College freshman Ellen Fraint has fond memories of this year's Hillel-sponsored weekend retreat at Chamounix Mansion in Philadelphia. During a Saturday afternoon discussion between freshmen, Fraint told her peers that she was a lesbian. She saw no problem in being both an active member of Hillel and a member of the gay community.
"I don't see a clash between the two communities," Fraint said. "I'm not shy about outing myself; I don't try to hide it. As I meet new people it just comes out in the natural progression of things."
After attending subsequent Hillel events, though, Fraint was dismayed by the lack of people she met who were vocal about their homosexuality.
"The sense that I was the only one was kind of a strange feeling," she said.
Fraint's experience is not necessarily uncommon. Many believe there is still a stigma attached with being homosexual in the Jewish community.
Rabbi Howard Alpert, executive director of Hillel of Greater Philadelphia, said that there exists in Judaism both a classical and a liberal school of thought on homosexuality. In classical Judaism, the act of homosexuality is forbidden, while in liberal Judaism, homosexual acts are accepted because it is believed that religious attitudes must change with the times.
Alpert explained, though, that Judaism makes clear that "an individual who is homosexual needs to be treated with the same respect as others in the Jewish community and as all human beings."
"The point of communication [between the Hillel and LGBT communities] is not whether or not homosexuality is right or wrong," said Alpert. "The point is that given that there are Jews who are homosexuals, what is their appropriate place in the broader Jewish community?"
Over the summer, Bob Schoenberg, director of the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Center, was contacted by a student who was afraid to tell anyone about his or her homosexuality because of how that news would be received. The student is a member of the Orthodox Jewish community at Hillel.
Following this contact, LGBT and Hillel student leaders and staff met to brainstorm ways in which dialogue could be opened between the two communities.
In an event held in early January, panelists from the Hillel and LGBT communities engaged audience members in an initial discussion about the relationship between the two groups on campus.
During the event, Schoenberg read a statement from the student who had approached him over the summer.
In the statement the student wrote, "The more forcefully that Hillel defends the equality of gay Jews, the smoother will be the struggle of an individual coming to grips with his or her sexuality and place in the Jewish community."
Engineering junior Yosef Weiner, a member of the Orthodox Jewish community, read another statement at the event written by a fellow member of the community. In the statement, the student stressed that while he or she was not homophobic or against interactions between homosexual and heterosexual Jews, the writer was opposed to formal programming between the Hillel and LGBT communities.
"I think it'd ... be a bit inappropriate for the Hillel association to be partnering with an organization whose primary belief is antithetical to a fundamental Jewish belief," the statement read.
College senior Paul Farber, co-chairman of an LGBT athletic group, said that there were two different types of LGBT students hoping to become more comfortable in Hillel: those who are afraid to come out of the closet and those who are openly gay but are hesitant to get involved.
Farber said that both communities need to work together to fix the "impasse that exists" between the two groups by backing up increased conversation with specific programming and resources.
After the success of the first event, student leaders are planning many similar programs for the rest of the semester.
Leading up to Q-Penn, the homosexual pride and awareness week in March, there will be multiple showings of the movie Trembling Before God, which discusses the topic of homosexuality in the Orthodox community. Steven Greenberg, an openly gay Orthodox rabbi featured in the film, will be coming to campus to address the issues raised by the film.
Some ideas for future collaboration include reinstating a student group called "J-BaGeL" for Jewish homosexuals and also having a Shabbat dinner at the LGBT Center.
