26 | MARCH 16 • 2023
W
hen 15-year-old
Frankel Jewish
Academy student
Rena Kantor noticed a Keshet
sticker on her parents’ door that
said “LGBTQ Safe Space,
” she
became curious about the orga-
nization.
Keshet, a Jewish initiative
that aims to build equality for
LGBTQ Jews, had a variety of
programming for queer youth
that Kantor quickly developed
an interest in.
In 2020, she attended her first
online Keshet youth event for
LGBTQ teens and was immedi-
ately drawn to the empowering
community that Keshet had
created nationwide.
“I made a lot of friends
throughout the years that I’ve
been at Keshet,
” explains Kantor,
a West Bloomfield resident.
She calls last year’s Shabbaton
retreat, which she helped plan as
a teen representative of Keshet,
a successful and moving event.
“It was one of the most
incredible weekends,
” Kantor
says. “There were a lot of activ-
ities that we planned to get to
know each other.
”
PLANNING EVENTS
Last year’s Midwest Shabbaton
retreat, which took place
in March 2022, saw mostly
Midwest LGBTQ teens and
allies attend, but also teens
from as far away as California
and Canada. Each year offers
two Shabbaton retreats: one
Midwest and one East Coast. In
total, nearly 70 teenagers from
around the country attended
last year.
This year, the East Coast
Shabbaton took place March
10-12 in the D.C. area and is
returning for its 11th annual
event. The Midwest Shabbaton,
meanwhile, will take place April
28-30 in the Chicago area for its
third year running.
The Midwest Shabbaton is
still open to participants.
Kantor, along with other teen
representatives from around the
country who support the Keshet
mission, is planning both
Shabbaton retreats. Earlier this
summer, she was asked to lead
the program with a friend from
New Jersey, who is also active in
Keshet.
In addition to planning the
Shabbaton retreats, Kantor
also leads a Monday virtual
event called Monday Evening
Hangouts where LGBTQ teens
ages 14-18 can play games
online and get to know other
teens within the community.
“We have really fun discus-
sions,
” she says. “It’s awesome to
be able to talk to other people
who might be going through
the same thing as you.
”
The Shabbaton retreats and
Monday Night Hangouts are
just two of the many offerings
that Keshet provides to its teen
LGBTQ community. It includes
gathering and learning spaces
designed specifically for trans
and non-binary Jewish teens,
live shows, informative sessions
about legislation that could
affect LGBTQ rights and arts
circles.
While the Keshet national
office is in Boston, it also has
offices in New York, the Bay
Area, Chicago and Florida that
work with LGBTQ Jews within
their regions.
The Keshet website also has
a vast library of resources that
explore gender identity, activism
and allyship, coming out and
articles on parenting within
LGBTQ families.
INSPIRING OTHERS
Kantor’s parents, Rabbi Shalom
Kantor of Congregation B’nai
Moshe in West Bloomfield,
and Shana Kantor, say they’re
proud of their daughter for her
involvement in Keshet and her
tireless work in empowering
LGBTQ Jewish teens nation-
wide.
“It’s given her a safe space to
explore her identity, both her
Jewish identity and her LGBTQ
identity, and what that means to
her,
” Shana Kantor, 47, says. “It’s
given her an opportunity to be a
leader in ways where she gets to
explore and bring together all of
these pieces of herself and be a
leader in really authentic ways.
”
Rabbi Kantor, 47, says of
Keshet’s teen representatives:
“Everybody feels that they are
a part of creating something
together. I think that skill is
fantastic and something that I
wish more of our teenagers and
young adults had the opportu-
nity to experience.
”
Building a safe and empow-
ering community for LGBTQ
teens is just one cornerstone of
Keshet’s work.
The organization also part-
ners with institutions nation-
wide, including here in Metro
Detroit, to share best practices
for inclusivity and provide
information on how to best
serve the LGBTQ community
both now and in the future.
These skills that Rena has
learned, Shana Kantor explains,
provide tremendous value.
“She can not only explain
her own identity but also can
translate for other people what
it means to be Jewish and
LGBTQ,
” she says. “That’s a
huge benefit.
”
West Bloomfield teen leads other
youth with the Keshet organization.
Empowering
LGBTQ Youth
ASHLEY ZLATOPOLSKY CONTRIBUTING WRITER
OUR COMMUNITY
Rena Kantor,
left, and a
friend at
the 2022
Shabbaton
retreat