Photo by Mercedes Mehling/Unsplash/Creative Commons
by Yonat Shimron
(RNS) — A group of Orthodox rabbis from the U.S. and Israel issued a strongly worded letter condemning discredited practices that try to “convert” LGBTQ+ people to heterosexuality — a rarity for an establishment that still largely sees queer people as sinful.
The letter, which was drafted years ago but released earlier in January in Israel, includes the signatures of prominent modern Orthodox rabbis, including Yitz Greenberg, Shmuly Yanklowitz and Daniel Sperber, as well as a number of female rabbis. It does not include Haredi rabbis, the most strictly observant of the Orthodox strain of Jewish life.
When the letter was first published online, 75 rabbis listed their names, but that has since grown to 100 rabbis. They are not tied to an organization.
“We the undersigned,” it begins, “believe that it is forbidden according to Halakhic principle and ethos, for anyone, including a rabbi, rabbanit, educator, or therapist to recommend to any person to undergo treatment for the purpose of changing a person’s sexual orientation, commonly known as ‘conversion therapy. This is because conversion therapy is harmful, does not work, and because same-sex attraction is not a mental health problem.”
More liberal streams of U.S. Jewish life, such as the Reform and Conservative movements, have extended full equality to LGBTQ+ Jews, allowing them to be married and ordained. However, Orthodox Jewish denominations have only made limited strides toward reinterpreting texts that condemn gay love as a transgression, with most of that shift seen in Modern Orthodox circles.
“What they are really trying to do is press the rest of the Orthodox community to recognize what is obvious — that gay people are not sick, nor are they suffering a character flaw,” said Rabbi Steve Greenberg, one of the signers and a gay, married man who co-founded Eshel, a New York-based nonprofit whose mission is to build LGBTQ+ inclusive Orthodox Jewish communities. “They are just built differently by their Creator.”
Read more at Religion News Service