Lesbian rabbi who was active in Prop 8 fight becomes president of Southern California Board of Rabbis
I thought this was very cool.
(Quick translation issue -- the article uses the term "klal Yisrael," which basically means Jewish unity or the Jewish people as a whole -- people who disagree with her on ideological grounds saying that staying as one Jewish organization is more important than splintering into a zillion little ones that fight with each other.)
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"Daniel Bouskila, rabbi of Sephardic Temple Tifereth Israel, a Los Angeles Modern Orthodox synagogue, noted that an Orthodox rabbi would have just as many ideological differences with a male heterosexual rabbi from the Reconstructionist or Reform movement as with a lesbian rabbi."
That's great, it shows a refusal to get sidelined by the type of political religion that, especially with Prop 8, ended up imposing one theological interpretation on everyone. And it doesn't scandalize or inflate the issue of homosexuality; it's just one more theological difference, no more important than any other point of contention.
I worry it would be different if she were a gay man, though; female homosexuality isn't prohibited in the Torah, but male is. (According to the most common reading, anyway. For another, powerful, reading, check out "Wrestling with God and Men." Good book!)
And do you know anything about the CA Jewish community's role(s) in the whole Prop 8 thing, or what dialogues sprung up around that?
I don't know much about the what happened in CA with the Jewish community around Prop 8. I remember seeing that some Orthodox rabbis were for it, and a lot of others were against, but I don't really know much beyond that.
That article mentions that the Board of Rabbis of Northern California has a gay male president.
Whoops, must have missed that, thanks!