Written by the president of HUC

Op-Ed: A plea for inclusion and religious liberty on LGBT rights

By David Ellenson · July 7, 2010

NEW YORK (JTA) -- As a Reform rabbi and president of an institution passionately committed to the religious position that Judaism demands full rights for lesbians, gays, bisexual and transgender Jews, I read with great interest Lynn Schusterman’s call on Jewish organizations to adopt policies that would foster greater inclusion of LGBT Jews in our Jewish community and the counter argument from the Orthodox Union’s Nathan Diament.

It should come as no surprise when I assert that I agree completely with the positions expressed by Schusterman regarding discrimination against LGBT persons, and that my own religious standpoint does not allow me to agree with Diament when he asserts that the “clear and firm teachings of Jewish law and tradition going back to the Bible” “cannot embrace or validate homosexual activity as legitimate.”

Instead, I hold that the values and principles of empathy and justice contained in our tradition demand an alternative Jewish religious standpoint that would require that the LGBT community receives the same privileges and entitlements enjoyed by heterosexuals as Jews seek to realize the moral obligations that the narrative and principles of our Torah impose upon our community.

Full article found here.