By Gabriel Blau

From June 27-29, dozens of Jewish LGBT organizations are gathering in Berkeley, CA for the first-ever “LGBT Jewish Movement-Building Convening.” Gabriel Blau, a conference participant and the founder of GayGevalt.com, is blogging about the gathering for The Shmooze. You can read his first post here and follow the conversation on Twitter here.

If you think it’s hard to get a consensus from a group of Jews, try a group of Jews that have committed themselves to the LGBTQ Jewish community. Let’s just put it out there: Us non-heteros are not an easy bunch. We’ve got ideas, visions and commitments. We are still discriminated against in the law as well as in our culture. We have a fine-tuned sense of acceptance and equality. And if you’re one of the people who has made Jewish LGBTQ issues part of their professional or semi-professional lives, you also have a healthy ego — a requirement in a field that is constantly shifting. Wonderfully, there seems to be none of that here.

The people who are at the Convening, and many who are not here, have achieved incredible things. They have organized conferences, founded shuls, grown organizations, changed politics, saved people’s lives, and even had a lot of fun doing it. But this conference is an attempt to do more than that — to bring together the leaders of a maturing movement to work together more than they already are. To better understand their efforts, I asked a few of my colleagues to share what brought them here.

“The opportunity to work together, collaborate, be strategic, and deliberate,” said Michael Hopkins, Chair of the Board of Directors of Nehirim. “It’s really clear there are a lot of people around the country doing a lot of things, and we just don’t all know what’s going on with each other. With limited human and financial resources, and growing needs, this work is as important as ever.”

For Rabbi Dev Noily, director of the Kehilla Community Synagogue School in Oakland, CA, coming here is a part of her job, and a good one. “I’ve been doing Queer Jewish work for almost 20 years,” she said. “These are my people and I’m curious about what other people are doing. I’m excited about sharing what are the fruits of a few decades of Jewish creative Queer work.”

“I came to recommit my rabbinate to Queer movement building with an eye to inclusion of trans, multi-ethnic and multiracial Jews,” added Rabbi Joshua Lesser, leader of Congregation Bet Haverim in Atlanta, GA.

Rabbi David Mitchell of Radlett & Bushey Reform Synagogue came from the UK to observe and participate. “I wanted to see what’s going on in America, see what we can learn, how we can grow, and what alliances we can build,” he said. “Just to feel part of a bigger network.”

Known as the “2010 LGBT Jewish Movement-Building Convening,” the conference will bring together more than 100 LGBT national and local organizations and congregations.

The conference will be led by three national Jewish LGBT organizations: Keshet, a Boston-based organization that works for inclusion of LGBT Jews in Jewish organized life; Nehirim, a New York-based nonprofit that builds Jewish LGBT community; and the Denver-based Jewish Mosaic – The National Center for Sexual and Gender Diversity.

Several Bay Area leaders are helping to plan various events during the conference. Among other things, Rabbi Camille Angel of Congregation Sha’ar Zahav is ensuring that national leaders participate in Friday night and Saturday morning services at her synagogue in San Francisco.

“What’s exciting about this convention is that there are so many leaders and so much work being done in the realm of social justice work for LGBT communities,” Angel said. “But who will decide how to harness the money, the resources, the intellectual imagination and energy into something collective?

“We need to harness people’s visions in a way that can move us forward … so we can look back and say, ‘Here’s what we did.’ ”

Conference attendees will celebrate the success and growth of the Jewish LGBT movement while also identifying emerging needs and areas of potential collaboration.

Leaders of the gathering hope the Jewish  LGBT community can start to discuss becoming an actual movement and perhaps set some priorities for the Jewish gay sphere, including pushing same-sex marriage and more inclusion of transgender Jews, a segment that is marginalized even within the gay community.

“We’re in a generative, very rich time of potential and reform and there are lots of agendas within the LGBT world,” Angel said. “So what will be the Jewish agenda for us?” — j.  staff and wire reports

As the dialogue over marriage for same-sex couples remains largely framed by religious-based arguments, it should come as no surprise many LGBT people have abandoned faith all together. But an increasing number of groups have emerged to offer support, educational and social opportunities to LGBT people.

Activist Jay Michaelson founded Nehirim (which means “Lights”) in 2004 as an opportunity for LGBT Jews to “celebrate being queer and Jewish as a blessing and not a predicament.” Though originally only a small retreat, the group has blossomed into a nationwide grassroots network. And Rabbi Aaron Katz held the first service of a new LGBT-geared monthly group at the Beth David Congregation in Miami last month.

Nehirim’s Southeast retreat in Atlanta in November will be the first such gathering for the organization, which has previously focused its programming on the East and West Coasts. Michaelson, who grew up in Tampa, told EDGE this recent expansion has brought his organization to a new level; one he hopes will allow the group’s message of acceptance and celebration to reach more people.

“[Nehirim’s] been really life changing for me and I believe a lot of other people who have helped build this community,” he said. “It’s been really empowering to not let either the bigots or cowards define what our religion is for us. We’ve gone ahead and created the kind of community we’ve always wanted.”

Michaelson said Nehirim has served people from diverse backgrounds – everyone from LGBT people who had not explored their Jewish faith since their youth to Orthodox adults who had lived in the closet for decades.

“This is often the only place where they can be out as who they are, queer and proud, where it’s also not only about hooking up,” said Michaelson. “It’s about a fuller kind of picture, a community of people looking to find a meaningful connection with each other.”

Groups as diverse as Al-Fatiha, an organization for LGBT Muslims, to Affirmation, a group for gay Mormons, have sprung up to support LGBT faithful, but these organizations also seek to change their religious institutions from within.

LGBT activists and faith leaders from a variety of religious backgrounds gathered in Chicago last weekend for a first-of-its kind prayer breakfast. Attendees discussed strategies to overcome the long-standing tension between the two groups.

“It’s not enough for people of faith to fix their communities without taking their lessons to the world,” said the Rev. Joy E. Rogers of St. James Episcopal Cathedral at the breakfast.

But many complications still exist for LGBT-friendly faith leaders from religious institutions that have funded Proposition 8 and other anti-LGBT measures. Reeling from accusations the Roman Catholic hierarchy has covered up clergy sexual abuse for decades, some Vatican officials have publicly castigated gay men for corrupting the priesthood.

“Many psychologists and psychiatrists have demonstrated that there is no relation between celibacy and pedophilia, but many others have demonstrated, I have been told recently, that there is a relation between homosexuality and pedophilia,” said Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican’s secretary of state, told reporters at a press conference in Chile earlier this week as EDGE reported on Monday, April 12. “That is true. That is the problem.”

Francis DeBernardo, executive director of the New Ways Ministry said Bertone’s assertion is not representative of the position of many of the church’s “middle managers” – pastors, presidents of Catholic colleges and universities and heads of Catholic hospitals.

While Cardinal Francis George, the highest-ranking American bishop, officially condemned New Ways Ministry, DeBernardo said his group’s educational and outreach programs and retreats remained as popular as ever, giving him hope for a more gay-friendly church sooner than many others could expect.

“We’re seeing much more of an interest on the part of those people working in the Church to learn more about gay and lesbian issues and they’re also coming in with more of an awareness to start from than even 10 years ago,” DeBernardo told EDGE. “I think one of the reasons the bishops are becoming more vociferous in their statements on homosexuality is because they realize Catholic people are becoming more pro-gay. The [bishops] are losing this debate within the church.”

Two of the Largest National LGBT Jewish Organizations,

To Merge

Move unites largest provider of national programming for LGBT Jewish community

with vibrant student organization

(New York), (NY), (June 1, 2010) –  Two of the largest organizations serving the lesbian, gay bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Jewish community have today merged into one.  Nehirim, which runs retreats and other programs for GLBT Jews, and NUJLS, the National Union of Jewish LGBTIQQ Students, will combine operations effective June 1.  Nehirim is the largest national provider of community programming for GLBT Jews, and NUJLS was one of the first national GLBT Jewish organizations, founded in 1997.   For the first year of the merger, the NUJLS name will be retained, but as “NUJLS, a project of Nehirim.”  The organizations will combine their programmatic, leadership, administrative, and financial operations.

“This is a natural combination of two strong organizations,” said Jay Michaelson, the executive director of Nehirim who was recently recognized on the ‘Forward 50’ list of the fifty most influential Jewish leaders in America.  “NUJLS is the leader in programming for GLBT Jewish students, and Nehirim is the leader in programming for GLBT Jews in general.”

As a result of the merger, Sasha T. Goldberg, Nehirim’s Assistant Director since 2007 and the current Board President of NUJLS, will become Nehirim’s Associate Director and Director of Student Programming.  A new “Student Programming Advisory Board” will be created, with representatives from NUJLS’s former board of directors and student activists.  Nehirim will run the popular NUJLS student conference, together with student leaders.

Said Goldberg, “Building on the strength and history of NUJLS and the incredible NUJLS students, I am greatly looking forward to growing the student programming at Nehirim to provide a national, cohesive, and vibrant hub of Jewish life for each Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Jewish student.”

David Levy, a NUJLS board member, said “This merger enables NUJLS to better fulfill its mission, and to develop the next generation of Jewish LGBT student leaders.  We are excited to be part of Nehirim!”

Founded in 2003, Nehirim is an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, and is supported by the Charles & Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation, the Walter and Elise Haas Fund, the Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Boston, and the Jewish Community Foundation of San Francisco, as well as individual supporters.

For questions or excerpt and interview requests, please contact:

Marlene Rachelle, Communications Manager.   marlene@nehirim.org

Click here to read a letter from Sasha T. Goldberg about the merger between NUJLS and Nehirim

I took advantage of the blizzard (when “everything was snow”) to read Jay Michaelson’s new book, Everything is God: The Radical Path of Nondual Judaism, published last year by Shambala Press. Michaelson is completing a PhD in Jewish Thought at Hebrew University and has written extensively for The Forward, Huffington Post, Tikkun and many other publications.  His writing style is clear and compelling, filled with evocative stories and quotations, remarkably free of jargon and overwritten prose. He appears to follow Mark Twain’s excellent advice to an author, “When you catch an adjective, kill it.”

For Michaelson, Jewish nondualism is not better or worse than other nondual traditions, and he freely uses examples from other traditions: Zen, TibetanBuddhism, Vedanta. He does not make the mistake, however, of blending them  together as if to make them all say precisely the same thing. In fact, he does a nice job of showing how the Jewish tradition of nondualism is both similar and different from other traditions, and indeed, points outs some of the tensions between different Jewish versions of nondualism.  He also does a wonderful job of setting the Jewish tradition within the larger picture of Jewish religious thought, including its contemporary manifestations.

Of the many stories Michaelson tells, one of my favorites comes from the Sufi tradition:

There was once a prisoner who yearned for freedom. One day, the prophet Muhammad appeared to thim, gave him a set of keys to his cell, saying, “Allah has set you free.” The prisoner took the keys, mounted them on the wall, and prayed to them five times a day.

The book grapples with the question of what it means to share fundamental beliefs with other traditions and yet love ones own path. Even for nondualists,  particular communities and practices can be the triggers(Michaelson’s word) that “bring us closer to what matters most.”  He loves the Jewish path and the powerful ways it leads him in his spiritual life.  He says, “I don’t want to fetishize the trigger, but I do want to pull it.”

That said, our 21st century reality is that those pulling the trigger most passionately, at least in the Abrahamic  traditions often (although by no means always) are the ones most inclined to support pulling triggers of another kind as well. Michaelson grapples with this situation and with the increasingly complex identities, dual and even more,  that we find among seekers. Why is it so  important that insist on  our particularities, especially in light of their shadow side of ethnocentricity? Has the value of maintaining those boundaries run its course, and would not people who see ultimate reality as nondualist be among the first to advocate less divisions and more synergy?

I especially appreciated Michaelson’s pragmatist streak because it corresponds with my own. He believes, as I do, that  “by their fruits you shall know them.” And this is where I run into trouble with nondualism. He writes, “When the spiritual work is being done, the good heart emerges on its own,”  and “the contemplative practice of seeing clearly…leads effortlessly to more justice and more peace.”

That is, indeed, the final test of any religious system. In this case, I am more drawn to traditions within Judaism that speak to the power of the evil impulse; I read claims like those above with a jaundiced eye.  But I would be more than happy to be proved wrong. I do believe  Michaelson’s testimony that meditation and other practices of nondualist Judaism have led him to live, as he puts it “gently and justly.” This is a moving and powerful  personal testimony, as well as an excellent introduction to an important dimension of contemporary Jewish thought.

If the term is new to you, think of the Hebrew shabbaton as roughly a sabbatical or a retreat. It can mean different things to different people. The same could be said for the “Queer Shabbaton” taking place in D.C. this weekend.

“One thing Nehirim is really good at doing is it’s a space for building community,” says Alex Greenbaum of the New York-based Nehirim organization for Jewish LGBT culture and spirituality that launched the notion of Queer Shabbaton, which draws together Jews — both cultural and religious, atheist and devout — of all sexual orientations, though primarily LGBT, and their gentile loved ones, for a weekend of cultural, intellectual and spiritual exploration. “They bring together all parts of the LGBT community. People often just use the phrase ‘LGBT,’ but I like that they include everyone. It’s also young and old, from college-age kids to people in their 70s. The gamut.”

Having attended prior Queer Shabbaton weekends in New York, Greenbaum, vice chair of the D.C. Jewish Community Center’s Kurlander Program for Gay & Lesbian Outreach and Engagement (GLOE), has been key in bringing the event to D.C., and serves as the weekend’s co-director.

“Most people can find a place at a Shabbaton,” says Greenbaum, explaining that at the retreats he’s attended participants could largely tailor the experience to what suits them. “The invitation goes out to people who want to create queer community. Obviously, it’s a Jewish organization. But I would take my ex-partner, who is not Jewish, and we had a great time. It’s a very welcoming space.”

While student scholarships and other aid is available, the per-person cost for the weekend ranges from $100 to $180. The Queer Shabbaton runs from Friday, Feb. 5, to Sunday, Feb. 7, at the DCJCC, 1529 16th St. NW. For more information, including a list of speakers, or to register, visit nehirim.org/qsdc.

In part, it may be because the march was largely the work of a new, younger generation of LGBT activists.  Jay Michaelson, executive director of Nehirim, a nonprofit organization that focuses on LGBT issues in the Jewish community, said that the march had a distinctly youthful quality. He compared the march’s organization to that of the Obama campaign. “There was a lot of use of social media and a lot of grassroots organizing, as a opposed to sort of a more top down approach,” he said. The march also had an anti-establishment bent. “There was a kind of useful rebellious energy that was at the march. And then the rhetoric that was used at the march, the way it was constructed, and even the idea of having a march at all, it wasn’t necessarily establishment politics,” said Michaelson.

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Blog of Samantha Hermann at the University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism