World
COMMENTARY
Difference, covenant and community
come together in Israel.
Pride
iN
Jerusalem
hat do 43 gay guys
and two lesbians do
on a national federa-
tion mission to Israel? It may
sound like the start of a bad joke,
but it actually happened last
summer.
"Pride in Israel;' sponsored by
the United Jewish Communities,
was the first time a mission of
American Jews was sent by the
organized Jewish community to
explore Israel, Judaism and them-
selves through the lens of gay-les-
bian-bisexual-transgender expe-
rience.
I was recruited at the last-
minute, sponsored by an obser-
vant Jew from Washington, D.C. I
had serious reservations, since I
believe the gay community often
sabotages itself with undignified,
overtly sexualized events held in
the name of "pride."
Would we be a flamboyant •
spectacle? Would our message
merely be "We'•re here and we're
queer"? Would our presence dur-
ing the trauma of the Gaza pull-
out be in bad taste?
As a religious person, I worried
about being pulled into a context
that would misrepresent me. I'm
the kind of guy who feels that
presence is a type of tacit
endorsement.
_
I discussed the mission with a
rabbi who said, "I really hope
there won't be demonstrations
against your
He knew the mission could
provoke a backlash: Only a month
before our arrival, three partici-
pants at a gay pride event in
Jerusalem were stabbed by a reli-
gious zealot.
But the itinerary looked seri-
ous: meetings with Israeli politi-
cians, filmmakers; mental-health
32
February 16 • 2006
professionals, civil rights
tive address difference
activists. From the look
and "the other"?
of it, the trip seemed it
•What does it mean
would have a left-wing
to be Jewish and gay,
tilt — still, there's much to
now, in this moment
learn in life, and I agreed
of our lives and in this
to attend.
place of memory and
My fears were allayed
history?
at Kennedy airport when
P.J. Cherrin
I was handed a source-
Special to the
Different Points
book called Land,
Jewish News
For about half the
Peoplehood, Faith and
participants, the mis-
Desire: At the Intersection
sion was their first
of Our Identities. The book was
trip to Israel. A handful were sea-
prepared by our scholar in resi-
soned federation-types, deeply
dence, Rabbi Steven Greenberg —
involved in communal life. There
an Orthodox rabbi employed by
were a few longtime couples and
the Center for Learning and
a number of divorced men who
People were at different points in both
their coming out and their Jewish
identification. Yet, no one had ever
been to Israel in this format, with these
peers or from this perspective.
Leadership (CLAL).
What transpired on our jour-
ney was outstanding on many
levels. At every stage of the mis-
sion, Rabbi Greenberg, who is
openly gay, returned to a coherent
meta-theme:
• How do "master-narratives" —
both personal and collective —
shape our lives?
• How do .our individual narra-
tives shape the master narrative?
• How do narratives give
expression to ethos and world
view?
•What is the meaning of
covenant?
• How is our covenant played
out in the Jewish state?
• How does the Jewish narra-
Jim
had been married to women.
. People were at different points
in both their coming out and.
their Jewish identification. Yet, no
one had ever been to Israel in this
format, with these peers or from
this perspective.
The Gaza pullout was the back-
drop for everything we did. Our
arrival in Jerusalem was a surreal
moment: Our buses pulled up to
the hotel just as the army finished
dropping off 300 settlers.
Over the next few days, two set-
tlers separately recognized Rabbi
Greenberg and pulled him aside
to discuss members of their com-
munity who are struggling with
sexuality.
Every time we met with a
speaker, even those invited to
speak on gay matters, they spoke •
about Gaza and Israel's future.
Everyone wanted to express his or
her connection to the collective
pain.
We visited gay bars in both Tel
Aviv and Jerusalem. Yes,
Jerusalem has a gay bar called
Shushan. At Minerva, a bar in Tel
Aviv, the classic photo of IDF
troops holding their helmets after
recapturing the Kotel in 1967 was
projected onto the wall. I was
moved to see that Zionist image
at the gay bar, especially along-
side real IDF soldiers — gay ones
— in uniform who were out that
night.
After an archaeological dig at
Beit Guvrin, we split into four
groups — role-playing as pro-
Roman assimilationists, anti-
Roman zealots, Dead Sea ascetics
and early Christians — and Rabbi .
Greenberg transported us back to
72 C.E., a few years following the
destruction of Jerusalem and its
Temple.
Each group studied a text writ- .
ten by their assigned sect and
presented a short skit "promot-
ing" that point of view.
Having witnessed many
. flopped programs similar to this
one with teens, I was impressed
at how this crowd of gay adults
approached the breakout discus-
sions in earnest. We had no short-
age of drama queens and the
skits were riveting.
Rabbi Greenberg tied together
the session incarnated as Rabbi
Yochanan ben Zakkai — chan-
neled through the voice of an
Eastern-European zaydie. In
character, he validated each sect's
view, but also warned about the
potential for folly in each as well.
In doing so, he shaped before our
eyes the foundations of what in
time became rabbinic Judaism.
Religious Ties
A few days into the mission, a
loud New Yorker — who kept pes-
tering the guide about the loca-
tion of the gay beach — asked if
he could don my teffilin. Later,
another guy wanted me to know
how moved he was when I led
Birkat HaMazon (blessing after
meals) the night before. To me,
these were mundane acts — but
for others, they made a connec-
tion.
Right before Shabbat, we were
joined by 30 gay Jerusalemites at
Jerusalem Open House, the holy
city's gay community center on
Ben Yehuda Street. -
Copies of English Artscroll sid-
durim were passed out and
young Israelis led a Carlebach-
style Kabbalat Shabbat.
Our group was electrified but
also caught like deer in head-
lights — I don't think people
expected this kind of intensity or
knew exactly how to process it. I,
too, was taken by the experience,
and found myself wondering
what God thought about the voic-
es of 70 gay Jews singing psalms .
of gratitude together.
In the end, there was no •
demonstration, no spectacle, no
exploitation. It was just a group of
Jews exploring what it means to
have a covenant as fully self-
accepting gay people.
And there's no better place
than the land of Israel to renew
our membership in the covenant
and to integrate Jewish identity. It
was particularly powerful doing it
with a community of people just
like me. ❑
P.J. Cherrin is a resident of West
Bloomfield and the publisher of
www.MemoirPress.com .