"Trembling before G-d" Provokes Heated Argument on Gay Rights within Israel’s Conservative Movement Rabbinical Assembly
Over 130 Rabbis and Rabbinical students of the Conservative ("Masorti") Movement in Israel gathered recently for a special closed screening of "Trembling before G-d", Sandi DuBowski’s film on religious gay men and lesbians. The event, hosted with the collaboration of the Jerusalem’s LGBT community center, the Open House, marks a highpoint in the ongoing discussion within Israel’s Conservative Movement with regard to gays and lesbians.
The unprecedented event included words from Orthodox Rabbi Steve Greenberg, Open House executive director Hagai El-Ad, Conservative Movement president Rabbi Ehud Bandel, and filmmaker Sandi DuBowski.
Classes at the Schechter Institute (The Conservative Movement’s academic center) were canceled, so that Rabbinical students could attend the screening. At first, the institute administrators did not allow for the Rabbinical students to attend, but later changed their position as students informed the administration that they would miss classes regardless, in favor of the screening and dealing with the relations between the conservative movement and the gay community.
The conservative movement is one of the progressive religious Jewish movements with regard to homosexuality. However, the Schechter Institute does not ordain gay rabbis, and the movement does not hold wedding ceremonies of same-sex partners.
Hagai El-Ad, Open House executive director, added: "The screening and the following discussion were profound and moving. This is a significant milestone in the continuing dialogue nurtured by the Open House and the Conservative Movement - a dialogue we plan on pursuing until we achieve complete openness and equality".