Nice Jewish girl seeks same for legal wedding

By Chloe Sobel June 26, 2015

On October 11, 2009, I woke up in my best friend’s apartment at 5 a.m. We had a bus to catch to D.C. We were going to the National Equality March. Before that, though, we had something to do. Together we’d decided we would come out on Facebook, in honor of the march and National…

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Dear Orthodox Leaders: LGBTQ Jews Don’t Need Your Sympathies

By Amram Altzman May 4, 2015

The Shabbat of Parashat Akharei Mot-Kedoshim— the Torah portion that was read in many synagogues this past Saturday morning — is always a painful one for me and many other queer Jews. The verses it contains concerning the prohibition of male homosexuality have long been used as justification for excluding queer people from religious life….

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Let’s Talk About How We Talk About Orthodoxy

By Amram Altzman October 6, 2014

“Orthodoxy’s greatest innovation was its decision to stop innovating.” These were the words of a friend of mine in high school, a non-Orthodox student at my Modern Orthodox high school, voicing his frustration at Orthodoxy’s seeming inability to develop and adapt to (post-)modern values. When I published my last article, one of the largest criticisms…

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Gay Dads, Kosher Nightclubs, Zionists, and Pat Robertson – New Vices

By Derek M. Kwait April 8, 2014

Sheldon Adelson Makes Gov. Chris Christie Apologize for Living in Reality The Daily Show Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Indecision Political Humor,The Daily Show on Facebook   Whether they know it or not, Jon Stewart and Samantha Bee are having the same conversation all Jewish communities are having now, and, like all good satire, the…

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Personalizing the Ramifications of the Israeli Rabbinate

By Amram Altzman January 13, 2014

It’s old news that the Israeli rabbinate rejects those who are not Orthodox, especially in regards to immigration or marriage. What was recently revealed, however, was exactly how this process of rejection or acceptance happens, in light of the Israeli Rabbinate’s recently calling Rabbi Avi Weiss’ status as an Orthodox rabbi into question. This was…

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Let’s Queer the Jewish Legal Tradition

By Amram Altzman December 16, 2013

I had the honor of speaking at the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance’s Voices of Change conference last week, where I, only for a day, became a high school student once again and spoke on a panel about navigating relationships and sexuality in high school as a feminist. While speaking, the topic of Shemirut Negi’ah, or…

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Let’s Talk About Here!

By Jonathan Katz September 25, 2013

Publications aimed for a queer Jewish audience, like any niche-aimed work, tend to concentrate on certain themes. There are your coming out to your community publications, there are your famous-queer-Jews publications, there are your “my story” publications. And then there is another trend: a deep, heavy, nearly-overwhelming concentration on Israel. Israel is everywhere in the…

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The Reading List: Yet Another “Just Had Sex” Parody

By Ben Sales April 6, 2011

Jewish A Cappella groups are going crazy with the videos. Above is the latest offering, from Kol Ish: “Just Had Chametz,” a parody of “Just Had Sex” that I like better than “Just Broke Shomer.” And here’s a video of an awesome Jewish student with two moms. And here’s a kid who’s extremely excited to…

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The Reading List: Wise words on the Jewish Standard controversy

By Ben Sales October 13, 2010

It seems the debate over same-sex wedding announcements in the Jewish press will go on, but Gary Rosenblatt offers some wise final words on the Jewish Standard issue in his weekly column. [JW] Some cool Jewish philanthropy: a wealthy Jeiwsh Chilean is donating money to help the rescued miners. [JTA] Thought the “rabba” controversy was…

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