Eshel Out Loud
News, Views, and Updates from the Eshel Community
How Sephardic Mizrahi Q Network Was Born
By Ruben Shimonov As a traditional Mizrahi-Sephardic gay Jewish immigrant, I never thought that it would be within the realm of possibility for me to proudly and confidently hold all of these different parts of my identity at the same time. And then I went on my first Eshel retreat. I had just moved to [more]
Bridging the Divides, Fostering Inclusivity: Panel Discussion with Miryam Kabakov
(This speech was given Miryam Kabakov, Executive Director of Eshel, at the panel discussion entitled " Bridging the Divides, Fostering Inclusivity: Rabbinic, Psychoanalytic and Academic Perspectives on Traditional Judaism and Contemporary Gender/Sex Identities," which was held at the Lincoln Square Synagogue in New York, November 11, 2019.) This Shabbat we read the Parsha where Avraham [more]
R. Steve Greenberg’s Speech at the We, Too, Are YU March
Calling Yeshiva University to Rise Up and Fulfill Its Own Aspirational Values I am Steve Greenberg, the founding director of Eshel, a support, education and advocacy organization for LGBTQ Orthodox Jews and their families. This march is historic. Eshel is proud to have helped Molly Meisels and her team at the nascent YU Pride Alliance [more]Contemporary Orthodox Rabbis Speak
Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, in an article written in nearly twenty years ago, stated the challenge for rabbis in these words: “.... how can we deny a human being the expression of his physical and psychic being? If there’s a problem with the kettle, blame the manufacturer. Is it not cruel to condemn an individual from [more]
Rav Benny Lau “The Religious Community and Homosexuality”
I want to begin with a story from 26 years ago. It’s about 1993 and it was my first year as a rabbi in Kibbutz Sa’ad, in the Negev. We are a family of 4 children. I am the third and Amichai, my brother, is 8 years younger than me. I got a phone [more]Follow Eshel
