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Thursday, March 28
The Indiana Daily Student

Rabbi talks being gay in Jewish faith

CAROUSEL1caRabbi

As an Orthodox Jew, it took Rabbi Steve Greenberg two decades to come out as a gay man, but only minutes to recap his experiences Wednesday night.

Greenberg recounted his story of coming to terms with being gay in the Orthodox Jewish tradition Wednesday at an IU Hillel-sponsored event.

He is commonly known as the first openly gay Jewish Orthodox rabbi, event organizer and junior Avi Sonnenschein said.

After realizing his attraction to men at the age of 20, Greenberg went to a right-wing Orthodox rabbi and told him he was attracted to both men and women, and that he needed advice.

“The rabbi said to me, ‘My dear one, my friend, you have twice the power to love. Use it carefully,’” Greenberg said. “I ran from there excited thinking I had twice the love and would be a great rabbi and marry a woman. Only later did I realize I only had attractions to men.”

Typically, Orthodox Judaism strictly does not allow openly gay rabbis. Rabbis are not to perform commitment ceremonies for any gay people, despite the fact that
Orthodox Jews are a diverse group of people with a diverse set of beliefs, Greenberg said.

He said gay sex is portrayed as shameful in Jewish scripture because it is an issue of power.

If a man were to penetrate another man, it would put the penetrated at the level of a woman — which, historically has meant to have less value, voice and power, Greenberg said.

“At the bottom of homophobia is misogyny,” Greenberg said. “Homosexuality threatens masculinity because it mimics internalized femininity that’s possible for men. We see this in places where there is a great divide between what is masculine and what is feminine. Gay people are killed in those places.”

He argued the Hebrew Bible says nothing about mutually loving and respectful relationships between men.

Hillel invited Greenberg because of the efforts of Sonnenschein, who previously heard him speak and thought it would a good idea to have him speak at IU.

“I felt like having this viewpoint would be beneficial to a lot of people,” Sonnenschein said. “Especially in Judaism, with Reformed and Conservatives open to homosexuality. But Orthodox — they definitely don’t accept it as common practice. It’s definitely a different viewpoint from an Orthodox perspective.”

Sonnenschein said he hopes Greenberg and speakers like him will help build better tolerance towards Jews on campus.

“If we ever want to have any sort of peace within our communities, you have to be tolerant of other communities, and to be tolerant, you have to know where they’re coming from,” Sonnenschein said. “People say education isn’t the answer.

“But I feel like if there are a lot of people here from different backgrounds, they can take what they hear to their communities and spread tolerance.”

Tziporah Ladin-Gross said she was excited to come to the event to hear how Greenberg balanced being an Orthodox rabbi and a
gay man.

“I know he is a gay Orthodox rabbi, and people tell me it’s impossible for me to be a lesbian Orthodox woman all the time,” Ladin-Gross said.

Though she comes from a Reformed Jewish family, she said she identifies with and adheres to Orthodox traditions.

“I believe in the importance of Jewish law,” Ladin-Gross said. “I love learning laws and keeping kosher and Sabbath. I’m not going to take that out of my life because I’m with a woman.”

Ladin-Gross said she hopes Greenberg’s talk will help other Orthodox Jews feel more
open.

“I hope other Orthodox people, whether gay or trans, realize there are important laws and rules to follow, but its OK to try and find a relationship,” Ladin-Gross said. “They need to find a way to be happy and be themselves, but they shouldn’t walk away because they can’t have the traditional Jewish lifestyle.”

To end his speech, Greenberg spoke about the importance of humility in dealing with scriptures and religious issues.    

“At the bottom of plurality in Judaism is humility. I don’t have all the truth,” Greenberg said. “No matter how deeply committed you are, you don’t have all the truth and can’t.”

Greenberg’s final goal for the Orthodox community is to make a more empathetic environment for LGBT people, he said.

He said he hopes to accomplish this through his group Eshel for gay Orthodox Jews and by speaking and encouraging others to make the changes they can.

“It is the people in this room who stand up to bigotry in this area and others that will make the difference,” Greenberg said. “I am moved by your presence here. There are young people who need to be stood up for.

“It is you and how you behave and act in the Jewish and non-Jewish communities you build that will actually change the world.”

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