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| This is picture from last year (the first year that gays were allowed to march) shows why the (very Zionist) Rav Ahron Soloveichik ZTL fought so hard against gays marching in the parade |
from 1993
In this atmosphere of divisiveness over the place of
gays in Jewish life, a crisis arose over the annual event that
traditionally brought all Jews together: the Israel Day parade in New
York City, scheduled for May 9. When Beth Simchat Torah, the gay and
lesbian synagogue, requested permission, in March, to participate in the
parade, an official of the American Zionist Youth Foundation, the
parade sponsor, commented that "this is a very, very sensitive matter.
The wrong word at this time could blow up the entire thing."
A
meeting of Orthodox yeshivah principals — whose students always made up
at least half of the parade marchers — decided that their schools would
not march if the gay synagogue marched as an identified unit. Their
rationale, arrived at after consultation with Orthodox rabbinic
authorities (This included Rav Ahron Soloveichik ZTL),
was that
the parade must not be used as a vehicle for legitimizing an
unacceptable lifestyle.
Gay Marchers Spark Celebrate Israel Parade Boycott Threat
Yeshivas Agree To Allow Gays To Participate in Annual Event
An Orthodox activist has launched an effort to boycott New York’s
Celebrate Israel parade for allowing gay and lesbian groups to
participate, despite a reported agreement among Orthodox yeshivas not to
object to the gay groups.
Avi Goldstein, a Orthodox Jew from Long Island, called
for the boycott of the June 2 parade in a lengthy letter circulated in
the Modern Orthodox community. In his letter, Goldstein writes that gay
groups’ participation “compromised the moral integrity of the parade.”
Yet Goldstein’s effort appears doomed from the start.
Goldstein reports in his own letter that a group of Jewish day schools
principals agreed that they would not object to the gay organizations
marching in the parade at a recent meeting attended by a representative
of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York , which organizes
the annual Celebrate Israel event.
A spokesperson for the JCRC would only confirm that the
meeting took place. Rabbi Ellis Bloch, a staff member at the Jewish
Education Project, which coordinated the meeting, would not comment on
the meetings’ content.
This Celebrate Israel parade draws tens of thousands to
Manhattan’s 5th Avenue each Spring. This year’s parade marks the second
year in which gay Jewish organizations have marched openly. Before
2012, efforts by the gay and lesbian synagogue Congregation Beit Simchat
Torah were met with a demand that the group not march with a banner
that used the word “gay” or “lesbian.”
Mordechai Levovitz, co-director and founder of Jewish Queer Youth, which marched last year, said that he expects the 150
people to march with the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender
contingent this year. Gay and lesbian groups participating in the 2013
parade include Levovitz’s group, CBST, A Wider Bridge, and Eshel.
Though the parade is organized by the nondenominational
JCRC, participation is heavily Modern Orthodox. Three quarters of the
Jewish day schools that marched in 2011 were Modern Orthodox, according
to a 2012 Forward report.
Gay groups’ participation didn’t cause much trouble
last year. The groups marched at the end of the parade, and their
participation drew little media attention. This year, however, Goldstein
hopes to marshal Orthodox support and ban the gay participants.
“I hope to reach school parents, most of whom likely
are unaware that Jewish Queer Youth was permitted to march in last
year’s parade,” Goldstein told the Forward in an email. “
Schools serve
their parents and their student bodies; if concerned parents and
students protest to their schools, the schools are obligated to take
these protests into account.”
In his lengthy letter, Goldstein argues against gay
marriage and the acceptance of homosexuality. He warns that biblical
punishments threaten those who tolerate homomsexuality.
“The Torah states that homosexual behavior can lead to
the spitting out of Israel’s inhabitants,” Goldstein writes. “If we
participate in a parade that endorses homosexuality, how are we
contributing to Israel’s welfare?”
Levovitz, for his part, said that he hadn’t been
approached about the letter. The JCRC confirmed that Jewish Queer Youth
and the other gay organizations were scheduled to march in the June 2
parade.
(
Foward)
Which part of the Torah changed since 1993?
