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JRF Homosexuality Report and Inclusion of GLBTQ persons

The Jewish Reconstructionist Federation has been on record in support of full equality of rights and opportunities for gay men and lesbians since 1984, when our sister seminary, the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, began admitting openly gay and lesbian applicants.

We have over 100 affiliates nation-wide representing 17,000 households, including gay, lesbian, bi-sexual amd trans-gendered members. At its 1990 convention, the RRA recommended that the Reconstructionist movement establish a non-discrimination policy in rabbinic placement.

The following year, a movement-wide policy was enacted prohibiting discrimination in the referral of resumes of candidates for positions within congregations and in 1991, the RRA adopted a formal policy of non-discrimination in membership, thus acknowledging the previously unwritten policy.

The Reconstructionist movement has been at the forefront of efforts to include and integrate gay and lesbian Jews into all aspects of Jewish communal and religious life.

The following paragraph appears in Homosexuality and Judaism: The Reconstructionist Position, a groundbreaking report issued by the Reconstructionist movement in 1993:

    "We regard the Jewish values that affirm the inherent dignity, integrity and equality of human beings as having primacy over historically conditioned attitudes... It is our duty to correct the misunderstandings and resulting injustice of the past and to fulfill the Jewish obligation to seek justice."

To "seek justice," the report urged "all Reconstructionist affiliates, rabbis, and members of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College community to engage in a process of education about the issues relating to Judaism and homosexuality."

In 2004, we unanimously adopted a resolution in support of full legal equality for same-sex couples and the JRF has signed on in support of all amicus briefs we have been invited to do so on in support of same-sex marriage in State legal actions since that time.

At the November 2008 JRF board meeting, in response to propositions around the United States limiting the rights of Gay, lesbian, Bi-Sexual, and Transgendered (GLBT) persons to marry and adopt children, the Jewish Reconstructionist Federation (JRF) re-affirmed its resolutions supporting inclusivity in our communities of homosexual persons in 1993 and same-sex marriage in 2004 and the Jewish values that are the foundation of our unwavering commitment to work towards the ending of inequity and discrimination against GLBT persons.

Recon congregations shown and explicitly acknowledged as outperforming the other movements in welcoming-ness. From the Welcoming Synagogues Project: Preliminary Results from the 2009 Synagogue Survey on Diversity and LGBT Inclusion.

- Rabbi Shawn I. Zevit, Director of Tikkun Olam and External Affiliations

Resources:

External Organizations

  • Jewish Mosaic: The National Center for Sexual and Gender Diversity
  • Resources from Keshet, a grassroots organization dedicated to creating a fully inclusive Jewish community for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) Jews in Greater Boston and across the country.
  • United States GLBTQ Organizations
  • Lesbian, Gay, Bi-Sexual and Transgendered Religious Archives Network
  • Yes! Coalition (based in Philadelphia)
  • World Congress of GLBT Congregations
  • 2009 House bill protecting rights of LGBT persons from discrimination
    AttachmentSize
    Reconstructionist statement on Prop8.doc44.5 KB
    JRF Statement for CA Same Sex Marriage Brief.doc21 KB
    Vermont Legalizes Same-Sex Marriage Apr 09.doc27 KB
    SynagogueSurvey2009_DiversityAndLGBT.pdf3.17 MB
    Kehillat_Mekabelet_Buffalo.doc33 KB
    Kehillat_Mekabelet_RT.doc41 KB
    Kol_Halev_Cleveland_GLBT_Statement.doc25.5 KB
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    August 31, 2010 - 7:47pm — Anonymousxcv (not verified)

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    August 13, 2009 - 11:34pm — Rabbi Shawn Zevit
    Rabbi Shawn Zevit's picture

    RRA Issues statement in

    RRA Issues statement in response to the attack on LGBT youth in Tel Aviv 

      

     

     

    RECONSTRUCTIONIST RABBINICAL ASSOCIATION

     RESPONDS TO ATTACK ON ISRAELI LGBT CENTER

     

    Statement of the RRA Board, August 11, 2009/21 Av 5769

     

    The Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association joins with the many voices that have condemned the August 1st attack at a Tel-Aviv Gay, Lesbian, Bi-sexual and Transgender youth center. This attack not only strikes at the lives and families of those killed and wounded, but at all who cherish diversity, pluralism, democracy and respect for difference. As Martin Peled-Flax, the Israeli Embassy minister-counselor for domestic political affairs has stated, this is an attack “on Israel’s civil society as a whole.”

    Incendiary language, especially when wrapped in religious rhetoric can not but help to create a climate of mistrust, anger and hatred against those who are gay, lesbian, bi-sexual or transgender. We therefore condemn as well those who exploit positions of civil, political and religious leadership to deny the acceptance and human rights of LGBT people.

    During these weeks prior to the Jewish New Year when biblical passages of consolation are read, we extend our condolences to the families of the victims of this attack. We stand with the people and government of Israel as they work to bring the perpetrator of this crime to justice.  And we pray that the holiness implicit in the biblical teaching that each person is created in the image of God will embrace all people.

     

     

    Friday, 07 August 2009

    A Prayer for the Slain and Injured at the Gay Community Center in Tel Aviv -- by Rabbi Dov Linzer

    This prayer expresses grief and sorrow over the horrific and murderous attack at the gay Community Center in Tel Aviv on August 1, 2009 and the heightened sense of responsibility and obligation that all Jews and communities, across the denominations, must share in response. This tfillah was recited in numerous synagogues on Shabbat Parshat Ekev (August 8, 2009), both Orthodox and non-Orthodox, and was delivered at an interdenominational memorial and tehillim service at the JCC of Manhattan on Monday night, August 10, 2009.

    Master of the Universe, watch over the souls of the slain and bring healing to those who were injured in the violent and murderous attack in Tel Aviv in our Holy Land. See how not only the bodies, but the souls and lives of these persons have been shattered. See how this support group for teenagers - this place which for many of them was their one refuge of protection, support, and acceptance - how this haven has now been violated and has now become a place of danger, of vulnerability, and of death. Heal their bodies, heal their souls and heal their spirits.

    O Lord, You have taught us that when a person is murdered and it is not known who the murder is, or what the motives are behind the murder, that it is the leaders of the community who must look inward and ask what sins of commission or omission could have possibly contributed to this tragedy. Who among us in the Jewish people, whatever our denomination or affiliation, can say, that we have done everything in our ability to protect against such a tragedy? Who among us, throughout the Jewish people, can say,  that we did everything in our power to ensure that these victims were cared for physically and emotionally, to ensure that we gave them friendship and protection? O Lord, we cannot make this declaration of innocence.

    Master of the Universe, give us the courage to stand up to and reject all forms of hateful speech and violence. Give us the strength of spirit to refuse to tolerate the rejection of any human being, each of whom is created in Your Divine image. Help us to internalize in our hearts and to manifest in our actions the mandate of the verse in this week’s parsha that it is our responsibility to care for, to love, and to protect all members of our society, and in particular those who are most vulnerable and most likely to feel estranged and rejected. Help us to value every member of our society for whom he or she is, to care for them, to support them, and to recognize that they are an equal part of our community. Give us the strength to fully actualize – in our speech and in our actions – the maxim that the entirety of the Jewish people, straight and gay, is interwoven with and responsible for every one of its members.

    We cannot change the past, but we can work to change the future, so we pray, O Lord, that You accept our mourning and our prayers, and give us the strength to change. We pray that we can make the necessary sacrifices to live up to our obligations to You and to every human being who is created in Your image, and that this can bring partial atonement for th for the innocent blood that has been shed and allowed to have been shed in the midst of Your people, of Israel.

    Atone for Your people, O Lord, bring us healing, a healing of persons, a healing of society, help us create a society where all are protected, cared for, and valued, and let no innocent blood ever again be spilled. Now and speedily in our days, and let us say, Amen.

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