The American Zionist Youth Foundation has told New York’s gay and lesbian synagogue that it can march in the city’s annual Salute to Israel parade as long as it marches without a banner.
Congregation Beth Simchat Torah has rejected that offer because, in effect, “that means that we can’t walk as a group,” said Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum, the congregation’s spiritual leader.
“We agreed to drop (the words) ‘gay’ and ‘lesbian.’ We felt like we made a compromise already about it.”
AZYF has been faced with a threat by Orthodox groups to pull out of the May 9 parade if the synagogue is allowed to participate. The offer to the synagogue was an attempt at compromise.
Two weeks ago, after several behind-the-scenes discussions between Kleinbaum and AZYF officials, the synagogue agreed to march behind a banner with only its name on it, and without any reference to “gay” or “lesbian.”
But after a congregant took the matter to The New York Times last week, the issue exploded into an echo of the recent fight over the city’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade, in which organizers would not permit a group of Irish gays and lesbians to march.
In the case of the Salute to Israel parade, the Orthodox groups, which make up at least half the participants, have said they will not march if the gay and lesbian congregation does.
Orthodox yeshivas and day schools comprise about 38 of the 75 groups and “at least” half of the approximately 75,000 children, teens and adults marching, said Rabbi Joseph Sternstein, chairman of AZYF.
“We’re trying to be as inclusive as possible. But when you have tens of thousands pulling out, then it’s a no-win situation,” said Sternstein. “Numbers are important.”
‘WE WILL NOT DISRUPT THE PARADE’
Kleinbaum said her congregation would welcome other proposals from AZYF, but that if none is forthcoming, the predominantly gay and lesbian congregation will not counter-demonstrate or urge supporters to boycott the parade.
“We will not disrupt the parade. As a Zionist, I am deeply saddened by controversy over our participation. I cannot express how much anguish I’m in over this,” said Kleinbaum.
“We are eager for the focus to remain on Israel and disappointed that segments of the Orthodox community are shifting the focus onto this issue.”
An association of New York-area yeshiva principals unanimously decided at a meeting Monday to withdraw all of its groups of school children from the parade if the synagogue were permitted to participate as a group, according to one participant.
Calls to the association’s offices were not returned.
And if the day schools and yeshivot withdraw from the parade, “the Orthodox congregational groups will probably follow suit,” said Rabbi Binyamin Walfish, executive vice president of the Rabbinical Council of America, an organization of Orthodox rabbis and a member of the parade’s organizing committee.
The New York Board of Rabbis, an 800-member group of rabbis from all movements, backed the decision of the parade committee.
We are “not opposed to any synagogue group marching in the parade if the parade committee approves of their participation, the group (does not) use the parade for a personal political statement and the participation of the synagogue must be in consonance with the function of the parade, which is support of the State of Israel,” said Rabbi Gilbert Rosenthal, the organization’s executive vice president.
According to Kleinbaum, supporters of the congregation’s participation include Reform movement-affiliated organizations and the Metropolitan region of the American Jewish Congress.
The Association of Reform Zionists of America has invited the congregation to join its contingent in the parade and walk the parade route jointly under a banner reading “ARZA Proudly Marches With Congregation Beth Simchat Torah in Salute to Israel.”
The congregation has not ruled out that idea, but it is not clear whether AZYF would allow it.
SUPPORT FROM KNESSET MEMBER
From Israel, Yael Dayan, a left-wing Labor member of Knesset, said in a statement that “Israel would love to be saluted by the American Jewish gay and lesbian community.
“I find it unacceptable not to accept Zionist identification and support for reasons of sexual orientation,” said Dayan, chair of the Knesset’s Committee on Homosexual and Lesbian Rights.
One Orthodox rabbi, who asked to remain anonymous, said that the gay and lesbian congregation should be allowed to march because the Salute to Israel parade is a time for all Jews to show their support for Israel, whether they abide by Jewish law or not.
He noted that AZYF does not regulate itself by Jewish law.
The imbroglio has led to a surge in the number of harassing phone calls received by the synagogue, said Kleinbaum, and forced the congregation to hire a security guard to protect congregants attending Shabbat services.
This was the second year that the congregation applied to AZYF to march in the Salute to Israel parade down Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue.
Last year it was also turned down, on the basis of an AZYF requirement that each synagogue group have 35 children in its religious group in order to march, said Kleinbaum.
The synagogue does have a Hebrew school program for the children of members, but did not have the required number of participants.
At the time, the congregation had no rabbi and therefore had no one to pursue the matter further.
Beth Simchat Torah has in the past marched as a congregation in parades for solidarity with Soviet Jewry, behind a banner with just the synagogue’s name on it.
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