Eshel in the News

Marry Me, However: Envisioning a Gay Future

R. Steve Greenberg Envisions a Gay Future as he discusses "Marry Me, However" in The Times of Israel. Rabbi Mordechai Vardi is the rabbi of Kibbutz Ein Zurim and a filmmaker. He recently focused his keen eye on his Orthodox community’s inability to offer any credible future to gay and lesbian young people. His film, Marry [more]

Social Isolation, Mental Health, and Halakha

By Rabbi Zach Truboff   With the three day yom tov this week there have been a lot of conversations about what can or can't be done for people who might experience distress over the holiday. Most of the discussion I have seen around the use of Zoom or calling people on Shabbat/Yom Tov focus only [more]
Queer Orthodox Jews Want More Than Tolerance

Queer Orthodox Jews Want More Than Tolerance

According to Miryam Kabakov, executive director of ten-year-old Orthodox LGBTQ+ organization Eshel, the Orthodox community has become exceedingly more open over the past decade. “When we started,” she says, “Orthodox communities were not really addressing LGBTQ inclusion as something they needed to do.” Now, Eshel’s Welcoming Shuls project reports that over 140 Orthodox synagogues across North America are [more]