Arthur Shani’s Inspiring Story

Yuval Niv on A Wider Bridge

During the broadcast of the inaugural of new Knesset members, the TV cameras caught attorney Arthur Shani next to MK Ksenia Svetlova from the the Zionist Camp. He is her parliamentary advisor. Arthur was a boy whose mother wasn’t able to raise him by herself, a boy who was transferred to a boarding school institution, who was sent to a class that didn’t suit his skills, who was forced to fight for the right to go to a regular high school and serve in a proper military unit – and he’s reached the Knesset.

Arthur was hoping that among the television viewers were some of the people who over the past 26 years created difficulties for him, though he wasn’t sure that they would recognized him: the fat boy who weighed more than 330 pounds, is now young, slim and athletic; the religious kid who studied at a Yeshiva in a conservative institution managed by the Orthodox party Shas is now in a committed relationship with another man; the poor kid, whose mother’s refrigerator was empty, now holds two university degrees, is working on the third, and is the owner of an independent law firm. He’s the ultimate Israeli dream come true.

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An LGBTQ Invitation to Israel

By Arthur Slepian, Executive Director of A Wider Bridge, and an advocate for LGBT Equality, Israel and Jewish Peoplehood; for HuffPost Gay Voices

It might seem like an audacious act, perhaps a bit of chutzpah, to invite LGBTQ leaders from around the world to a conference in Israel. After all, there are some very strong anti-Israel feelings in parts of the LGBTQ community. So why not play it safe and hold a conference somewhere less controversial, say Madrid, Stockholm, or Washington D.C.? Here is why -- sometimes bold, risky and surprising acts are exactly what is required. 40 Years of Pride, Israel's first ever global LGBTQ leadership summit, will take place in Tel Aviv June 9 to 11, 2015. Come join us.

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Landmark Gay Rights Protest Turns 50

Today we celebrate the anniversary of the first-ever march on Washington, led by Frank Kameny

By Jonathan Zalman for Tablet, orginally published April 17, 2015

On April 17, 1965, seven men in suits, and three women in dresses, stood on the sidewalk in front of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s big white home to demand equal rights for the LGBT community. Among them was Frank Kameny, a gay Jew who later worked to have the anti-sodomy law repealed in the 1990s.

“I’ve said for many years that San Francisco was looked upon as the center, but D.C. is very much the success story of the gay movement,” he told the Washingtonian in a 2010 interview. Kameny died in 2011.

Also among the demonstrators was Paul Kuntzler, who recently recalled the day’s events for the Washington Blade:

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Don't Be Shocked by Jewish Honor for Anti-Gay Pastor Charles Stanley

Far Right Views Part of Israel Alliance With Evangelicals

By Jay Michaelson The Jewish Daily Forward

Here’s why I’m not on board with the growing chorus protesting JNF’s honoring Dr. Charles Stanley, one of the most prominent evangelical leaders in the country, and the former president of the Southern Baptist Convention (membership 15 million).

It’s not that he isn’t anti-gay. He is, and I assume he’d be proud to admit it. Over his half-century-long career, he’s said some nasty things, some ignorant things, and some really offensive things like AIDS being Divine punishment.

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Same-sex Marriage Has Legal Obligations

A Wider Bridge's Staff

Frederick Hertz, a leading attorney for marriage and divorce law and mediation for same-sex couples, and the author of three books on these issues, returns to Israel this June to speak at 40 Years of Pride: the first ever Global LGBT Leadership Conference in Tel Aviv.

Earlier this year, Frederick Hertz invited US gay family lawyers to come to Israel and learn about the legal and policy issues for gay couples in Israel. The trip took place in February 2015, with fourteen lawyers joining Fred for a week-long visit “It was a fabulous program,” he recalls. “It turned out that the American lawyers learned a lot from the way the LGBT community navigates through law in Israel: that you can extend rights to gay couples even without legalizing marriage.”

“The lack of civil marriage in Israel has led to the creation of an ‘alternative’ approach, via cohabitation rights, that is quite effective,” Hertz explains. “Most of the lawyers in my program had been convinced that the solution had to be via the ending of religious marriage and the enactment of civil marriage. Learning how things are finessed in Israel was a real eye opener to my group. Another aspect was seeing how the issue of Jewish law still dominates family law in Israel, despite it being a ‘modern’ society.”

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An Open Letter to Tom and Transgender Teens Everywhere

By Rabbi Becky Silverstein for MyJewishLearning.com

Last week the story of Tom Chai Sosnik, a teenager that came out as transgender at Tehiyah Day School, his Jewish day school, headlines. Inspired by Tom’s courage, and the need to support transgender and gender expansive teenagers everywhere, Rabbi Becky Silverstein penned an open letter to Tom and teenagers like him. We’re proud to share this letter on Transgender Day of Visibility.

Dear Tom,

As I was preparing my sermon last Friday afternoon, I decided to take a quick Facebook break and saw the video of you addressing your school. I watched it and immediately shared it with my own social network, commenting that “while I don’t know this young man, I have the privilege of knowing others who share a similar story. Almost nothing in the world could make me smile wider than this.”

Tom, we have never and may never meet, and yet I feel as though I know you.

I see in your face the faces of the LGBTQ Jewish teenagers I have had the opportunity to work with in my time as a Jewish educator and rabbi. In your face, I also see a vision of what I want so badly for our Jewish community to be: a place where everyone can be celebrated for the entirety of who they are and where nobody feels the need to hide a piece of their identity.

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LGBTQ Orthodox Teens, Forging a Derech

Justin Spiro, Special To The Jewish Week
 “Do you have any resources for a 15-year-old gay yeshiva high school student?”

It was 2011, and I could hardly believe my ears. I apologized to this desperate mother and offered the small consolation that her son can attend the JQY adult meetings when he graduates high school. (JQY is the largest national non-profit supporting LGBTQ youth and their families in the Orthodox community.) As I hung up the phone, I didn’t feel very good, so I could only imagine how she and her son felt. This was just months after a string of high-profile LGBTQ teen suicides, and the It Gets Better Project had been launched to give LGBTQ youth a message of hope for the future. JQY even created its own "It Gets Better" video for Orthodox gay youth. While the project was well-intentioned, the It Gets Better message tells a drowning child that a raft is coming. Some teens simply cannot stay afloat. It was time to build more rafts.

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