Keshet Rabbis
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Keshet-Rabbis is an organization of Conservative/Masorti rabbis which holds that LGBT Jews should be embraced as full, open members of all Conservative/Masorti congregations and institutions. Based on its understanding of Jewish sources and Jewish values, it asserts that gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Jews may fully participate in community life and achieve positions of professional and lay leadership.
The organization was established in order to connect gay-friendly Conservative rabbis with one another, to serve as a collective voice of gay-friendly Conservative rabbis, and to offer a point of contact for Conservative/Masorti Jews who are themselves LGBT or who care about LGBT issues.
Keshet-Rabbis provides LGBT Jews and those who love and support them with the means to contact a Conservative rabbi for positive and sympathetic advice and information. The mandate of the organization's rabbis is to provide judgment-free support and advice to those who approach them in the following areas: a listening and sympathetic ear, personal counseling in absolute privacy, halakhic queries, ceremonies of interest to the LGBT community, congregations that are already gay-friendly, referrals to helpful resources within the greater Jewish community and all similar matters.
In addition to Rabbis,[1] Cantors are joining to give support in a similar manner to Rabbis.[2] Further there is now a move towards Keshet Congregations.[3]
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[edit] Status of Keshet-Rabbis
Keshet-Rabbis is not an official arm of the Rabbinical Assembly and is not endorsed by it; rather, it is a free association of rabbis who are members of the Rabbinical Assembly and who subscribe to Keshet-Rabbis' rationale and objectives. The organization's website was effectively launched on June 27, 2005, and soon after its creation over 100 rabbis had joined it.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Chuck Colbert (2005-07-28). Over the Jewish rainbow. In Newsweekly. Retrieved on 2006-10-23. “Through our understanding of Jewish sources and Jewish values, we affirm that gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Jews may fully participate in community life and achieve positions of professional and lay leadership”
- Debra Rubin (2005-07-14). Conservative rabbis seek place for gays in movement. Jewish Ledger. Retrieved on 2006-10-23. “We in the field are coming in contact with" gay Jews who are "members of our congregations and are in turmoil because the misconception is that the Conservative movement is antigay -- and we're not”
