I’ve worn a yarmulke in public every day of my adult life. While I can recall a few times when someone yelled at me or hurled an insult my way, these have generally been rare occurrences—except when I’m also holding my husband’s hand.
“I get paid to go to YU,” said Joy Ladin, an openly transgender professor at Stern College, in her speech. “But queer students are paying to be trashed in classes to have humanity denied, to have halacha warped around values of homophobia and xenophobia and transphobia, rather than values that recognize that every kind of human being is created in the image of God.”
Meisels described a “complete lack of LGBT representation” at YU. “If there is any discussion of LGBT individuals on campus it is always negative and always involves homophobic rhetoric,” she said. “It’s a social thing,” explained Dov Alberstone, an openly gay senior at Yeshiva College “It’s the things that people say in the dorms to each other or in the gym. In normal social interactions people have, you get a sense that being gay is the worst thing you can be.”
“As a non-binary, queer Jew, we’re living our life kind of on the periphery, and navigating our identities on a daily basis.”
A group of Jewish Zionist supporters gathered in Washington, DC on Friday to protest the DC Dyke March’s ban on Israeli flags and Pride flags with the Star of David in the middle.
Abby Stein is the first openly transgender ex-Hasid and a lightning rod for Hasidic trans-youth.
Inspired by Jewish biblical texts and themes, the music also comments on a variety of modern American political issues, including environmentalism, women’s empowerment and LGBTQ rights.
Last April, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted to name the main terminal at San Francisco International Airport after Harvey Milk, the gay rights martyr who was assassinated 40 years ago. The decision further (and literally) cements Milk’s legacy as the best-known LGBT activist in American history.
It’s standing room only for National Pride Young Professionals Shabbat Dinner, located in the non-denominational, non-traditional congregation’s social hall.
For feminism and Zionism to coexist without contradiction, we must truly embrace a feminist movement that includes the lived experiences of all women, and we must expand our understanding of Zionism to include supporting the rights of both Israelis and Palestinians. Most important, we must engage in meaningful work with those with whom we may strongly disagree about Israel.
