Yeshiva University has found a way to work around a decision by the Supreme Court earlier this week supporting a lower court decision forcing America’s most prominent Modern Orthodox Jewish institution of higher learning to recognize a chapter of “Pride Alliance,” an LGTBTQ student group, on campus.
Supreme Court Requires Yeshiva University to Recognize LGBTQ Student Group
Yeshiva announced late Friday afternoon in a brief unsigned email that all of the school’s undergraduate club activities had been placed on hold.
The university said it would “hold off on all undergraduate activities” in light of the upcoming Jewish holidays, while planning the next step to “follow the road map provided by the US Supreme Court.”
In its ruling on Thursday, the Supreme Court said in its decision, “If applicants seek and receive neither expedited review nor interim relief from the New York courts, they may return to this court.”
The announcement followed by one day the Supreme Court ruling rejecting an emergency request for a stay to halt a ruling forcing the country’s most prominent Modern Orthodox institution of higher learning to officially recognize the LGBTQ student group, despite the contradiction to Yeshiva’s most basic foundations, which follow those of Torah law.
New York State Judge Lynn Kotler ruled on June 14 that because Yeshiva University was not incorporated as a religious institution, the school was not covered under an exemption for religious organizations included in the New York City Human Rights Law barring discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Similar rulings were issued by two New York State appeals courts.
On Thursday, Yeshiva University President Rabbi Ari Berman wrote in a statement posted online in response to the ruling, “Every faith-based university in the country has the right to work with its students, including its LGBTQ students, to establish the clubs, places and spaces that fit within its faith tradition. Yeshiva University simply seeks that same right of self-determination.”
