Investigation: How Jewish Summer Camps Are Damaging LGBTQ+ Youth

By Julia Hegele June 1, 2022

As the camp season begins, New Voices investigates the experiences of former LGBTQ+ campers who have for decades faced exclusion, emotional conflict, pressure, and trauma in the summer’s aftermath.

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A Queer Reflection on Passover

By Noah Strauss April 18, 2018

“Now when Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them by way of the land of the Phillistines, although it was nearer; for God said, “The people may have a change of heart when they see war, and return to Egypt.” (Exodus 13:17) In this verse, it seems like God did not trust…

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Reflecting on Sukkot as a Model For Pluralism

By Noah Strauss October 23, 2017

This year, I realized something new about the holiday of Sukkot. Sukkot challenges us to envision and construct a new kind of Jewish community, one that lies outside of our everyday institutions. We are commanded to dwell in a new reality, where we welcome in all those on the margins of our community, as well…

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Celebrating National Coming Out Day on Sukkot

By Noah Strauss October 10, 2017

This Yom Kippur, I sat in Kol Tzedek synagogue, where the majority of the congregation and the rabbi identify as queer or trans, thinking about how the last day of Sukkot falls on National Coming Out Day this year. Something felt natural about this intersection of celebrations and communities. During Sukkot, we come out of…

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LGBT Jews Are the New Target of Anti-Zionism

By Peter Fox June 30, 2017

At the root of anti-Semitism is the belief that all good things Jews do are for nefarious reasons. There is an emerging belief in the far left that LGBT Jews who are Zionist are doubly guilty of re-branding Israel as a progressive society while covering human rights abuses against Palestinians. The name for this alleged…

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The Jewishness of Memorializing Transgender Lives

By Noah Strauss June 21, 2017

Dear Jewish community, Three years ago on Nov. 15, Leslie Feinberg passed away after a long battle with chronic Lyme disease. Ze was an anti-racist white, working-class, secular Jewish, transgender, lesbian, revolutionary communist. I couldn’t help but think of Leslie on Nov. 20, the annual Transgender Day of Remembrance, a day to memorialize those who…

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Hillel Isn’t Homophobic – It’s My Home

By Anonymous April 14, 2017

When I first came to Boston University in the fall of 2014, I split my time about evenly between two places – the Center for Gender, Sexuality, and Activism (CGSA), home to all the LGBT-centric groups on campus, and BU Hillel, the center of Jewish life. But as time went by, I gravitated more and…

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