No more 'bar' mitzvah: Synagogues changing ways to support LGBTQ youth

[Behind the Aegis]

Over the last year, no fewer than five young people came out publicly as LGBTQ at the Society for the Advancement of Judaism, a pluralistic synagogue on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.

Even Rabbi Lauren Grabelle Herrmann, SAJ’s spiritual leader and an active champion of gay rights dating back to her days as a rabbinic intern at Congregation Beit Simchat Torah, the world’s largest synagogue for LGBTQ individuals, was surprised at the number.

“That’s a lot in a very small community,” Herrmann said. “And the whole community has been very accepting.”

In the congregation of 270 families, only a handful of adults identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender or queer, she said.

“But there are quite a substantial number of tweens and teens, and even younger, who are LGBTQ,” Herrmann said. “These are kids who are out by the fourth grade through high school, from age 8 and up.”

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[Karadeniz]

1. We recently had a post about how the extreme penalties listed in Leviticus were not intended to

be taken seriously. The author listed many biblical instances in which the Leviticus penalties were not meted out when specific offenses clearly occurred.

The Jewish acceptance of LBGTQ members shows, to me, a benefit of not having strict belief standards as Christians have with their creeds. For one thing, even the superficial layer of Scripture is crystal clear on a member's having to demonstrate Jesus's instructions as proof of faith. So what do we have? Creeds that dwell on believing in Jesus's biography, but no mention of loving both one's neighbors and one's enemies. Limiting one's commitment as a follower of Jesus to his biography is just as narrow as Leviticus and Christians should assume the duty of lovingkindness personally, going beyond the incomplete creeds.

I hope I don't get massacred.