Draft:LGBTQ synagogue
LGBT synagogues (also referred to by variants of LGBT and historically as gay and lesbian synagogues) are synagogues primarily serving LGBT Jews. Some are affiliated with liberal Jewish denominations, while others operate independently of any national or international movement.
History
LGBT people were marginalized in the American Jewish community of the 1960s. The Stonewall riots of 1969 led to the birth of the modern gay rights movement, and with it greater awareness among LGBT Jews of hostility in synagogues.[1] The spread of the Metropolitan Community Church, an LGBT-affirming Christian denomination founded in 1968,[2] inspired more organization among LGBT Jews.[3]
In 1972, Beth Chayim Chadashim (BCC) was founded in Los Angeles as the world's first gay and lesbian synagogue. Founded by Jews who would meet at the local MCC, the congregation's name literally translates from that of the MCC's newsletter, "House of New Life".[4] Steps toward acceptance into the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (UAHC, now[update] the Union for Reform Judaism) brought controversy in January 1973,[5] including an opposing responsum from the Reform movement's Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR).[6] Supporters of membership included the president of the UAHC's Pacific Southwest Council and Roland B. Gittelsohn, a former CCAR president.[7] BCC formally applied in June, and, in a historic decision, the Executive Committee of the UAHC Board of Trustees approved the application in July 1974, by a vote of 61 to 22.[8] Of the Reform movement's various decisions to integrate gay and lesbian Jews, it was the only to be led by lay community members rather than rabbis.[9]
Several other early LGBT synagogues were born of ties to the MCC, including Beit Simchat Torah in New York City (1973) and Etz Chaim in Miami (1974). The early gay and lesbian synagogues coalesced into the Conference of Gay Jewish Organizations (later the Conference of Lesbian and Gay Jews) in 1976.[10] In the same time period, gay and lesbian Jewish groups emerged in London and elsewhere outside the United States.[11] Three LGBT synagogues—Or Chadash of Chicago, the Metropolitan Community Synagogue of Miami, and Sha'ar Zahav of San Francisco—joined the UAHC in the following decade. Allen B. Bennett, became the first openly gay rabbi when he was hired by Sha'ar Zahav in 1979.[12]
In 1977, BCC shepherded the UAHC's passage of a resolution titled "The Human Rights of Homosexuals", making the UAHC the first major Jewish organization to endorse gay and lesbian rights.[13]
References
Citations
- ^ Cooper 1989, pp. 83–84.
- ^ MCC n.d.
- ^ Cooper 1989, p. 84.
- ^ Wilkens 2020, p. 41; LA Conservancy n.d.
- ^ Wilkens 2020, p. 55.
- ^ Wilkens 2020, pp. 67–68.
- ^ Wilkens 2020, p. 69.
- ^ Wilkens 2020, pp. 80, 84–85; Cooper 1989, p. 85. (Cooper incorrectly gives a date of 1973.)
- ^ Wilkens 2020, p. 85.
- ^ White 2008, pp. 115–116.
- ^ Cooper 1989, pp. 85–86.
- ^ Cooper 1989, pp. 89, 93.
- ^ Cooper 1989, pp. 87–88.
Sources
- Cooper, Aaron (14 December 1989). "No Longer Invisible: Gay and Lesbian Jews Build a Movement". Journal of Homosexuality. 18 (3–4): 83–94. doi:10.1300/J082V18N03_04.
- "Beth Chayim Chadashim". Los Angeles Conservancy. n.d. Retrieved 10 October 2023.
- "MCC History". Metropolitan Community Church. n.d. Retrieved 10 October 2023.
- White, Heather Rachelle (1 May 2008). "Proclaiming Liberation: The Historical Roots of LGBT Religious Organizing, 1946–1976". Nova Religio. 11 (4): 102–119. doi:10.1525/nr.2008.11.4.102.
- Wilkens, Jan (2020). "Jewish, Gay and Proud": The Founding of Beth Chayim Chadashim as a Milestone of Jewish Homosexual Integration. Universitätsverlag Potsdam. ISBN 9783869564920. Retrieved 10 October 2023.