2010-03-23 - The Commentator - Closetators Stolen

Closetators Stolen

by Commentator Staff

March 23, 2010

Only a few hours after distributing the Purim edition of The Commentator, the newspaper’s staff found that hundreds of copies were stolen and thrown out. Ostensibly, this was in reaction to what the perpetrators perceived as an embarrassment of Roshei Yeshiva in the satirical issue. Thus far, three different students have been identified as culprits, two of whom were caught via security tapes.

The administration took disciplinary action against the students in question, with Dean David Himber carrying out judicial hearings for each of them. After the hearings, Rosh Yeshiva Rabbi Hershel Schachter went to Dean Himber’s office to express his support for the involved students, even calling their actions mitzvot. He later informed The Commentator that he had done this without actually having seen a copy of The Closetator. Rabbi Schachter was later informed of the precise content of the paper, and was rumored to have retracted his support of the students involved.

These three were not the only ones offended by The Closetator. A group of students attempted to start a protest where the students who study in the Glueck Beit Midrash would abandon the new Center. The idea was that the exodus of students would grab administrators’ attention and cause them to rethink their treatment of the students who were caught.

Many Wilf Campus students have complained vociferously about their colleagues’ actions. “It’s my college’s newspaper. Who’s some random undergraduate to take it away from me?” complained one YC student. “Everyone looks forward to the Purim issue from the start of the year; I’m infuriated that I never got to read it.”

83% of students who responded to this issue’s Student Pulse were in favor of or neutral toward The Closetator.

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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.

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2009-12-21 - The Observer - "Trembling Before G-d" at TAC Event

"Trembling Before G-d" at TAC Event

by Simi Lampert

December 21, 2009

This is not the first Yeshiva University newspaper article to be written about homosexuality within the Orthodox Jewish community. Harking back to at least 2003, the Torah approach to homosexuality has been discussed as it relates to American politics, art, National Coming Out Day and even the movie "Borat."

Ever since the first article written by an anonymous gay Yeshiva College student was published in "Kol Hamevaser"-and answered with a flood of replies, including another anonymous piece, numerous letters to the editor and pages of online comments-there has been a cry for an official Yeshiva University response. Perhaps it is for this reason that Stern College for Women's student-run Torah Activities Council (TAC) recently decided to screen the movie "Trembling Before G-d" at their Marvelous TAC Videos (MTV) night. Introducing the screening was Rabbi Dr. Aharon Fried, a professor of psychology at Stern, who held a question-answer session following the thought-provoking film.

"Trembling Before G-d" is a documentary by Sandi Simcha Dubowski that was released in 2001 and portrays a selection of Jewish men and women who identify themselves as both Orthodox and gay. Some of them are openly gay, while others remain "in the closet." All of them struggle to reconcile their sexual proclivity with their religious identity.

The aim of the film, according to Fried, and the purpose of showing it in a YU venue, is to "appeal to reason and allow for an open discussion of ideas." If the true purpose of the film is simply to humanize the issue by putting a face to the abstract debate, then it certainly succeeds. The audience cannot help but feel the pain of each person depicted.

The crowd of Stern and YC students who gathered to watch this screening responded with compassion, and, where appropriate, appreciation for the fleeting moments of humor. One philosophy major at Stern who attended the event spoke about her feelings afterward. "This movie really opened my eyes to a small but important section of our Jewish community, and what they have to deal with on a daily basis," she said.

"The issue of homosexuality is not of some individuals, but ours," Fried emphasized to the viewers. "They are ours."

Acknowledging all this, we must also be aware, according to Fried, that the film does have its "agendas." The creators of the film would like its audience to believe that homosexuality is immutable and definitively not a choice but an inborn trait.

Many figures in the Orthodox Jewish community have a similar problem with the one-sided angle of the exposition. In a response posted on the "Trembling Before G-d" website, Rabbi Avi Shafran stated that the "picture is both incomplete and distorted" as it "thoroughly portrays the challenges faced by its subjects; it simply does not allow Judaism to make its case."

Many critics point as well to the editing and cutting that went into making the film. Not only were certain people chosen to appear, perhaps for reasons such as having experienced particularly harsh reactions to their homosexuality from rabbinical or psychological authorities, it has also been suggested that the responses from the featured Orthodox rabbis were unfairly pruned. The movie calls for empathy yet, according to one rabbi who appeared in the movie, Rabbi Aharon Feldman, the final cut "makes us appear to be narrow and bigoted" instead of highlighting the compassion exhibited by many Orthodox rabbis. Absent is any mention of Orthodox outreach to homosexuals, such as the organization JONAH which, according to its website, "seeks to reunify families, to heal the wounds surrounding homosexuality, and to provide hope."

These are not the only limitations of the documentary. In an interview conducted on Wilf campus with an anonymous gay student who also attended the Thursday event, the YC student said that he believes the film "needs to be updated." Although it was released just eight years ago, it was in production for a full six years before that. This student, who for the sake of this article will be identified as "X," believes that the movie is slightly out of touch. "For the time that it came out, it was a pivotal stepping stone," he said, as it satisfied the need to portray the "emotional perspective;" but now time has passed. It is "upsetting that it's the only thing that exists" now, according to X, and we now need to deal with the fact that homosexual acts are very clearly "an aveira [sin]," X said. "It's in the Torah."

"Trembling Before G-d" does not claim to present a halakhic (Jewish legal) position on the question of homosexual acts. Nevertheless, "it alludes to flexibility within the Jewish Code," said Rabbi Dr. Aharon Fried, "and that is more debatable" than is implied. One of the individuals depicted in the film has drawn more censure than others: Rabbi Steven Greenberg, the man championed as "the first gay Orthodox rabbi," who does not apologize for what many see as his blatant disregard for one of the 613 mitzvoth.

Rabbi Greenberg is a YU and RIETS alumnus who is also openly gay and lives with his longtime partner. He has written a book as well as numerous articles on the topic of Orthodox Jewry and homosexuality; he strongly believes that halakha should, and will, "reconfigure" itself to accept homosexuality. In an interview with The Observer, he discussed the way halakha rose to meet innovations such as electricity and new understandings of the nature of a deaf-mute, and compared that to the idea of homosexuality. "[There is an] inevitability that people, and Orthodox rabbis, will recognize that this is a non-pathological minority variation of human sexuality," said Rabbi Greenberg." As that becomes clearer and clearer, halakha can respond to that. It may be ten years away, but it will happen."

Rabbi Greenberg's ideas of the changing nature of halakha, including amending outright prohibitions from the Torah, have caused many to question whether he can legitimately be considered Orthodox. "When people say I'm not Orthodox," Rabbi Greenberg explained, "I say, 'I understand why you might say that, let's have a conversation, let's see where we end up.'" At the very least, he said, "we must shape sexual ethics with the reality of gay and lesbian people and their lives."

The film is one that opens a Pandora's box of controversial debates and ideas. It is perhaps for this reason that, although it originally intended to sponsor the event, Yeshiva College's Student Organization of Yeshiva, one of the largest student-run groups on the Wilf Campus, backed out once it became aware of the content of the MTV film. Flyers advertising the film were taken down, and the bus from the Wilf Campus to the Beren Campus was canceled and later had to be arranged by TAC. In an email interview, Jason Jacobs, the president of SOY, discussed SOY's official stance. "I felt very strongly that I should rethink being involved with this," wrote Jacobs. "I felt that this was inappropriate for obvious reasons but more importantly I felt that this issue has gone out of control in YU (or at least on the Wilf Campus)." One of these "obvious reasons" was what Jacobs referred to as the "highly inappropriate" image on the flyers, copied from the film's cover, which depict two Jewish men embracing.

X said about SOY's decision to pull its support that, while it was "upsetting because they made a promise and backed out, which was unprofessional," he understood the reason completely.

"Specifically at Wilf Campus there has been so much discussion-in terms of articles, and [the upcoming] panel-it has become overkill," X opined. "They're beating the subject to death." Right now, says X, what the YU community needs is for its roshei yeshiva (yeshiva heads) and president to "come out with a public statement. Until that happens, the Orthodox community is just going to keep having these back and forth arguments."

However, X says that while the intolerance on campus could be "a lot worse, it is definitely still a problem." X feels that university leaders need to declare: "Be supportive."

The anonymous author of "The Gay Question," an article about being a gay YC student published in The Commentator's November issue, wrote that more needs to be done on campus to make students more aware "that regular, frum kids in our community really struggle with this issue and have nowhere to turn."

There are those who think that the recent amount of public discussion regarding this topic is not a positive development. "What are we accomplishing?" asked one Stern undergraduate majoring in political science. "The more we talk about an issue that opposes halakha, the less assur [forbidden] it seems. The shock value dies out. People become less upset that others are acting solely on desires, which starts a vicious cycle of legitimizing the actions." She thinks that "Trembling Before G-d," though it helps people understand the struggle of Orthodox gays and lesbians, is also dangerous. "[We could then] lose sight of what we need to sympathize with, and end up forgetting the practical problems" that arise when approaching homosexuality from the framework of Jewish law, she says.

The latest development in YU's dialogue about homosexuality was a December 22 panel discussion moderated by Rabbi Yosef Blau, Mashgiach Ruchani at Yeshiva College, entitled "Being Gay in the Orthodox World." The panel, organized by the YU Tolerance Club and the Wurzweiler School of Social Work, hosted gay undergraduates and recent graduates of Yeshiva University. The event, advertised as "an open discussion," was attended by hundreds of five hundred Yeshiva students and faculty packing every spare bit of chair and floorspace of Weissberg Commons, with more people turned away at the door due to fire hazard regulations.

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2009-12-21 - The Observer - President Richard Joel and Menahel Rabbi Yona Reiss Issue Statement Addressing Religious Proscription of Homosexual Activity

President Richard Joel and Menahel Rabbi Yona Reiss Issue Statement Addressing Religious Proscription of Homosexual Activity

by Yaelle Frohlich 

December 21, 2009

As a result of Tuesday's well-attended and much spoken-about panel entitled "Being Gay in the Orthodox World," Yeshiva University President Richard M. Joel and Menahel Rabbi Yona Reiss of Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary yesterday issued a written statement asserting the stance that homosexual activity remains forbidden according to Jewish law.

Tuesday's panel featured a Yeshiva University (YU) student and three YU alumni, who spoke about their emotional, psychological and social experiences of being gay and Orthodox.

President Joel and Rabbi Reiss's statement is reproduced here in full:

Message from the President and Menahel of RIETS

In light of recent events, we want to reiterate the absolute prohibition of homosexual relationships according to Jewish law. Of course, as was indicated in a message issued by our Roshei Yeshiva, those struggling with this issue require due sensitivity, although such sensitivity cannot be allowed to erode the Torah's unequivocal condemnation of such activity. Sadly, as we have discovered, public gatherings addressing these issues, even when well-intentioned, could send the wrong message and obscure the Torah's requirements of halakhic behavior and due modesty. Yeshiva has an obligation to ensure that its activities and events promote the primacy and sacredness of Torah in our lives and communities. We are committed to providing halakhic guidance and sensitivity with respect to all challenges confronted by individuals within our broader community, including homosexual inclinations, in a discreet, dignified and appropriate fashion.

President Richard M. Joel Menahel Rabbi Yona Reiss

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2009-12-21 - The Observer - Tolerating the Tolerance Club

Tolerating the Tolerance Club 

by Tovah Silbermann

December 21, 2009

When I first arrived at Stern College for Women this fall, I was extremely excited to get involved on campus and become an active participant in the various extracurricular activities that Stern has to offer. Every time I went to a speech about why Stern is the right school for me, a young Modern Orthodox Jewish maideleh, I heard the same lines about how there is so much to take advantage of on campus and how in a regular college-due to Sabbath and holiday restraints-it would be extremely difficult for me to get as involved in the myriad of activities offered there as it would be in Stern.

I agreed with this valid point, and, before I knew it, I found myself standing in Koch Auditorium surrounded by dozens of tables promoting various different activities and clubs. I received a booklet detailing all of the different clubs on campus and was surprised to note that it was nearly the size of the Stern College course catalog.

As I walked around the room, I signed up for every club that interested me. I am currently signed up as a member of C.A.K.E (basically a group for people who like every aspect of food), the Stern College Dramatics Society, The History Club, the Quidditch Team, the Art History Club, the Active Minds Club, the Young Democrats AND the Young Republican Clubs, the Chabad Club, and many more. One specific club that caught my eye as I perused the club fair was the Yeshiva University Tolerance Club. This club sounded fascinating. According to their mission statement, the YUTC "has been established to recognize diversity and promote tolerance within the YU community. [It] aims to create an atmosphere free from discrimination and harassment based on age, ancestry, citizenship, color, disability, ethnic origin, family status, gender identity, level of literacy, marital status, place of origin, political affiliation, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation or any other personal characteristics."

When I read their mission statement, the first thing that ran through my mind was how appropriate it is that a Jewish college should promote tolerance and attempt to abolish harassment and discrimination. If there is one nation, religion or social group that has continuously suffered over the millennia of history due to ignorance and intolerance, it is the Jews.

Unbeknownst to the young naive "first year on campus" me, I had just signed myself up for the most controversial club on campus.
Apparently tolerance is intolerable at Yeshiva University.

When my newly acquired Stern acquaintances asked where I was going on the third Tuesday night of every month, I naively told them the truth, "To the Tolerance Club meeting." Almost nine out of ten times, people responded in surprise, "Isn't that the gay club?"

In one particular conversation, in which an acquaintance asked me about the Tolerance Club, I responded by reciting their mission statement verbatim. The girl replied, "I like the idea of tolerance, but I don't know how I feel about tolerating gays." Putting the debate currently raging through YU about homosexuality aside, this statement infuriated me. She basically said, "I'm tolerant, except when I'm not."

This attitude is exactly why there is so much hatred and intolerance in the world today. It is easy to accept people who are like us. The very word tolerance indicates a need to extend one's realm of acceptance to others who are different from oneself. This is done through learning about and understanding other cultures aside from one's own.

I am literally shocked by the amount of opposition the Tolerance Club has received, and I would like to issue the following disclaimer. I am straight. I am a member of the Tolerance Club. I am sure that there are members of the Tolerance Club who are gay. It may surprise readers to find out that we did not sit in a circle and announce our sexual preference at the club's first meeting. Not once has there been an event that encourages homosexuality on campus. We do not organize a pride parade every semester, nor are we here and queer (so get over it). We have heard heartbreaking and fascinating stories from refugees who traveled across Ethiopia by foot in order to achieve their dreams of reaching the Holy Land of Israel. We fed the homeless of New York City in the early morning, and we organized a Learnathon to raise money for the Anti Defamation League, an organization that is specifically geared towards fighting anti-Semitism and other forms of baseless hatred.

I am not asking you to join the Tolerance Club. Rather, all I ask is that we work together to eliminate the stigma that YUTC has unfairly been assigned over the past year and accept the club for what it is-a valid organization. To put it simply, I ask that you tolerate us.

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2009-12-21 - The Commentator - News Briefs

News Briefs

December 21, 2009

New Events Promote Discussions of Homosexuality on Campus

On Thursday, December 10th, Stern's Torah Activities Council sponsored a showing of "Trembling before God," a documentary about reconciling love of Judaism with prohibitions against homosexuality. After the film, Rabbi Dr. Aharon Fried of Stern's Psychology Department led a discussion of the related ideas and issues. On December 22nd, the YU Tolerance Club and the Wurzweiler School of Social Work will co-host an open discussion on Being Gay in the Orthodox World." Rabbi Blau will moderate a discussion of students, alumni, and faculty, along with a panel of gay undergraduates and recent graduates.

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2009-11-19 - The Commentator - Relating to Homosexuality

Relating to Homosexuality
An Interview with Dr. David Pelcovitz

by Sammy Steiner

November 19, 2009

Commentator: Is homosexuality a matter of choice?

Dr. Pelcovitz:  It poses a tremendous challenge and struggle for people. If it is a matter of choice, it is just not an easy choice to make. I do not think it is a univariate construct. I’ve never personally encountered anyone for whom it was a choice, but that is not to say that there is no one like that. There is a particular subset who knew from an early stage on that they were homosexual, and may have tried to explore other avenues of expressing their sexuality but just couldn’t. I’ve spoken with people who said they knew they were homosexual from age five and on. They just knew it. Very often they’ll fight it. For that subset, I do not think it is a choice. That is just the way they are. That is where the articles in the Commentator and Kol Hamevaser are coming from. It is as natural to them to be attracted to men as it is for heterosexual men to be attracted to women.

C: Is it healthy for homosexual men to marry heterosexual women in order to have a family and integrate into the Modern Orthodox community?

P: My heart goes out to the man who wrote the Kol Hamevaser article last year, who said that he desperately wanted to marry. Rabbi Chaim Rappaport has taken a very strong stance that he has never seen this type of marriage that has worked or been fair. I can understand that - ultimately it is hard to see how it could possibly work. There is a viewpoint that says it is possible, but I haven’t had any personal experience with a successful marriage like that. However, there are some psychologists who claim that they know some homosexuals who have married women in a way that the marriage has worked. It is a rarity and I have never seen it, but there might be some exceptions. It seems like a very cruel thing to do to a couple, to condemn them to a relationship that by its definition can’t fulfill some requirements of marriage in a fundamental way.

C: Is homosexuality against halakha?

P: I’m not qualified to talk about the halakhic aspect of this, but there is a huge difference between homosexual nature and homosexual activity. Homosexual activity is a clear-cut violation of the traditional Jewish view. There are many cases where people struggling with a specific Halacha can still be involved in the Jewish community. I don’t think this is about making homosexuality activity halakhicly ok.

C: Is homosexuality a disease or psychological disorder?

P: Until 1980, the consensus was that it was a disorder. However, the prevailing view now, as codified in the DSM IV, is that it is emphatically not an illness. Rather, it is a biologically driven choice that comes from the way people are wired.

C: How can heterosexuals try to understand homosexuals?

P: There is an approach that kind of names the monster. We educate people about the struggle and about the needs of people faced with this challenge. Validating someone’s pain is not the same as saying that it is ok to engage in something that is prohibited in mainstream Modern Orthodox Judaism. Like anything else, it is difficult but necessary to talk about it.

C: Is homophobia a problem on the YU campus?

P: I would be surprised if there isn’t a subset of people who are homophobic like in any community. When I was younger, there was a very strong tendency to judge and view homosexuality as an illness. However, when I talk to the guys there is much more openness to views that are empathetic. I’ve been impressed with the maturity amongst the guys I’ve discussed this with.

C: How would you advise YU students to respond if one of their friends reveals in confidence that he is homosexual?

P: Hear them out, accept them, and let them know that you are there for them. When you speak to anyone about their struggles, it is not as if you are saying, “go for it, do whatever you want to do.” There is a huge difference between validation, hearing, understanding, and emotional warmth on one hand and an active endorsement of certain behaviors on the other.

C: How can we at YU help to remove the taboo around homosexuality?

P: This is really a tough area. I think articles like this one are a part of a healthy process. It would be helpful if the Roshei Yeshiva would address the pain of those experiencing the struggle -that would help alleviate some of the silent pain of those individuals. You need to tell people not to be judgmental of something they don’t understand. There is a huge disconnect between the prevailing cultural view and halakha. Al tadin et chavercha ad shetagia bimkomo. This it is a very difficult and painful place to be and it is our responsibility to be as empathetic and as inclusive as we can. This is an exquisitely difficult challenge.

Dr. Pelcovitz is the Gwendolyn and Joseph Straus Chair in Psychology and Jewish Education at Yeshiva University’s Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education and Administration. He has consulted extensively with the Jewish community in the United States, Europe and Israel on a wide range of issues facing children and adolescents, and has published and lectured on various topics related to education, parenting, and child mental health.

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