Jun 26, 2025 | Eshel Out Loud
I was married three times, to the same person. Our first wedding was almost everything I could have hoped for - spiritual, communal, religious, and deeply meaningful. The only problem was that legally, it was meaningless. In 2004, Mara and I got married in front of 240 of our closest friends and family. It marked [more]
Jul 1, 2021 | Eshel in the News
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]
Oct 29, 2020 | Eshel Out Loud
Leana Tapnack, seen here with mikvah attendant Talia Lakritz at the West Side Mikvah in New York, decided to observe the laws of niddah together with her wife, Sandy. (Courtesy of Tapnack) Some queer Jews are finding meaning in the laws of family purity, traditionally observed by married Orthodox couples Like many observant Jewish women, [more]
Jul 15, 2016 | Eshel Out Loud
Shlomit Metz-Poolat When rabbis fail, they don’t just fail me or my family, they fail their community as a whole. This is my story, about how rabbis — and so many in my community who followed them — failed us too. All of us. You see, I am a frum (observant) Jew, a mother, a [more]
Jul 2, 2013 | Eshel in the News
Orthodox Union Statement on Today’s Supreme Court Rulings Today, the leadership of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of Americaissued the following statement: “In response to the decisions announced today by the United States Supreme Court with reference to the federal Defense of Marriage Act and California’s Proposition 8, we reiterate the historical position of the [more]
