2010-02 - The Observer - Timeline of YU Homosexuality Discussion

Timeline of YU Homosexuality Discussion

by Tovah Greenbaum and Yaelle Frohlich

February 2010

Following articles published by Kol Hamevaser and The Commentator in February, October and November 2009, December saw the public discussion of homosexuality—controversial due to the incompatibility of homosexual behavior for the first time at Yeshiva University. 

December 10, 2009 - Stern College for Women's Torah Activities Council shows "Trembling Before God," which is followed by a discussion with Rabbi Dr. Aharon Fried. Full report published in The YU Observer (http://media.www.yuobserver.com/media/storage/paper989/news/2009/12/21/Features/trembling.Before.GD.At.Tac.Event-3851373.shtml).

December 22, 2009—A panel discussion entitled "Being Gay in the Orthodox World" is hosted on the Wilf Campus by the YU Tolerance Club and Wurzweiler school of Social Work. Four panelists—three YU alumni and one current YU student—describe their personal experiences and struggles being Orthodox Jews and homosexual. Moderated by Rabbi Yosef Blau, who advises that halakhic implications of homosexuality are not part of the panel discussion and requests that the speeches not be recorded, the event draws a crowd of approximately 800.

December 22, 2009 (later)—A full, printed transcript of the panel event is posted on the Curious Jew blog with a disclaimer that it should not to be quoted for official purposes. Six videos, including speeches of three panelists, are uploaded to http://vimeo.com/user2852589/videos. Articles about the event are later published by The Jerusalem Post, The YU Commentator and other online publications. 

December 24, 2009—Rabbi Yona Reiss, head of YU's Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS), and Rabbi Mayer Twersky, a rosh yeshiva at RIETS, address their halakhic ramifications of the panel on the Wilf Campus. The lecture later appears online on Torah Web (http://www.torahweb.org/audioFrameset.html#audio=rtwe_122809). 

December 25, 2009—The YU Observer publishes a statement of YU President Richard Joel and Menahel Rabbi Yona Reiss addressing and asserting the religious proscription of homosexual activity. 

December 29, 2009—Rabbi Mayer Twersky delivers the lecture he gave at the Wilf Campus to over 70 students at Stern College for Women. He asserts that any sympathy to the point of dismissing the halakhic proscription of homosexual relationships is misplaced. Rabbi Twersky says that he does not believe the audience, organizers or panelists had anti-halakhic intention, but that the event had a "gay pride" atmosphere. While a homosexual person's parents, siblings, close friends and religious mentors must respond sensitively and compassionately to the homosexual's struggle, argues Rabbi Twersky, the matter should be addressed privately and with modesty. Rabbi Twersky acknowledges that he did not attend the panel event.

Reverberations from the panel and its response are still present on YU's campuses. Time will tell whether and how the conversation continues.

(All rights belong to the Observer)