I am not claustrophobic. But watching “Shiva Baby,” 26-year-old Emma Seligman’s first feature film, I felt the walls closing in on me. Ariel Marx’s high-pitched and plunky soundtrack felt akin to the “Psycho” score’s shrieking violins and I could feel my cortisol rising throughout the entire runtime. While the film bills itself as a comedy,…
Chaya Milchtein’s dream wedding would have hundreds of guests. Her fiancée JodyAnn Morgan’s dream wedding would be just her, her partner and their officiant. In Morgan’s ideal world, she said, “I would just go to Vegas and call it a day.” Now, thanks to the coronavirus, they are both getting their dream wedding. This weekend,…
To: Eric Fingerhut, President and CEO of Hillel International Dear Mr. Fingerhut, We write to you as LGBTQ rabbis, rabbinical students and allies from a range of Jewish denominations living across the United States. We are teachers, scholars, activists, and leaders of communities and congregations; we have dedicated our professional lives to serving the Jewish…
At Bustle, Hannah Simpson writes about her experiences as a Jewish Queer Youth marcher at New York’s Celebrate Israel Parade. Simpson, who is transgender, describes what happened when, as she puts it, “Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) ambushed and blocked our members under the guise of civil disobedience and protest.” Simpson explains that when JVP…
In the past week, two high profile Orthodox rabbis have come out, in writing, in support of LGBT Orthodox Jews. In Gay and Orthodox: An Oxymoron No More Ysoscher Katz, Chair of Talmud at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, argues that it is not impossible to be both gay and Orthodox, arguing that today it is “no…
At summer camp, sneaking into the boys side or the girls side is as classic an activity as roasting marshmallows. But what if the side you were assigned isn’t where you think you belong? Or what if you don’t fit into either side? Jewish summer camp — with its gender-segregated bunks, bathrooms, activities and rituals,…
“I am one of those people who have wanted to be a rabbi since I was a little kid,” said Ari Lev Fornari, a fifth-year rabbinical student at Hebrew College, a pluralistic college of Jewish studies in Newton Centre, Mass. His professional ambitions were “not disconnected from my own queer inclination.” The only out gay…
“I didn’t come to be a rabbi because I wanted to change the Jewish world about transgender issues,” said Jacob Lieberman, 34, a fourth-year student at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, in Wyncote, Pa. “I came because I have Jewish ideas that I want to help to infuse into our society.” Lieberman’s aim to make Judaism…
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