➤ YESHIVA UNIVERSITY, from p.25
ing YU.
Telling attendees “some of our
voices are forcibly muted to make
room for the voices of rabbis and
donors,” Meisels challenged the YU
stance on LGBTQ issues, explaining,
“YU has its own version of the
universal declaration of human
rights which are called the Five
Tarot. They are fi ve pillars which
Judaism stands on.”
Meisels’ speech fi t with similar
sentiments of Rabbi Steven Greenberg,
the author of the book “Wrestling
with God & Men: Homosexuality
in the Jewish Tradition” and
founding director of Eshel, a group
working to increase acceptance
within the Orthodox Jewish community
of its LGBTQ members.
“You can read the long version
of these values on the YU website
but in short, when Yeshiva fully
embraces its own visionary ideals,
our work will be done,” Greenberg,
himself a YU alumnus, said.
He then proceeded to list out the
Five Tarot and how they relate to
embracing LGBTQ issues.
Guest speakers included Mordechai
Levovitz, founder of Jewish
Queer Youth; Rachael Fried, JQY’s
current executive director; Dr. Joy
Laden, a professor of English at
Stern and the fi rst openly transgender
professor at an Orthodox
Jewish institution; Justin Spiro,
a New York City high school social
worker coordinating with JQY on
LGBTQ student initiatives; and
Ely Winkler, who had tried to start
a LGBT group at YU when he was a
student a decade ago. Many speakers
were themselves YU alumni.
In addition to a GSA, among the
requests by student organizers and
guest speakers were LGBTQ sensitivity
discussions during student
orientation and a dedicated liaison
for LGBTQ initiatives.
There was no visible opposition
to the event. There was support
from surprising sources, according
to Meisels, who said seeing traditional
Orthodox Jews, “rabbis with
long beards,” attending the rally,
“reminded most of the people here
of our families, and of the people
we grew up with, and those are the
individuals we want to see represented
here. It is very personal to
everyone here.”
Others lending support to the
rally included Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum
of Manhattan’s Congregation
Beit Simchat Torah, the country’s
largest LGBTQ synagogue.
Remarking on her own time as a
student at the Orthodox Frisch Yeshiva
High School in northern New
Jersey, Kleinbaum said, “I am well
aware of the struggles for LGBT
people within the Orthodox world,
and I am thrilled to see there’s now
a generation of young people who
are not accepting that if they want
to be queer, they have to leave the
religious world.”
Kleinbaum was accompanied by
Rabbi Mike Moskowitz, an ally and
CBST’s Scholar-in-Residence for
Trans and Queer Jewish Studies.
It was not just students, alumni,
and religious leaders at the rally,
however, but parents as well.
Among them included Joanna
Klein, who said she was there to
support her lesbian daughter.
“I am disappointed in YU’s reaction
to what’s going on and I am
hoping that they’re going to just
open up their hearts and the Torah,
and read where it says you
have to be good to all your fellow
man,” she said.
Originally, Meisels believed the
march would not be allowed on
campus grounds, and a barrier
existed at Amsterdam Avenue in
front of the pedestrianized 185th
Street, which serves as YU’s main
plaza.
However, with no visible opposition
to the march, it became apparent
protestors would be allowed
in. Many began singing in English
and Hebrew under the guidance
of JQY’s Levovitz, who waved an
enormous Rainbow Flag over the
crowd.
Whether the power of the closet
or the heat of the sun, the crowd at
YU was signifi cantly smaller than
at Bennett Park. Still, refl ecting on
the day as the attendees disbanded,
Meisels said the event “was better
than I expected. It was people
coming together. It was a scene of
beauty to me.”
Gay City News reached out for
commentary from YU about the
event but did receive a response. As
it had been warned ahead of hosting
the event, the school’s Democratic
Club lost its own offi cial status
days after the Pride Parade.
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