O pinion
Gay Jews Shouldn’t Have to Choose
Between Their Pride and Their Zionism
BY ETHAN FELSON
TO EVERYTHING THERE is
a season. June is Pride season,
one where LGBTQ people
proudly refuse to choose
between our identities and our
demand for the freedom to live
equally and without fear.

A Wider Bridge, which
builds meaningful relation-
ships between LGBTQ people
in North America and Israel,
has always stood for our ability
to celebrate all our identities
without being forced into boxes.

And this year it’s especially
personal to me.

Just last week I was saddened
to see vile antisemitic hate
against Manny’s, a cherished
establishment in San Francisco,
when it was vandalized with
“Zionist Pigz” to intimidate the
owner and like-minded Jews for
their Zionism. We stand with
Manny, a Wider Bridge trip
alum, as he refuses to choose
between his LGBTQ identity
and his Zionism.

Another friend of mine
and A Wider Bridge recently
saw her synagogue vandalized
with swastikas. A non-Jewish
member of our Wider Bridge
family has been verbally
attacked just for saying that he
likes traveling to Israel.

On campus, Jewish students
including LGBTQ activists are
being bullied and feel forced
to take a side in a conflict
taking place on the other side of
the world.

In Israel, we’ve seen bigots
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM run for — and win — seats in
the Knesset on anti-LGBTQ
platforms, calling themselves
“proud homophobes.”
With all the progress made
by the LGBTQ community over
the past few decades, it is easy to
forget that most of Pride’s history
has been a season of protest. It
began in 1969 with the Stonewall
riots, where brave individuals
— including trans, Black and
brown heroes — stood up to
police brutality. It continued with
our communities demanding
an end to discrimination in the
workplace and in housing, and
forcing our leaders to face the
AIDS crisis head-on.

That spirit of protest and
courage must stay alive today. We
must refuse to choose one identity
over another, stay in solidarity
with those who feel forced to
choose between their LGBTQ
identity and their Zionism and
refuse to live in fear. Nobody
should have to choose between
their activism and their safety.

We are proud to support
Israel not in spite of, but because
of, our progressive values.

This month, together with
our allies, we will experience
pride both virtually and in
the streets with joyful scenes
celebrating our identity, our
lives, our successes and the long
road we have traveled in just a
few decades. We will pay tribute
to those brave people who
fought for the right to choose
marriage and raise our families,
and to those still fighting against
discrimination, bullying and
even the ability to choose our
own pronouns.

Politicians, who once ran on
platforms to take away rights
and marginalize the LGBTQ
community for electoral gain,
will court us as a critical interest
group whose support is essen-
tial to their political futures.

America’s largest corporations,
which once fired their employees
just for being who they are, will
sponsor pride events and run
commercials and sell products
expressing their solidarity.

Baseball teams will host Pride
Nights at their stadiums.

This has been amazing
progress, so we really do have
much to celebrate.

But there is much unfinished
business. The problem facing
LGBTQ Jews is not just a collec-
tion of anecdotes. It’s a systemic
issue that our community feels
on all sides.

In the organized Jewish
community, many feel forced
to check part of their identity
when they seek to get involved.

While there has been progress
in LGBTQ representation in
politics and on corporate boards,
leadership is sadly lacking
in American-Jewish life. As
aspiring LGBTQ leaders work
to explore and celebrate their
Jewish faith, some feel forced to
hide in the closet — and to check
their LGBTQ identity when they
walk through the door.

This Pride, we are standing up
to celebrate all our identities. The
late trailblazer Harvey Milk once
said: “Once you have dialogue
starting, you know you can break
down prejudice.” We will force
that dialogue this Pride Month
— no matter how uncomfortable
it may be for some.

We will let people know how
we feel when we’re told that Israel,
the world’s only Jewish state,
should not even exist. And we
will prove that we can stand up
for racial justice and equality and
support Israel at the same time.

When we go to synagogue,
we will do so proudly. We will
educate, we will be leaders and
we will break down barriers.

We will be our full selves
everywhere: on the streets, on
campus, at work and in our
synagogues. Because we refuse
to choose. l
Ethan Felson is executive director
of A Wider Bridge.

JEWISH EXPONENT
KVETCH ’N’ KVELL
Israel Will Not Be Canceled
IN “WHY DO PEOPLE Call Israel an Apartheid State?” (June
17), much valuable information is given, but this question is not
answered succinctly.

The answer to this question is straight forward: An apartheid
country is an illegitimate entity and has no right to exist. It must
be totally canceled, as if it never had existed. Why now?
Israel has shown that it will respond appropriately when more
than 4,000 rockets are fired at it. It will not go gently into the
night. Therefore the Jew-haters call upon the world to cancel the
Israel that will not be defeated on the battlefield.

The consequence of this hatred of the mere existence of Israel
as the state of the Jewish people is documented in the NewsBriefs
column. The lead article describes the cancellation of the words,
“like Anne Frank” in a new novel, and the simple mention of the
name of the state of Israel in another novel. The cancellation of
the name of Anne Frank is obvious Holocaust denial, and the
cancellation of the name “Israel” is the denial of the existence of
the nation of the Jews.

So where are the responses of all our Jewish organizations,
including rabbinical seminaries and synagogues, in this war
waged by Jew haters?
Steve Feldman, executive director of the Greater Philadelphia
chapter of the Zionist Organization of America, in this same
issue of the Exponent (“Don’t Wait for War to Defend Israel”)
provides one Jewish organization’s shining answer for all of us,
and especially for our children. It should be required reading,
especially in all Jewish educational programs and institutions.

David Romanoff | Penn Valley
Debate Rather than Define
Instead of debating whether Israel’s specific actions and policies
fit the precise definition of apartheid (“Why Do People Call
Israel an Apartheid State?”, June 17), we should spend more time
debating whether Israel’s specific actions and policies are right
or wrong. l
Steve Mendelsohn | Penn Valley
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