Shalhevet head urges Orthodox community to take on LGBT acceptance

Something’s eating Rabbi Ari Segal.

That’s why the head of school at Shalhevet High School, an Orthodox Jewish day school on Fairfax Avenue, penned a nearly 2,000-word editorial for the school’s student newspaper, The Boiling Point, on LGBT acceptance within the Orthodox community.

“The moment has arrived,” he wrote in the Sept. 14 op-ed. “We can no longer sit on the sidelines. As individuals and as a community, we must tackle this issue head-on.”

Titled, “The biggest challenge to ‘emunah’ [faith] of our time,” the editorial calls on Orthodox scholars to reconcile the Torah’s prohibition on homosexual activity with the lived experience of young gay Jews.

“The reconciliation of the Torah’s discussion of homosexuality represents the single most formidable religious challenge for our young people today,” Segal wrote.

In particular, he called on leaders at Yeshiva University (YU), where he received his ordination, to tackle the issue head on.

“I beg the YU roshei yeshiva [heads of school] and the gedolim [luminaries] of our community to take up the discussion now,” he wrote.

In an interview with the student newspaper, Segal urged readers to “stay tuned” for changes at Shalhevet aiming to boost tolerance and acceptance of LGBT students.

Responding to a request from the Journal to explain his reasoning behind the editorial, Segal responded via email from Israel:

Over the last few years, I have worked to create a loving, supportive, and safe environment for LGBT students in our school. More recently, however, I’ve realized we have not done enough to clearly demonstrate our full acceptance of these young men and women in our community. They’re still scared, and in pain.  And it’s not just gay students themselves, but so many young adults in our community who have lost faith in the divinity of the Torah on account of this particular issue. 

And while halakha is explicit in regards to homosexual activity, I felt I could not sit on the sidelines as we lose so many of our young people — physically and spiritually.  I started searching for that space between tolerance (the current status quo of “hate the sin, not the sinner”) and full-fledged acceptance/celebration. I felt the first step in achieving that is having this conversation, finding the words and the wherewithal to express the challenge, to release ourselves from the theological paralysis that we may feel around the issue. 

In short, what motivated me to write this piece is my deep love of these students and my deep belief in the divinity of the Torah. 

 Read the full editorial here.