmosphere was markedly different.

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The Small Town Jew Who Pioneered Sex-Change Surgery

 By Zachary Solomon for Jewniverse   

Stanley Biber’s dream was to become a rabbi, so he moved from his birthplace of Des Moines to Chicago, and enrolled in a yeshiva. But then World War II began, derailing his plans. Following the war, Biber lost the clerical urge, went to medical school, became a surgeon, and, before long, turned into a pioneer in the world of gender reassignment surgery. A classic tale.

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Two Officiants, One Room: Pastor Leslie Tipton and Rabbi Noah Kitty

by Alex Kacala for FloridaAgenda.com

At the Pride Center, two leading women oversee two different religious organizations that happen to use the same space. Pastor Leslie Tipton holds church services on Wednesday and Sundays, while Rabbi Noah Kitty holds services Friday evening. They are also both wedding officiates; lending their services and guidance to same sex couples looking to get hitched.

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LGBTQ Mission to Israel 2016

The Jewish Federations of North America



Join members of the LGBTQ community from across North America for this groundbreaking mission to Israel!

Encounter Israel and Federation as a community through a uniquely LGBTQ lens. Spend three nights in Jerusalem and four in Tel Aviv, as well as glimmer at the beautiful sights of Israel’s North. Relax in the comforts of leading Israeli hotels. Meet with Israel’s top LGBTQ politicians, business leaders and innovators and learn what is being done to advance the rights of the LGBTQ community. Spend time with IDF Soldiers and Officers. Be inspired by incredible sites where Federations are changing lives every day. Experience Israeli culture, cuisine and character as a community.

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Conservative movement publishes egalitarian and LGBT-friendly siddur

The Siddur Lev Shalem is “both more traditional and contemporary” in several ways, senior editor Rabbi Ed Feld told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday.

In a sign of the increasingly changing landscape of Jewish life in the United States, the Conservative movement this week published a “completely egalitarian and LGBT-friendly” prayer book that includes prayers for, among other things, single women adopting children and gay engagements.

The Siddur Lev Shalem is “both more traditional and contemporary” in several ways, senior editor Rabbi Ed Feld told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday. He explained how it contains both the traditional Hebrew texts of prayers, as well as an updated translation in the modern vernacular and prayers tailored to fit life cycle events experienced by contemporary Jews.

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For transgender teens, Jewish rite of passage is a multi-layered transition

By Maayan Jaffe-Hoffman, JNS.org

A young woman is in the process of transitioning to be a young boy. While the rabbi and close family members are aware of the transition, the congregation is not.

Such was the scenario faced five years ago by Rabbi Eric Gurvis, senior rabbi of Temple Shalom in Newton, Mass. It was among the handful of bar and bat mitzvah ceremonies he has performed for transgender boys and girls.

“There were a lot of details involved, even in the language around the celebration.… [For] people who did not know [about the gender transition], we had no interest in making a spectacle of any kind that day, rather than just celebrating with the child,” recalls Gurvis.

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Mizrahi, Gay and Proud the Team Behind Israel's Pink Panthers’ Revolution

'I think Arisa is one of the most positive and optimistic changes to have occurred in Israeli culture in general.'

By Shachar Atwan for Haaretz

It’s hard to exaggerate the success of Arisa, whose Middle Eastern-themed gay parties began five and a half years ago in Tel Aviv. You’ll find about 1,500 people at these riotous monthly events – a mix mostly of transgender people, gays and lesbians, but also heterosexuals. They’re mainly right-wing Mizrahim (Jews of Middle Eastern descent), but there are also left-wingers and Palestinians, and partygoers hailing from the outlying areas as well as Tel Avivians. Revelers dance with contagious joy in smoke-filled clubs, to the sound of roaring Mizrahi music, singing along to every song.

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When You’re Queer, Finding a Mikveh Isn’t Exactly Easy

Jessica Ozar for Kveller

The first time I considered going to the mikveh was before my wedding. While this was a completely typical time to think about going to the mikveh, I was marrying a woman, not a man, and I identify as queer. I didn’t know if going to a mikveh would be right for me, or whether I would even be allowed to use it.

My partner and I studied at Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem. While neither of us grew up incredibly religious, we decided separately that having a traditional Jewish home was important to us both. After we got engaged, we knew it would be useful to meet with a kallah (bride) teacher who could tell us about using the mikveh and the niddah (family purity laws) tradition that we had never heard about until coming to Israel. We were lucky to meet with a kallah teacher who had taught a religious lesbian couple before us, and we even had a chance to talk with the couple to discuss their experience with niddah and the mikveh, as a way to determine how it works for a non-heterosexual couple, and what might work for us.

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Gay marriage proposal dances into YouTube’s heart

NY lawyer surprises Israeli-American actor boyfriend with flash mob and Hebrew-inscribed ring

By Renee Ghert-Zand for The Times of Israel

A gay New York lawyer’s choreographed marriage proposal to his Israeli-American actor boyfriend has captured the heart of YouTube viewers.

With close to 600,000 hits since its posting on December 23, 2015, “Mark’s Romantic Proposal to Yuval” has clearly struck a chord.



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How Jewish Leaders Can Keep the LGBT Debate Honest

Jay Michaelson for The Jewish Daily Forward

A funny thing is happening in Jacksonville, Florida.

In the wake of one of the most dishonest civil rights debates in recent memory — Houston’s cash-soaked, lie-filled controversy over whether to expand its human rights ordinance to protect LGBT people from discrimination — the city of Jacksonville has taken a different route. They’re talking honestly about the idea, with faith leaders, business leaders and individuals all speaking their minds in public forums.

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Top Greek bishop blames ‘Zionist monster’ for gay rights bill

The Times of Israel

Seraphim of Piraeus says legislation on same-sex cohabitation is a result of ‘constant war against the true faith’

ATHENS — A leading Greek bishop has blamed the “Zionist monster” for new legislation that would give same-sex couples in Greece expanded civil rights.

Bishop Seraphim of Piraeus said the cohabitation bill is a result of the “constant war against the true faith” being waged “by the international Zionist monster,” which he said controls the Greek government.

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