O pinion
Eshel’s Welcoming Shuls Project
BY SAUNDRA STERLING EPSTEIN
ESHEL WAS FOUNDED in
2010 by Co-directors Miryam
Kabakov and Rabbi Steve
Greenberg more than a decade
ago as a support, education
and advocacy organization,
working to create community
and acceptance for lesbian, gay,
bisexual and transgender Jews
and their families in Orthodox
communities. We provide
resources and sensitively and
respectfully help open the doors
of Orthodox congregations,
schools, summer camps and
youth groups, and are dedicated
to supporting and validating
LGBTQ-observant Jews and
providing them a place in the
communities they love.

With a generous grant from
the Carpenter Foundation, Eshel
has been continuing and growing
its Welcoming Shuls Project to
assess levels of inclusion that
already exist in the Orthodox
community and to expand and
facilitate greater expressions
of welcome. In employing a
non-judgmental process, inter-
viewing religious leaders about
their experiences and helping to
clarify for them the needs of
LGBTQ Jews, we have learned
about the challenges posed by
an apathy that may destabilize
norms. Many of the conversa-
tions have generated a powerful
mutual trust and shown incred-
ible growth during the five years
of this project. We have also
expanded to include reaching out
to camps, schools, youth groups
and year programs in Israel
and have been able to identify
welcoming communities that
have all of these resources. The
Greater Philadelphia area is at
the top of this list.

Our growing confiden-
tial database is available to
help observant LGBTQ Jews
to choose more welcoming
communities. Our Greater
Philadelphia Area includes
18 shuls/community spaces,
schools, camps, medical and
social support systems and
everything one would need to
live a meaningful and obser-
vant Jewish life. The database
is not public, as discretion is
often preferred both by those
seeking communities and our
interviewed rabbis. Specific
information is shared on an
as-needed basis so that the
data on a particular city,
community, synagogue or
rabbi can be available to help
people navigate life choices.

Increasingly, we have found
allies who would also like to
become active participants in
these welcoming communities.

To date, we have conducted
208 interviews and identified
communities in 31 states in
the United States and four
provinces in Canada, as well as
others throughout Israel.

The rabbis who have
responded to our survey repre-
sent a wide range of rabbinic
training institutes, from
modern to centrist to more
right-leaning Orthodox insti-
tutions. Of our communities,
including those that are highly
welcoming and others that are
welcoming with some caveats:
1. 100% said LGBTQ people
deserve to be valued and
treated with respect;
2. 97% are aware of at least one
member of their congrega-
tion or children of members
who are LGBTQ;
3. 90% said that they had at
some point been personally
involved with families who
had LGBTQ members;
4. 93% said they would advocate
for children and teens who
came out so they would be
able to continue in their
schools, camps or youth
groups; 5. 90% said that the life cycle
events of children with
LGBTQ parents could be
celebrated in their shuls; and
6. 95% said that gay men receive
aliyot and participate as
leaders in the service, while
many indicated that there are
LGBTQ members active in
their community leadership.

Just over 50% of the rabbis
described their shul commu-
nity as somewhat more relaxed,
less judgmental than most
other Orthodox communities.

These are “big tent” Orthodox
communities with a diverse
membership body, whose
focus on outreach and being
welcoming is geared to attract
those on a spiritual journey but
who may not be ready to adopt
full halachic comportment. In
these environments, it can be
easier for an Orthodox commu-
nity to be more accommodating
of differences in a general sense,
including differences as related
to LGBTQ matters.

While many of these shuls
and communities do have same
sex/gender couples, transgender
and non-binary members and
are able to negotiate how their
space works for them, these are
the two main challenges to our
cause in the greater Orthodox
community. Even so, it is clear that so
much has changed in our
five-plus years of this work and
that more and more Orthodox
shuls, schools, camps and
communities are addressing
the challenges that occur at
the intersection of halachah
and sexuality/gender identity.

As this is a matter of ensuring
the wellbeing of our commu-
nity members and that an
increasing number of individ-
uals have people in their lives
who are LGBTQ, we know that
these conversations are now
occurring with regularity in
the Orthodox world.

And that alone is a positive
development. l
Saundra Sterling Epstein is director
of Eshel’s Welcoming Shuls Project.

Contact her at shulisrose@aol.com
for more information on Eshel,
the Welcoming Shuls Project and
how to have your rabbi and shul
interviewed or contact a community.

Combating Surging Antisemitism Demands Both
Vigilance and Fearlessness
President Franklin D. Roosevelt
famously proclaimed, “The
only thing we have to fear is fear
itself.” This was a bold asser-
tion: America was in the throes
of the Great Depression, which
sent millions of Americans
into destitution and suffering.

Yet Roosevelt knew that the
economic crisis was a problem
that Americans could solve if
they remained resolute, strong
BY SHIRA GOODMAN AND
and united. He understood that
JEREMY BANNETT
the biggest threat to America
was not the Depression itself,
EIGHTY-EIGHT YEARS ago, but the division, extremism
16 JUNE 10, 2021
and inertia that would come
from our nation succumbing to
fear and anxiety.

Today, as Jews around
the world are buffeted by a
wave of vicious antisemi-
tism, Roosevelt’s words hold
important lessons. Fear is
not the only thing we have
to be afraid of, but fear
exacerbates the problems we
are confronting. American
Jews can defeat this surge
in anti-Jewish hate as we
have before, but only if we
stay focused, vigilant and
JEWISH EXPONENT
undivided — and if we do not
give in to fear.

Let us be clear: Jews around
the world are facing a very
real spike in antisemitism.

During the two weeks of the
recent military conflict between
Israel and Hamas, antisemitic
incidents in the U.S. reported to
ADL increased by 75% compared
to the two weeks before the
fighting began. Incidents
included vicious assaults on Jews
in Los Angeles, New York and
elsewhere, people harassed on
the street with calls of “Death to
the Jews” and the promotion of
antisemitic rhetoric, images and
conspiracy theories at rallies,
including in Philadelphia.

Since May 16, there have
been more than 200 rallies
protesting Israel, an unprec-
edented number, and while
many did not include antise-
mitic language, much of the
spike in antisemitic incidents
can be traced to individuals
attending these events. Jews
found no safe haven online,
where extremists across the
ideological spectrum tried
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM