Tag: gay

The Board of Trustees of the Schechter Rabbinical Seminary voted to accept gay and lesbian students for ordination. “The Schechter Rabbinical Seminary views the serious process leading to this decision as an example of confronting social dilemmas within the framework of tradition and halachah,” Board of Trustees Chair Hanan Alexander said in a statement.

In the solidarity business, life can be unpredictable. Take, for instance, the story of the LGBT commission representing the gay community in Seattle, which this month canceled a Friday reception at City Hall for a visiting delegation of Israeli gay leaders. They argued that Israel was "pinkwashing" its treatment of the Palestinians by showing the world how fabulous they are on gay rights.

The New Hampshire House of Representative Wednesday defeated by a 246-85 vote a bill that would have allowed photographers, caterers and others to turn away wedding gigs if they had a religious objection to the marriage. "As New Hampshire goes, so goes the nation," and political trends have a way of trickling down to the more populated states.

It’s been more than six months since The Jewish Press published an op-ed titled “Orthodox Homosexuals and the Pursuit of Self Indulgence.” In the article, the writer, while not mentioning my name, calls me shameless and self-indulgent and suggests that I learn to suffer in silence.

HAUPPAUGE, N.Y. – The 15th annual conference of Nefesh International, an association of Orthodox mental health professionals, was a study in inclusion.

WASHINGTON - Newly declared presidential candidate Michele Bachmann's dedication to Israel dates back to 1974, when she was selected at age 17 to join a group of Minnesota teens to spend a summer in Israel.

All last week, Rabbi Yehuda Levin's name appeared in the news as the man behind gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino's widely-reported remarks opposing gay marriage and homosexuality. After a maelstrom of criticism, Paladino apologized to the gay and lesbian community, prompting Rabbi Levin to sever his ties with the Republican candidate.

If you knew how much trouble I had getting gay men to be interviewed by me, you would doubt that the term "gay" applies to them. Their elusive hesitance, their resistance to revealing any identifying information including their phone numbers and the need for my repeated reassurances that I would respect their privacy and exercise discretion further evidences that they are not happy with their former identities and associations and have chosen a different path because "gay" and homosexual are not necessarily synonymous. In fact Dan (not his real name) was quick to confirm my assumptions. He felt it was very much an oxymoron to be gay and happy in his life.

Many years ago, I was meeting relatives at the airport when I ran into someone I knew whom I hadn't seen in a few years. Someone who was a very active homosexual. I asked him what he was doing at the airport and he told me he was there to pick up his wife and kids. "Oh," I said and, as if on cue, his wife appeared with two little kids in tow.

David Paterson is the fourth African American and only the second legally blind governor in U.S. history. The son of former New York Secretary of State Basil Paterson, he spent 20 years in New York's state senate before being chosen as Eliot Spitzer's running mate for the 2006 New York gubernatorial election. He became governor on March 17, 2008 after Spitzer resigned.

"Now we have the possibility of permanently stopping the yearly gay pride march in Jerusalem," Rabbi Yehuda Levin of the Rabbinical Alliance of America told The Jewish Press at the end of a two-week trip to Israel, which ended earlier this week.

Saving Lives    Cheryl Kupfer is not only a great columnist, she has a heart of gold. When I recently submitted a piece on a...

Who Are We?    Churning emotions, stirred up by the events unfolding in our Holy Land, ran the gamut from admiration for the brave Israeli...

Ah, can there be anything so delightful as the sound of liberals whimpering in the morning? Consider:

History's LessonsIt is beyond argument that an Arab 'Palestine' will be another terrorist state. The area is currently ruled by terrorists, dominated by terrorist...

Dear Rebbetzin Jungreis: I am writing to you from Jerusalem. My family and I made aliyah 15 years ago. One of the reasons why we took this step was because we wanted our children to be raised and nurtured in the holy air of Jerusalem, in a Torah atmosphere, and above all, to share in the incredible return of our people to the land.

The Supreme Court's recent decisions concerning gay rights and affirmative action, overshadowed its refusal to accept for review a federal appeals court decision that had required the township of Tenafly, New Jersey to allow the erecting of an eruv using telephone poles.

The world hardly needs a Jewish Press commentary on the affirmative action and gay rights rulings handed down by the United States Supreme Court last week.

Liya Kochavi/AP/IDF Israeli soldiers train for urban combat at a military base in southern Israel with mock structures in background

In a speech Monday, Democratic presidential hopeful Joseph Lieberman vowed to work for congressional passage of a bill that would guarantee a range of benefits to partners of gay federal employees, and declared his staunch support for affirmative action and abortion rights ? including the partial birth procedure opposed by many Democrats.

Lieberman?s statements, made at the biannual conference of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, seemed to cement his move away from the centrist image he had crafted for himself in earlier years.