Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Rabbi Slammed for Linking Sandy to Gay Marriage

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo slammed a rabbi who called superstorm Sandy “divine justice” for gay-friendly policies.

Rabbi Nosom Leiter, head of Torah Jews for Decency, praised the destructive storm for making a point, especially in lower Manhattan, which he branded “one of the national centers for homosexuality,” the Daily News reported.

Cuomo dismissed the rabbi’s comments, which came as he endorsed an anti-gay marriage candidate, as the rantings of a hate-mongerer.

“His kind of hateful rhetoric has no place in our public discourse, and is particularly distasteful in times of tragedy,” Cuomo said in statement. “Our state is proud to offer equal rights to all our citizens, and we will never tolerate the use of a tragedy like Hurricane Sandy to promote a divisive and bigoted agenda.”

Leiter compared Sandy to the biblical storm that spurred Noah to build his ark.

“The Lord will not bring another flood to destroy the entire world, but he can punish particular areas with that flood, and if we look at the same-gender-marriage recognition movement that’s occurring, that’s certainly a message for us to learn,” Leiter opined, the News reported.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.