Leslie Feldman
Many synagogues have embraced LGBTQ+ inclusivity in recent years, creating welcoming spaces for all members of the Jewish community.
The movement toward inclusivity is not just about tolerance; it’s about celebrating diversity and ensuring that everyone, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity, feels valued and respected, according to leaders of the Germantown Jewish Centre.
The history of LGBTQ+ inclusion at GJC in Mount Airy is storied. In 2001, GJC was the first Conservative synagogue in Philadelphia to host a gay wedding. Between 2001 and 2018, the synagogue forged a path hosting more LGBTQ weddings, using gender-inclusive language in its services, programs, and school, and affirming the gender identity of youth by having the first nonbinary b’nai mitzvah, which paved the way for more. But it wasn’t until 2018 that the GJC marked Pride Month and its LGBTQ+ inclusion in a larger, different way.
Kate Lawn, GJC’s program and membership director, explained that that year, many of the synagogue’s LGBTQ+ members gathered to envision how they might strengthen its inclusivity and celebrate Pride.
“The group reflected on the vulnerabilities people bring to the experience of being openly lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and gender nonconforming in the Jewish community,” she said. “The inaugural Pride Shabbat at GJC would be a chance to lift up the energy and the beautiful souls of GJC’s LGBTQ+ members and their families — to share with the community how empowering it is to create a queer-affirming space, a space where people can bring their whole selves, in joy.”
Every June since then, members of GJC and the wider community have celebrated Pride. Pride Shabbat is filled with music, activity booths, resource and information tables, diversity libraries and drag queen story time. The Sh’BBQ hosts picnic foods, and rainbows are everywhere. The synagogue’s three minyanim come together for a joint service led by LGBTQ+ members and allies, with a special liturgy, a pride D’var Torah and a lunch.
Being a home for LGBTQ Jews is one of the core ways we fulfill our mission of embracing and celebrating diversity, Lawn said.
“We learn from Torah about God’s love for all of humanity, how all of us, in all of our fabulous differences, are created in the image of God. In the vision of Torah, there are no exceptions — we are all bathed in divine love,” GJC Rabbi Adam Zeff said. “We learn from living in community with each other about how the diverse forms of love we see enrich our lives and open our hearts to the divine impulse to love that is within each of us. This is the essence of embracing LGBTQ pride every day: to open ourselves to love and be loved, knowing that we are reflecting divine love in the love we show each other.”
Lawn added that being in a space that is queer-led or queer-majority or expressly queer-affirming means that its LGBTQ+ members and guests can move about differently.
“Many queer people, especially our elders, did not always find such spaces growing up. Many experienced alienation from their physical bodies, their voices, from Jewish community.”
Germantown Jewish Centre is a member of the J.Proud Jewish Philly LGBTQ Consortium, partners with SVARA and jkidphilly to offer programs, and runs LGBTQ classes. GJC also recognizes the Trans Day of Remembrance.
Leslie Feldman is a Philadelphia-area freelance writer.