Way back in 1985, during my first year of rabbinical school, the president of Hebrew Union College addressed our class in Jerusalem as we spent our first year in Israel. I don’t remember much of what he said except for his most shocking—and proudly-stated—assertion: “There are no gay students at Hebrew Union College.” I looked to my left at the lesbian woman living with her partner, to my right at the gay man living with his partner, and wondered what it must feel like for them to be so invisible. I watched their stoic faces, unresponsive in the face of this influential man’s dismissal of their identities. Other than a bit of snickering over the president’s ignorance and intentional blindness, we had no concept of what else we might do in support of our gay classmates and friends. We also failed to realize the painful irony in that this man, who fled for his life from the oppression and genocide of the Nazis, was unable to recognize that his affirmation of intolerance mirrored the very ideas that brought so much terror to his life.
There are those who ask why we need Pride Month. I offer this brief story of one man’s blindness and intolerance as an example. Lest we think that things have changed to such an extent in our times that we don’t need such affirmations of solidarity, we need only witness the challenges facing our family members and friends when they hesitate to come out to those closest to them. I’ve heard stories from the mouths of young people who come out to their parents only to hear in response: “Are you sure?” or, “OK, but don’t make a big deal of it.” Fortunately, these responses are becoming more and more rare, but until it’s not even necessary to “come out” as LGBTQ+ any more than one comes out as heterosexual, Pride Month is essential because it seeks to normalize an essential expression of one’s very humanness.
We welcome and celebrate Pride Month at Wise as an affirmation of our commitment to our LGBTQ+ community that we are allies and that Wise is a place for them to belong. We say to them: We see you, we hear you, we welcome you!
We hope you celebrate with us this Friday at our Pride Shabbat. On Sunday, we invite you to join our clergy and other members of our community as we march in the L.A. Pride Parade. Wise will be walking as part of Unity in Community, a group of walkers that includes a wide cross-section of the L.A. Jewish community. Wise is a proud co-sponsor of Unity in Community, joining Temple Israel of Hollywood, Temple Akiba, IKAR, Jewish Center for Justice, Leo Baeck Temple, Nefesh, Temple Emanuel, Kehilat Israel, Kol Ami, Temple Isaiah, Temple Beth Hillel, Beth Chayim Chadashim, and Hillside Memorial and Mortuary.
—Rabbi Ron Stern