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[Editorial Note:Giving you a glimpse of what lies between the hardcover of Rebecca Alpert's new book Whose Torah? And check out this interview by Zeek editor Jo Ellen Green Kaiser of Rabbi Rebecca Alpert. And of course, give us your take on the issue. I'll be posting a response in the next few days--CK.]
Forbidden Sexual [...]

Jewish Mosaic Torah Queeries - “WRITE NOW!” Poster

If you are Jewish and a member of the GLBT community, and have experience writing a drash for the weekly Torah portion, please contact Noach Dzmura b r e r r a b b i [ a t s i g n ] h o t m a [...]

(apologies to those who aren’t living in new york city - this is an event announcement)
(it seems like there are many more radical purim extravaganzas going on all over the country, though, and i’m posting this announcement in part to encourage folks to think big and exciting for next year…)
this year’s eighth-or-so edition of the [...]

We’re in the middle of Sukkot, the festival of booths, when we live for seven days in temporary structures, in a state of transit, symbolically making our homes in a place where we don’t plan to stay permanently. And we have limited time in which to build our sukkah (if we have a place to [...]

CBST and JTA move quickly when they sense something’s up… I’m just glad I knew it was coming so I had time to give notice at work!
JTS accepts gay cantorial student
The Jewish Theological Seminary accepted its first openly gay cantorial student.
Congregation Beth Simchat Torah said in a release Tuesday that member Marisa [...]

The Dean of the H.L. Miller Cantorial School at the Jewish Theological Seminary called me this week. I had just walked out of the Barnes & Noble at Lincoln Center, and when he told me that I had been accepted into cantorial school I jumped up and down on the sidewalk, drawing interesting looks from [...]

This past December, when the Conservative Committee on Jewish Law and Standards (CJLS) voted on the teshuvot about “the status of homosexuals” in the Conservative community, I had already completed my application to Hebrew Union College, thinking that it would be years before the Conservative movement made a step forward.
A few days later I [...]

I love a challenge, but sometimes I get in over my head as a result. Where did I leap this time without looking? Directly into next week’s joint torah portions, the infamous and dreaded Acharei Mot and Kedoshim. This is the source of the line that is most frequently used as ammunition against the queer [...]

for poetry month (why april, by the way? ‘the cruelest month’? ‘with his shoures soote’? please.), here’s the text of a talk by irena klepfisz - a fantastic poet in yiddish, english, and both at once, as well as an insightful essayist and deeply committed radical - from a 2006 conference at barnard college called “Jewish Women Changing America: Cross-Generational Conversations”. at the bottom is a poem from one of klepfisz’s books. a complete transcript of the “Changing Culture” panel that klepfisz spoke on (and the rest of the conference) is available online here.