From the YU Commentator:
Yeshiva University and the College Democrats welcomed Ben Katz, a YU alumnus (YC ‘11) and LGBTQ activist, to the Beren Campus on Nov. 13 to speak about the dialogue in Israel regarding LGBTQ rights and inclusion within the religious community.
Every desk in Room 208 of 215 Lexington was filled, with students sitting on desktops and on the floor, as well as standing in the back. Over 65 attendees showed up to hear Katz speak. Katz explained much of what Shoval, the organization he works for, does throughout Israel.
Shoval, as Katz explained, is an organization that aims to educate religious communities about LGBTQ people. This primarily comes through three forms: hosting meetings and events to offer queer religious Jews a sense of community, traveling throughout the country to start a dialogue in the religious communities and educating school teachers and administrators about how to give support to LGBTQ students.
Katz, who studied psychology at Yeshiva University before moving to Israel, emphasized the effect of a supportive, visible community for LGBTQ people on the state of their mental health. If the LGBTQ community is not represented or mentioned in religious contexts, he explained, religious LGBTQ people feel alone in their experiences, and their mental health and wellbeing may be at risk. As Katz said during the event, “If you can not imagine a future for yourself, you get desperate, and do desperate things. And what people need to hear is, ‘There is a future for you, it is okay.’” Through organizations like Shoval, Katz shared, a positive dialogue surrounding LGBTQ members of the religious community is being created. Katz was proud to say that Shoval is helping queer Jews imagine their futures.
The event had a strong effect on the students in attendance. Rivka Reiter (SCW ‘19) said, “It’s the culmination of years and years of work by queer and allied students. I couldn’t help but get emotional, seeing the large turnout of students from all backgrounds and walks of life. It was groundbreaking, and hopefully just the first step toward helping our university and the faculty, administration and student body recognize and address the needs of the minority students contained within it.”
The issue of LGBTQ acceptance, inclusion and visibility in Yeshiva University has been a polarizing topic in recent years. While some have expressed a feeling of relief at the lack of homophobia upon coming out, such as Moshe Brimm in his article “Where Are the Pitchforks? Being an Openly Gay Student at Yeshiva University,” others, such as Josh Tranen in his article “Why I left YU, and Why I'm Writing About It Now,” have expressed feeling targeted or ostracized by the community. Particularly in the wake of YU Admissions’ rejection of a YU Model United Nations topic paper about “State-Sponsored Legal Discrimination and Violence Against Sexual Minorities,” many students felt that the visibility and representation on campus from the Ben Katz event offered a much-needed voice to a community that often may feel underrepresented. Matthew Haller (YC ‘19), the event coordinator and co-president of the College Democrats, stated, “We need to start actively representing the LGBT+ community on campus, rather than just ignoring it.”
The last time that an event like the Ben Katz speech took place at YU was in 2010, when Katz himself was a student at Yeshiva University. A panel entitled “Being Gay In The Modern Orthodox World” was run through the Tolerance Club and the Wurzweiler School of Social Work. At the time, the event was groundbreaking on campus and in the broader YU community. “I was at YU during a time when the community simply was not aware that you could be Modern Orthodox and gay,” Katz said. “We didn’t talk about LGBTQ people on campus because the public assumption was that they did not exist.”
With the occurrence in 2010 of the first undergraduate Yeshiva University event centered around the LGBTQ community, the marginalized community was acknowledged, according to Katz, but far from accepted. While many supported the event, others were scandalized or insulted by an event centered around LGBTQ people; particularly, there were some roshei yeshiva who called for a boycott in advance of the event. However, according to Katz, society is much more open-minded today than in 2010, and he has hope for the future society that is to come.
“In the history of the world,” said Katz, “there has never been a better day to be young, religious and LGBT. And, if you want to know about the future, you have to believe tomorrow will be a better day.”
--------------
Ahhhhhhh - Religious and LGBT!! I am religious and married to a GORGEOUS Hispanic girl I met in Washington Heights. She never converted but I am in love and that is who I am. Accept me. Give me a stage to talk PUBLICLY about the EQUAL rights of religious people who choose to marry outside the faith. In YU. What a BEAUTIFUL Kiddush Hashem! Showing our Gentile spouses the splendor of Judaism while allowing them to remain with their original faith and even accompanying them to church on Sundays. "INCLUSION" is the word. Otherwise, my FEELINGS will be hurt. [Let us throw Ben Shapiro to the dogs with his conservative viewpoints and announce with a loud voice "The facts DO CARE about your feelings"]. I need validation that whatever I choose to do is OK. Otherwise, I will get depressed and might hurt myself.
Wait!!! There are so many "religious" pedophiles out there. Why don't we learn to accept them!! Think of how sad they are when ostracized from our communities!!
And hey - what about all of the "religious" agnostics and atheists who are in the "closet". Let them "come out" and show that one can be a religious Jew without believing in G-d.
We can just redefine Judaism to mean "whatever makes you feel good". So a man can be a perfectly good Jew while having a sexual relationship with a man he calls his "husband" but since he eats cholent - he is SOOOOOO Jewish. What is more Jewish than cholent??!
------
As societal values change, people somehow assume that the Torah should change along with it. So instead of adapting the times to the Torah - we must adapt Torah to the times. Sounds sort of like Reform?? How apt to choose a Funeral Chapel to advance this agenda. They are trying to "bury" [G-d forbid] the Torah. Why? Because they want to have sex with people of the same gender. 3,300 years of history including Divine revelation are more important than a fulfillment of sexual urges. I think all of the heterosexuals should get together and talk about how difficult monogamy is and DEMAND validation and equality as Orthodox Jews who don't want to repress their incredibly powerful urges.
To use the Talmudic expression: התורה חוגרת שק!! The reality is that it is very hard to believe that these public proponents of Biblically forbidden lifestyles believe in the Divine origin of the Torah. Which brings us back to Reform....
To use the Talmudic expression: התורה חוגרת שק!! The reality is that it is very hard to believe that these public proponents of Biblically forbidden lifestyles believe in the Divine origin of the Torah. Which brings us back to Reform....
-------
I used to teach in a program where my boss loved to say that YU is just as good an any Yeshiva in America. Maybe. There are many great boys and girls in YU. But somehow I can't really imagine a packed room of students in BMG in Lakewood or Ner Yisroel coming to listen to a homosexual person talking about his work to receive acceptance in the greater religious community [in Eretz Yisrael no less!!] as an authentic religious Jew. If YU wants to be taken seriously by the rest of the [less modern] Torah world they [meaning the President, faculty and students] should assert that they are committed to Torah values and laws.
