CBST Rallies to Support LGBT Friends in Israel

“Tonight we speak to those of you in Israel, our GLBT brothers and sisters, who are mourning this tragedy up very close,” said CBST Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum.

“We don’t know who did this or what their motivation was … We do know that we must fight for gay rights worldwide. That there must be a way to make sure through our voices and our efforts as individuals and organizations, to make sure that hate speech — whether in the name of religion or family or of anything else that leads someone to hate themselves for being gay or incites others to anti-gay violence — be called what it is. Any anti-gay rhetoric in the name of G-d is a blaspheme on G-d’s name.”

Kleinbaum noted that similar rallies were taking place the same week in Washington, DC, Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, London, Paris and Buenos Aires to express support of the victims and condemn the attack itself. Another rally was planned for Saturday night in Tel Aviv in Rabin Square.

“The rabbis teach us that all people, men and women are created b’tzelem elokim, in G-d’s image,” reminded U.S. Rep Jerrold Nadler, (D-Manhattan). “We’re taught that we have all descended from one man and woman, Adam and Eve, so that no can say ‘I am better than the other person. I was high-born or an aristocrat, I’m straight, or whatever.’ We are all equal in the sight of G-d.”

The service included the traditional reading of tehillim (Psalms), songs and the lighting of memorial candles. Participants carried banners preaching love and tolerance, while others were emblazoned with the names of Nir Katz, 26, and Liz Trubeshi, 16, who were killed when a gunman opened fire in a Tel Aviv gay and lesbian youth center on Aug. 1st. Fifteen others were wounded in the attack, some of whom had not yet disclosed their sexuality to their families.

New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn addressed those injured in the Tel Aviv attack directly, noting their own family members had not visited some of the victims in hospitals because they were gay. “They need to know that there are people all over the world that love and support them… that people all over the world believe and know that what happened to them was wrong and outrageous. And we are sending that message tonight across the world to those families and those young people in Israel.”

“All these young people were doing in Tel Aviv was going to a community center, to a support group looking for a home and looking for a community. And isn’t that what the struggle for Israel has always been about?”

Carl Siciliano, executive director of the Ali Forney Center, a New York organization that works with homeless youth, offered an impassioned plea to better protect gay youth. “We felt an arrow in our heart with this attack,” he said. “LGBT youth are bearing a disproportionate burden of the violence and the rejection and the hatred in our society: 40% of the homeless youth in our country are LGBT … thousands and thousands of young people are being kicked out of their homes and thrown into the streets because of their honesty of who they are.”

Sicilano called on the LGBT community overall to “rethink our movement and our obligation to protect our kids.”

An especially poignant moment came when members of the LGBT Center Youth Pride Chorus sang Cyndi Lauper's "True Colors;" then one member pleaded with the crowd to "step up and take action" to better protect the GLBT community's youth.

In his benediction, the Rev. Edgard Danielsen-Morales, Assistant Pastor at the Metropolitan Community Church of New York, said that hate is abhorrent to all religions worldwide.

Other speakers included Nehirim director Jay Michaelson, Yoav Sivan, former member of the Board of Agudah, the LGBT Association of Tel Aviv, David Saranga on behalf of the Israeli Consulate General in New York, and John Ruskay, evp and CEO of the UJA-Federation of New York.

Sponsors of the event included Congregation Beth Simchat Torah, American Friends of Tehila; the Ali Forney Center; Arcus Foundation, AVODAH: The Jewish Service Corps; Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD); Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC); Gayava, LGBT Jews at Columbia/Barnard Hillel; Keshet; Kolot Chayeinu/Voices of Our Lives; Int'l Assoc. of Gay and Lesbian Human Rights (IGLHRC); the JCC of New York; Jewish Mosaic; JQYouth; the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center of New York, Metropolitan Community Church of New York (MCCNY); The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF); Nehirim: GLBT Jewish Culture and Spirituality; New Israel Fund (NIF); the New York Board of Rabbis; The Power Online and Rabbis for Human Rights North America.

While we do not yet know who is responsible for the shooting, or what that person's motivations were, we do know that such evil acts find support in the unrelenting hate-speech that is directed at LGBT people by extremists the world over. Our job as people of faith is to condemn not just these types of murderous acts, but also the hatred in our society that makes them possible. We must honor the memories of those who were killed by demanding full equality for LGBT people now."

Information about the shootings can be found at the following links:
Ynet News: World shocked by gay center attack (in English)
World shocked by gay center attack (in Hebrew)
Haaertz: Mourners remember Nir Katz's "endless love"

Send an email of support to LGBT Israelis and their families

Let our friends in Israel know you support them and grieve with them. Send an email to LGBTIsrael@cbst.org expressing your empathy with LGBT Israelis or condolences to families of the victims. CBST will collect these emails and share them with LGBT communities in Israel.

Make a donation for LGBT rights in Israel

Send a financial expression of support in any amount to the New Israel Fund at www.nif.org , earmarked for GLBT rights. Make a Tribute Gift on the NIF website , mentioning those attacked at the Tel Aviv center as the honorees of your gift.