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LGBTQ synagogues (also referred to by variants of LGBTQ or as queer synagogues, and historically as gay and lesbian synagogues) are synagogues primarily serving LGBT Jews. Some are affiliated with liberal Jewish[a] denominations, while others operate independently of any national or international movement.

History

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Origins and recognition (1970–1982)

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LGBTQ people were marginalized in the American Jewish community of the 1960s.[2] Traditional Jews considered sex between men a sin on the basis of Leviticus 18:22, which condemns "l[ying] with a man as ... with a woman", and used this to justify said marginalization.[3] The Stonewall riots of 1969 led to the birth of the modern gay rights movement, and with it greater awareness among LGBTQ Jews of hostility in synagogues.[2] The spread of the Metropolitan Community Church, an LGBTQ-affirming Christian denomination founded in 1968,[4] inspired more organization among LGBTQ Jews.[5] This included both Jewish organizations—the first being the Jewish Gay and Lesbian Group in London, England, in 1972—and, in the United States, synagogues.[6]

Text reads: "Gay Synagogue / Friday Night Service and Oneg Shabbat / Feb. 9 at 8:00 PM, / 360 West 28th street / (basement entrance)"
A classified ad in The Village Voice announcing the first meeting of Congregation Beth Simchat Torah[7]

The world's first gay and lesbian synagogue[b] was the House of David and Jonathan, founded by Rabbi Herbert Katz in New York City in 1970. It received little support and shut down after six weeks.[10] Beth Chayim Chadashim (BCC) was founded in Los Angeles two years later and, due to the House of David and Jonathan's short lifespan, is often considered the first gay and lesbian synagogue.[11][c] Established 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".[14] Several other early gay and lesbian synagogues were born of ties to the MCC, including Congregation Beth Simchat Torah (CBST; spelling later changed to Beit[15]) in New York City in 1973 and the Metropolitan Community Synagogue in Miami in 1974 (renamed Congregation Etz Chaim the next year[16]).[17] CBST, which grew to more than 100 members in two years,[18] leased a location of its own in 1975, having previously met at the Episcopalian Church of the Holy Apostles.[19] BCC bought a property in Pico-Robertson in 1978.[20]

"We are in a Catch-22 situation, the place we probably belong is the Conservative movement, but because they are still grappling with the issue of homosexuality, we have to go to the Reform or Reconstructionists for help."

Arthur S. Leonard, co-chairman of CBST's rabbinic search committee, as quoted in 1991[21]

After controversy including an opposing responsum from the Reform movement's Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR),[22] the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (UAHC, now the Union for Reform Judaism) admitted BCC in July 1974, by a vote of 61 to 22 among the Executive Committee's Board of Trustees.[23][d] Across all world religions, BCC's admission to UAHC was the first formal recognition of a gay and lesbian congregation by a national mainstream denomination.[25] Etz Chaim, Or Chadash of Chicago, and Sha'ar Zahav of San Francisco joined the UAHC in the following decade.[26] A number of other gay and lesbian synagogues either joined or became linked to the UAHC, while Congregation Bet Haverim in Atlanta joined Reconstructionist Judaism. Notably, however, CBST elected for independence from any stream of Judaism.[27] Affiliations notwithstanding, gay and lesbian synagogues had members with diverse backgrounds within Judaism, from Reform to Orthodox, and often chose to create their own liturgies drawing from this blend of traditions.[28] In some synagogues this shifted to a more mainstream liturgy over time.[25]

Tensions over gender were a defining aspect of gay and lesbian synagogues at this era. Jewish feminists and gay and lesbian Jews heavily overlapped.[29] Feminist complaints about gendered liturgical language led BCC to print the first genderless prayerbook in 1975, but perceived sexism by male congregation leaders led to repeated conflicts with the minority of woman congregants.[30] CBST likewise saw conflict over the role of women, with some men favoring traditional views over the feminism espoused in the prayerbook (which was degenderized a few years after BCC's).[31] In 1979, Sha'ar Zahav became the first gay and lesbian congregation to hire a rabbi—Allen B. Bennett, the first openly gay rabbi in the U.S.[32] In Sha'ar Zahav's horizontal, feminist structure, the decision to hire a rabbi at all was controversial, leading to a wave of resignations by women, although some subsequently returned.[33]

AIDS crisis, Mi Shebeirach, and Jewish healing (1982–1992)

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The trajectory of gay and lesbian synagogues in the United States was deeply shaped by the AIDS crisis, which began in 1982. The synagogues' reaction to the crisis played a major role in the formation of the Jewish healing movement and the reintroduction of the Mi Shebeirach for healing,[e] which had fallen out of use in Reform settings in the 1800s.[35]

Sha'ar Zahav began using a communal Mi Shebeirach written by Garry Koenigsburg and Rabbi Yoel Kahn,[f] praying to heal "all the ill amongst us, and all who have been touched by AIDS and related illness".[36] As there was at the time no effective treatment for HIV/AIDS, and Jewish tradition says that prayers should not be in vain, Sha'ar Zahav's version emphasized spiritual healing as well as physical.[37] At BCC, a 1985 prayerbook supervised by Rabbi Janet Marder included several prayers for healing, including a Mi Shebeirach blessing the full congregation with health, success, and forgiveness.[38] Debbie Friedman and Rabbi Drorah Setel, a lesbian couple[39] with ties to the BCC-affiliated AIDS Project Los Angeles and many gay and lesbian Jewish leaders, debuted their well-known setting of Mi Shebeirach in 1987.[40] The prayer is now seen as central to liberal Jewish ritual,[41] to the extent that in one ethnographic study many Jews were unaware of how recently Friedman and Setel's version was written.[42]

Congregation Beit Simchat Torah in New York

At Sha'ar Zahav, the response to AIDS also led to the healing of rifts between men and women in the community.[43] Addressing the AIDS crisis became a major part of Sha'ar Zahav's identity, much like the affiliated San Francisco MCC. The AIDS-related deaths of 80 of 201 members contributed to a slowing of the congregation's momentum.[44] In Los Angeles, AIDS killed 30 members of BCC.[45] In New York, CBST participated in the founding of Gay Men's Health Crisis and ACT UP, while AIDS killed almost half of its male active members.[46] Its members were called upon to serve as a stand-in family for those whose birth families would not attend their funerals or only did so reluctantly.[47]

Gay and lesbian synagogues, in addition to working to comfort dying members, also lobbied national Jewish organizations to acknowledge the pandemic.[48] Sha'ar Zahav in particular was influential due to San Francisco's status as the capital of American gay culture.[49] Kahn's 1985 Yom Kippur sermon "AIDS is Our Earthquake"[g] and a similar sermon delivered the same day by Robert Kirschner at Congregation Emanu-El, a nearby primarily straight congregation, were influential in shaping liberal American Jewish attitudes to AIDS, as LGBTQ and progressive synagogues advocated for stronger responses by the UAHC, the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, and the Orthodox Union.[51]

In 1988, Kahn created a new liturgy for healing, incorporating Sha'ar Zahav's Mi Shebeirach for healing of people with AIDS, and began conducting healing services with it.[52] Rabbi Nancy Flam subsequently took over the services and adapted them. This adapted version was later distributed nationwide by the National Center for Jewish Healing from the mid-1990s onward, birthing the Jewish healing movement.[53]

Sheila Shulman, one of the United Kingdom's first two openly lesbian rabbis, founded Beit Klal Yisrael in 1990 as the country's first LGBTQ synagogue, with assistance from Lionel Blue, the UK's first openly gay rabbi. Amidst tensions between gay men and women, the congregation initially did not invite men, but attitudes warmed in the community as gay and lesbian Jews united in their opposition to Section 28, an anti-gay law.[54]

Mainstream influence and decline in attendance (1992–present)

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In the 1980s, Sha'ar Zahav had been the most influential gay and lesbian synagogue, with Kahn one of the most visible Reform rabbis in the country.[25] On the other side of the country, the proudly lay-led CBST, almost a thousand strong by 1989 and under the pressures of the AIDS crisis, for the first time sought a rabbi.[55] In March 1992 they hired Sharon Kleinbaum, a Reconstructionist,[55] marking a significant improvement from past gender-based tensions at the congregation.[56] By 2001, CBST was the largest gay and lesbian synagogue in the world,[57] with Kleinbaum leading it beyond its substantial local influence in New York, onto the international stage.[27] Starting with a Hadassah event in 1998, national non-LGBTQ Jewish organizations began working more with CBST.[58]

In the 1990s and 2000s, liberal Jewish movements enacted a number of policies in support of LGBTQ rights.[59] This normalization led to decreased interest among LGBTQ Jews in attending LGBTQ synagogues, while the percentage of non-LGBTQ congregants at LGBTQ synagogues has risen.[60] Chevrei Tikva in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, merged into Anshe Chesed Fairmount Temple in 2005.[61] Congregation Or Chadash in Chicago merged into Temple Sholom in 2016.[62] In 2017, ethnographer Sonia Crasnow observed that Am Tikva in Boston was suffering low attendance, while BCC's attendance was steady but skewed middle-aged.[63] Synagogues have taken a variety of strategies to counter this: Some, such as Beit Haverim in Atlanta, have sought to attract Jews of color as another demographic often marginalized from traditional Jewish spaces. Sha'ar Zahav has positioned itself as a popular choice for potential converts.[60]

Liturgy and practice

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CBST's first prayerbook, put together by a single member, did not touch on gay topics. Its successor, "With All Your Heart" (1981), was informed by the gay and lesbian experience. Translations made reference to the struggles and hardships members had endured, and went as far as to interpolate the word "gay" into several prayers. "With All Your Heart" also inserted reference to the matriarchs into the Amidah.[64]

List of LGBTQ synagogues

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Synagogue
(translation of name) 		Founded Location Notes
House of David and Jonathan 1970[6] New York City, New York Folded after six weeks[10]
Beth Chayim Chadashim
('House of New Life') 		1972[6] Los Angeles, California
Congregation Beit Simchat Torah
('House of Gladness in the Torah') 		1973[c] New York City, New York Originally spelled Congregation Beth Simchat Torah[15]
Congregation Etz Chaim
('Tree of Life') 		1974[6] Miami, Florida Called the Metropolitan Community Synagogue for its first year[16]
Congregation Or Chadash
('New Light') 		1975[6] Chicago, Illinois Merged into Temple Sholom in 2016[62]
Bet Mishpachah
('House of Family') 		1975[6] Washington, D.C.
Beth Ahavah
('House of Love') 		1975[6] Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Am Tikva 1976[6] Boston, Massachusetts
Congregation Sha'ar Zahav
('Golden Gate') 		1976[6] San Francisco, California
Tikvah Chadashah 1980[65] Seattle, Washington
Ahavat Shalom
('Love of Peace') 		1982[66] San Francisco, California Split off from Sha'ar Zahav; folded in 1990[66]
Chevrei Tikva 1983[61] Cleveland Heights, Ohio Merged into Anshe Chesed Fairmount Temple in 2005[61]
Congregation Bet Haverim

('House of Friends')

1985[67] Atlanta, Georgia
Bet Tikvah
('House of Hope') 		1989[68] Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Beth El Binah 1989[69] Dallas, Texas
Beit Klal Yisrael

('House of All Israel')

1990[70] London, England

In addition to LGBTQ synagogues that have merged into others, many congregations in LGBT-affirming denominations have established their own LGBTQ havurot, outreach groups, or similar.[71]

Congregation Kol Ami in West Hollywood, California, was founded by LGBTQ people,[72] has many LGBTQ members, and is sometimes referred to as an LGBTQ synagogue,[73] but does not refer to itself as such.[74]

According to Moshe Shokeid's A Gay Synagogue in New York, Jacob Gubbay, the Indian-born founder of Congregation Beit Simchat Torah, moved to Australia and founded a congregation called Beth Simcha in Bondi Beach, New South Wales.[75] Little is known about Gubbay's fate subsequently,[75] and as of 2023 no such congregation is listed by Dayenu, a Jewish LGBTQ+ organization for the Sydney area.[76]

Notes and references

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Notes

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  1. ^ Liberal Jewish denominations are those that are not Orthodox. The main ones are Reform Judaism, Conservative Judaism, Reconstructionist Judaism, and Jewish Renewal.[1]
  2. ^ The synagogues discussed in this article are now generally known as LGBTQ synagogues (or by variants of LGBTQ such as LGBT). In the 1970s and 1980s, however, there was little discussion of bisexual and transgender Jews, and the terms "gay synagogue" or "gay and lesbian synagogue" were used.[8] Looking at Congregation Sha'ar Zahav and to a lesser extent Beth Chayim Chadashim, as two of the earliest prominent gay and lesbian synagogues, Gregg Drinkwater writes that emphasis of the role of bisexuals increased from the mid-1980s through the 1990s, and the role of transgender Jews from the late 1990s through early 2000s. Around this time, gay and lesbian synagogues shifted to labels of "LGBT synagogue" and similar.[9]
  3. ^ a b Sonia Crasnow writes that "by some accounts" Beit Simchat Torah "started virtually simultaneously" with BCC in 1972.[12] However, both Beit Simchat Torah's website[13] and Moshe Shokeid's in-depth history A Gay Synagogue in New York[7] trace its founding to the classified ad that ran on February 9, 1973.
  4. ^ The admission of BCC differed from other pro-LGBTQ decisions of the UAHC/URJ in that it was led by laity rather than the rabbinate.[24]
  5. ^ The concept of a "healing prayer" or "healing service" should not be confused with faith healing. Healing prayers in the liberal Jewish tradition emphasize spiritual healing and, in a messianic sense, universal healing of the community.[34]
  6. ^ Not to be confused with the Chabad rabbi of the same name.
  7. ^ A reference to the 1985 Mexico City earthquake, which had occurred days before and prompted an outpouring of support[50]

Citations

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  1. ^ Silverman 2016, pp. 170, 173.
  2. ^ a b Cooper 1989, pp. 83–84.
  3. ^ Wilkens 2020, pp. 7, 58–69; Shokeid 1995, pp. 17–18.
  4. ^ White 2018, p. 141.
  5. ^ Cooper 1989, p. 84.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Ridinger 2017, p. 98.
  7. ^ a b Shokeid 1995, p. 32.
  8. ^ Drinkwater 2019, p. 191 n. 1.
  9. ^ Drinkwater 2020a, pp. 436–440.
  10. ^ a b Drinkwater 2019, p. 191 n. 5; Rosenfeld 2021, citing Dolkart 2018.
  11. ^ Drinkwater 2019, p. 178, p. 191 n. 5. Other sources treating BCC as the first include Cooper 1989, p. 85; Wilkens 2020, p. 41; and LA Conservancy n.d.
  12. ^ Crasnow 2017, p. 1 n. 1.
  13. ^ CBST n.d.
  14. ^ Wilkens 2020, p. 41; LA Conservancy n.d.
  15. ^ a b Dunlap 2011.
  16. ^ a b ISJL n.d.; Sorkin 2023
  17. ^ White 2008, pp. 115–116.
  18. ^ Harris 2001, p. 313.
  19. ^ Shokeid 1995, pp. 37–38.
  20. ^ Wilkens 2020; LA Conservancy n.d..
  21. ^ Goldman 1991, quoted in Shokeid 1995, p. 59
  22. ^ Wilkens 2020, pp. 55, 67–68.
  23. ^ Wilkens 2020, pp. 80, 84–85; Cooper 1989, p. 85. (Cooper incorrectly gives a date of 1973.)
  24. ^ Wilkens 2020, p. 85.
  25. ^ a b c Drinkwater 2019, p. 190.
  26. ^ Cooper 1989, p. 93.
  27. ^ a b Drinkwater 2020a, p. 18.
  28. ^ Drinkwater 2019, p. 182. In the context of Sha'ar Zahav, Drinkwater refers to this blend as "reformadox" (p. 190).
  29. ^ Drinkwater 2020c, p. 607 n. 13.
  30. ^ Wilkens 2020, pp. 49–53.
  31. ^ Shokeid 1995, pp. 73, 101–109, 173–175. Shokeid is inconsistent as to the timing of the degenderization: On p. 73, a congregant describes the siddur as "recently ... degenderized" as of September 1979. On pp. 101–109, Shokeid describes the new siddur, "With All Your Heart", its English text "thoroughly degenderized" (p. 108), as introduced in May 1981.
  32. ^ Cooper 1989, p. 89; Drinkwater 2019, pp. 178, 181.
  33. ^ Drinkwater 2019, pp. 181–182.
  34. ^ Drinkwater 2020c, pp. 609–610, 617, 626–627:
    • "Kahn felt that in the face of AIDS, when the disease was still largely a death sentence, the words of the traditional Mi Shebeirach blessing for healing were a tefilat shav ['false', 'vain', or 'useless' prayer]. ... So, [Sha'ar Zahav] broadened the language in both Hebrew and English to include spiritual healing as a messianic hope for the community. ... [A] 'time of complete healing' was imagined as a future redemptive moment for the entire community, not just those currently facing illness or grief, and envisioned universal healing, not the healing of any specific body." (p. 617)
    • "A key distinction ... between most of these contemporary rituals and the folk traditions of the past is that participants rarely ask for or expect a direct improvement in one's physical condition or the elimination of any illness via ritual or prayer." (p. 626)
    Silverman 2016, p. 174: "Jewish leaders are eager to differentiate themselves from 'faith healers' in the Pentecostal Christian tradition, and they emphasize that they do not claim to heal bodies."
  35. ^ Drinkwater 2020c, pp. 606–607.
  36. ^ Drinkwater 2020c, pp. 613–616.
  37. ^ Drinkwater 2020c, p. 617.
  38. ^ Drinkwater 2020c, pp. 617–618.
  39. ^ Drinkwater 2020c.
    • "Debbie Friedman and Rabbi Drorah Setel, two feminist innovators deeply connected to Judaism’s Reform Movement (and then romantic partners)" (p. 606).
    • "Although active in lesbian feminist circles and well-known among those women as a lesbian, Debbie Friedman generally kept her sexual orientation private" (pp. 618–619).
    • "The extent to which Debbie Friedman was or was not 'out' or 'in the closet' remains contested. After she died in 2011, some commentators who publicly described her as a lesbian were critiqued for 'outing' her posthumously, given Friedman's perceived preference in life to keep her sexuality private. But others, including close friends, argued that she was not really closeted, just guarded about her private life" (p. 619 n. 52), citing Tracy 2011 & Klein 2011.
  40. ^ Drinkwater 2020c, pp. 618–621.
  41. ^ Silverman 2016, p. 173, citing Cutter 2011a and Cutter 2011b.
  42. ^ Silverman 2016, pp. 180–181. "Often, the people I was interviewing knew only the modern version of the prayer, yet its historical resonance was still central to their reactions to it. Sarah, who had said the Mi Sheberach for her ill adult son told me [sic]: 'It's so powerful knowing that people have been saying these exact words for thousands of years.' When I pointed out that the version she was referring to was only 20 years old, she was baffled" (p. 181).
  43. ^ Drinkwater 2020c, pp. 185–186.
  44. ^ Drinkwater 2020c, pp. 622–624.
  45. ^ Lobell 2022.
  46. ^ Drinkwater 2020b, p. 133.
  47. ^ Shokeid 1995, p. 79,217-218.
  48. ^ Drinkwater 2020c, p. 614.
  49. ^ Drinkwater 2019, p. 178.
  50. ^ Drinkwater 2020b, p. 128.
  51. ^ Drinkwater 2020b.
  52. ^ Drinkwater 2020c, pp. 621–622, 624.
  53. ^ Drinkwater 2020c, pp. 625–626.
  54. ^ Lesh 2018, pp. 212–217.
  55. ^ a b Shokeid 1995, pp. 52–54, 61–62; Harris 2001, pp. 314–315.
  56. ^ Shokeid 1995, pp. 182, 237.
  57. ^ Harris 2001, p. 315.
  58. ^ Harris 2001, p. 320.
  59. ^ Crasnow 2017, pp. 19–21.
  60. ^ a b Rosenfeld 2021.
  61. ^ a b c Wittenberg 2013.
  62. ^ a b Simonette 2016; Temple Sholom n.d..
  63. ^ Crasnow 2017, pp. 32, 35
  64. ^ Shokeid 1995, pp. 44, 101–103.
  65. ^ Targovnik 1997.
  66. ^ a b Drinkwater 2020a, p. 307.
  67. ^ Drinkwater 2020a, p. 18 n. 17.
  68. ^ Lidji 2018.
  69. ^ Tinsley 2016.
  70. ^ Lesh 2018, p. 217.
  71. ^ IJSO n.d.
  72. ^ Weiss 2008.
  73. ^ Sobel 2019; IJSO n.d.
  74. ^ Weiss 2008; Crasnow 2017; Kol Ami n.d.
  75. ^ a b Shokeid 1995, pp. 33–34, 247–248 n. 2.
  76. ^ Dayenu n.d.

Sources

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Academic

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Periodicals

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Other

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