Gay Orthodox Rabbi Visits Campus

Rabbi Steven Greenberg is believed to be the world's first openly gay Orthodox rabbi.

Three words: gay, orthodox, rabbi. Traditionally Orthodox Jews would only fit the latter two together, but Rabbi Steven Greenburg challenged this when he became the first Orthodox rabbi to declare his homosexuality in 1999.

HAMSA, a student organization that works to make the Jewish community a more comfortable place for LGBTQ students, sponsored a November 20th weekend visit by Greenburg at Hillel where he talked about “how one succeeds in being a self-contradistinction.”

The award-winning author argued there are several alternative translations of two biblical versus that have traditionally been read to condemn sex between two men—an act punishable by death. “I’m trying to make a space for being coherently Orthodox and gay,” he said about his work.

The only direct reference to homosexuality in the Tanakh can be found in Leviticus 18:22, he said in his argument against the damnation of homosexuality. In the chapter intercourse between men is deemed problematic, but women are not mentioned. “Thus the sameness of the gender isn't the problem as it doesn’t pose a problem for women,” he said.

Greenburg told Aaron Shapiro, the founder and president of HAMSA, that UMD was the first large university he has spoken at that has organizations co-sponsoring his visit. It was a real testament to our community, he told Shapiro.

“I was really proud of our community to have the discussions even if they do not agree with them,” said Shapiro. “I was really happy because I heard many people coming up to me afterwards saying they were talking about it, even if they didn’t attend, at their own dinners. They were having the same debate. I’m glad it sparked dialogue … you know baby steps.”

At the Friday lunch in the Hozopfel room of Hillel about 25 students gathered with Greenburg who discussed the evolution of how the Jewish community has dealt with homosexuality within their community.

After services that night he spoke again to about 120 students at Hillel.

“The Jewish Community is supposed to be somewhere you feel safe, not somewhere you should suppress your emotion,” he told the group before sharing his own story of his 10-year struggle with his sexuality and religion before coming out in March of 1999.

“I had a mask for myself,” he said of knowing he was gay at a younger age without not sharing it with anyone for a long time.

For the first time, at age 20, Greenburg shared with his religious counselor that he was having feelings for men as well as women. The counselor's response was not what he expected.

“You have twice the power of love. Use it carefully,” the counselor told him.

“It was exactly what I needed at the time,” Greenburg said. He did not come out until he was convinced during the production of the award-winning film, “Trembling Before G-d.”

HAMSA sponsored a screening of the film by Sandi Simcha Dubowski in Hillel the Tuesday before Greenburg’s visit.

It features interviews with Greenburg and was features the lives of many Hasidic and Orthodox gay Jews to sparked dialogue about homosexuality in Jewish communities all over the world.

On Saturday at a potluck “Lunch & Learn,” Greenburg spoke even more in depth about easing the Jewish community into being more comfortable with the LGBTQ community in a question and answer session of 70 students that got pretty heated over some of the most controversial debates, said Shapiro.