(RNS) — A group of Orthodox rabbis from the U.S. and Israel issued a strongly worded letter condemning discredited practices that try to “convert” LGBTQ+ people to heterosexuality — a rarity for an establishment that still largely sees queer people as sinful.
The letter, which was drafted years ago but released earlier in January in Israel, includes the signatures of prominent modern Orthodox rabbis, including Yitz Greenberg, Shmuly Yanklowitz and Daniel Sperber, as well as a number of female rabbis. It does not include Haredi rabbis, the most strictly observant of the Orthodox strain of Jewish life.
When the letter was first published online, 75 rabbis listed their names, but that has since grown to 100 rabbis. They are not tied to an organization.
“We the undersigned,” it begins, “believe that it is forbidden according to Halakhic principle and ethos, for anyone, including a rabbi, rabbanit, educator, or therapist to recommend to any person to undergo treatment for the purpose of changing a person’s sexual orientation, commonly known as ‘conversion therapy. This is because conversion therapy is harmful, does not work, and because same-sex attraction is not a mental health problem.”
More liberal streams of U.S. Jewish life, such as the Reform and Conservative movements, have extended full equality to LGBTQ+ Jews, allowing them to be married and ordained. However, Orthodox Jewish denominations have only made limited strides toward reinterpreting texts that condemn gay love as a transgression, with most of that shift seen in Modern Orthodox circles.
“What they are really trying to do is press the rest of the Orthodox community to recognize what is obvious — that gay people are not sick, nor are they suffering a character flaw,” said Rabbi Steve Greenberg, one of the signers and a gay, married man who co-founded Eshel, a New York-based nonprofit whose mission is to build LGBTQ+ inclusive Orthodox Jewish communities. “They are just built differently by their Creator.”
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More than 20 U.S. states and the District of Columbia fully ban “conversion therapy,” and other states partially ban it. But in October, the Supreme Court heard a case challenging the constitutionality of Colorado’s statewide restrictions on the practice for minors, based on free speech claims. A majority of the court’s justices seemed skeptical of the ban, which is expected to be ruled upon this June and could have implications for more than 20 other states with similar laws.
Israel bans “conversion therapy” by medical professionals, including psychologists and social workers, but religious counselors may engage in it.
“To my deep embarrassment, conversion therapy is still awash, certainly in Israel in the religious sector, and it was impossible just to stand by,” said Rabbi Yitzhak Ajzner, an Israeli rabbi who began drafting the statement years ago. “It’s impossible just to stand idly by watching our friends and loved ones go through such torture. They’re so traumatized. In many cases, their entire lives are ruined.”
In 2012, the Rabbinical Council of America, the body that represents modern Orthodox rabbis in the U.S., withdrew support of the Jewish conversion therapy organization Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing, better known by its acronym, JONAH. But organizers of the letter said their statement makes clear they believe the practice is, according to Ajzner, “outright forbidden” by halachah, or Jewish law.
Orthodox institutions in the U.S. have made very halting steps toward LGBTQ+ equality. Last year, Yeshiva University in New York said it would recognize an LGBTQ+ student club on campus but then reversed course and banned the organization 50 days later, saying the club was “antithetical to the Torah values of our yeshiva.”
Yanklowitz, of Scottsdale, Arizona, published the letter on the website of Torat Chayim, a rabbinical association of progressive Orthodox rabbis that he founded. He said many Orthodox rabbis are privately opposed to conversion practices but are afraid of publicly saying so because they believe it will damage their reputation and careers.
“I regularly get blowback for supporting things like this, but the risk to this population is so high that it felt imperative to me to sign on given this is often a saving-life issue for people who are humiliated and really deeply hurt and damaged by attempts to engage in conversion therapy,” he said.
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