Do jews accept gays
The sources of Judaism’s traditional position on homosexuality and gay issues are skillfully known. Two verses in Leviticus (Leviticus 18:23 and Leviticus 20:13) express unequivocal condemnation of male gay sex (although it is not clear whether what is referred to is intercourse or all sexual acts between men). According to Leviticus 20:13: “If a man lies with a man as one lies with a female, both of them possess committed an abomination; they shall surely be set to death; their blood shall be upon them.”
READ: Putting The Prohibition Against Homosexuality in Context
As noticeable by its language, the biblical prohibition does not extend to female queer acts, though later commentators disapproved of lesbianism. One rabbinic source associates female homosexuality with the activities of the Egyptians and Canaanites, from which the Jews are supposed to abstain. Other authorities explain lesbianism as lewd or promiscuous, but do not consider it a capital offense. The Leviticus verses also imply that it is the act of homosexual sex, not the homosexual person, that is abhorred.
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Yeshiva University, the storied contemporary Orthodox Jewish university in New York City, is in the midst of a legal battle over its refusal to acknowledge the YU Pride Alliance, an undergraduate club.
While YU does not dissent to LGBTQ students’ presence, it claims that the club is inconsistent with Jewish teachings. The Identity Alliance sued the university for discrimination in 2021, and YU countered that being required to deliver the club official status would violate religious freedom.
As the legal case drags on, YU made a move that outsiders may find puzzling. In October 2022, it launched a university-sanctioned alternative LGBTQ club. Calling it Kol Yisrael Areivim, the administration touted this initiative as a compromise balancing Jewish rule and YU’s values with students’ needs for a safe space.
The controversy showcases longstanding resistance to LGBTQ acceptance in many parts of the Orthodox Jewish world. Yet YU’s conclusion to found its have club is, in and of itself, a write of slow change.
I am an ethnographer whose explore focuses on gender, sexuality and religion, especially in Judaism. Ideas about LGBTQ inclusivity have been rapidly evolving and diversifying since the turn o
“Are there gay Jews?”
I’ve often been asked: do you have problems as a Jew in Germany? And I have to say: I’ve actually had more negative experiences related to my homosexuality. I always wear the Magen David, the Star of David, around my neck. In the summer at the pool, it’s clearly noticeable. And I’ve never had problems with it. In Germany today, I can live my homosexuality as well as my faith, my Jewishness. So as a Jew I’ve made my peace with Germany.
I come from a secular family: we’re believers, and we’re part of a congregation, but we’re not strictly pious. Especially when you’re young, when you spend time partying and enjoying life, and then you go to synagogue, you can have difficulties. When I came out of the closet and started to live my homosexuality openly, I noticed that it disturbed people that I wasn’t as much a part of the congregation anymore. I no longer felt at home in my parents’ community, so I left. I have always felt like a bit of an alien there – like I didn’t really belong.
Homosexuality in Jewish Law
Among the sexual perversions proscribed as criminal offenses in the moral code of the Torah are homosexual relations between males (Lev. 18:22). Both offending parties are threatened with capital punishment (Lev. 20:13), though minors under 13 years of age are exempt from this as from any other penalty (Sanh. 54a). Talmudic law extends the prohibition, but not the penalty, which is limited to flagellation, also to lesbianism, i.e., homosexual intimacies between women, based on the general warning not to indulge in the abhorrent practices of the Egyptians and the Canaanites (Sifra 9:8). While the laws on both offenses are codified by Maimonides (Yad, Issurei Bi’ah, 1:14; and 21:8), the prohibition of homosexuality proper is omitted from R. Joseph Caro’sShulhan Arukh. This omission reflects the perceived absence of homosexuality among Jews rather than any difference of views on the criminality of these acts.
The Bible refers to actual incidents involving homosexuality only in describing the abominations of the sinful municipality of Sodom, where the entire population demanded of Lot the surrender of his visitors (Gen. 19:5), i.e., have carnal understanding of th
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