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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