Canadian Orthodox rabbis note shift on LGBTQ inclusion

Rabbi Chaim Strauchler

While Canadian modern Orthodox rabbis aren’t having the kind of public discussion about including LGBTQ Jews like their counterparts did last month in New York, many say they’ve been grappling with the issue for years and agree there’s been a shift toward greater sensitivity to the issue.

Rabbi Michael Whitman of Adath Israel Poale Zedek Anshei Ozeroff Synagogue in Hampstead, Que., and former president of the Rabbinical Council of Montreal, said that in the past two decades, modern Orthodoxy has moved from the attitude that homosexuality is deviant to “we don’t agree with the behaviour, but want to support the difficulties [gay and lesbian] people face.”

An April 19 conference at Columbia University, titled “Faith, Desire and Psychotherapy,” brought together for the first time modern Orthodox rabbis and mental health professionals to explore best practices for serving LGBTQ Jews in the Orthodox community.

Attended by more than 120 mental health workers, educators, students and rabbis, the event addressed rabbis’ struggles to balance sensitivity with the preservation of Jewish law, as well as the Orthodox community’s past tendency to pathologize homosexuality and options for training for rabbis, educators and mental health professionals.

Conference speakers included Rabbi Mark Dratch, executive vice-president of the Rabbinic Council of America (RCA); Rabbi Shmuel Goldin, former president of the RCA; Rabbi Shaul Robinson, spiritual leader of Manhattan’s Lincoln Square Synagogue (one of the event’s co-sponsors); and Rabbi Nathaniel Helfgot, a faculty member at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah and the author of a 2010 declaration calling for acceptance of LGBTQ Jews in the Orthodox community. 

Rabbi Helfgot’s declaration, signed by 150 modern Orthodox rabbis on both sides of the border, stressed that “conversion therapies,” which attempt to make a person heterosexual, and pressuring gay people to marry opposite-sex partners are dangerous from a mental health standpoint.

In 2012, the RCA, to which a number of Canadian rabbis belong, rejected conversion therapy outright. 

Formal conversations aside, the question of how to reconcile homosexuality and halachic Judaism has been on the minds of many Canadian modern Orthodox rabbis for years.

“Programs [like the one at Columbia] are behind the curve,” Rabbi Whitman said. “While there’s no change in halachic standards, there are vast changes in attitudes, sensitivities and ways of dealing with people. The conference reflects these important changes, but… for years I’ve been speaking publicly and doing private counselling around this issue, recognizing that certain behaviours aren’t in accordance with the Torah, but we don’t apply a moral judgment.”

About a decade ago, Rabbi Whitman said, he spoke about homosexuality at an event at McGill University, and for years he’s spoken out against conversion therapy and the damage it does.

While he wouldn’t officiate at a same-sex wedding, he said, he welcomes gay and lesbian singles and couples as “members and leaders” of his synagogue.

Rabbi Whitman added that he’s not sure if a conference of the sort held at Columbia would occur in Canada any time soon, but said he’d “be happy to participate if it did.”

Rabbi Daniel Korobkin, spiritual leader of Beth Avraham Yoseph of Toronto, said the Canadian Orthodox community tends to be more conservative than in places such as New York and California, and while it’s apparently not engaged in formal discussion on the topic, “almost any Orthodox rabbi has had to deal with this on some level… If you have a congregant who’s gay or one with a child who’s gay, it requires you to address it and be as sensitive and compassionate as possible.”

Rabbi Korobkin said the local rabbinate seems to have largely steered away from conversion therapy, and while an Orthodox rabbi likely wouldn’t tell a gay congregant, “I accept what you do,” he would say, “I accept who you are and you’re welcome in my home, congregation and community,” just as a congregant who doesn’t keep kosher or observe Shabbat is welcomed.

Rabbi Chaim Strauchler of Shaarei Shomayim Congregation said Canadian modern Orthodox rabbis face the same challenges as those in New York.

“I think going back a generation, the sensitive approach was ‘Let’s see if we can counsel a person away from homosexuality,’ whereas now, the approach is, ‘How do we… accept them into our community, but still champion our tradition on a very important issue?’” he said.

Justine Apple, executive director of Jewish LGBTQ group Kulanu Toronto, said she would love to see Toronto hold a conference like the one at Columbia. “There’s definitely space and a need for it here,” she said.

She said the Reform and, increasingly, the Conservative movements in Canada have been making headway on LGBTQ inclusion, but “we have a long way to go in the Orthodox community,” particularly since Orthodox rabbis here seem to be less progressive than their U.S. counterparts.

“I think a lot of LGBTQ Jews are seen as invisible in the Orthodox community,” she said. “I’d like to see Orthodox rabbis practising more inclusive policies at their synagogues.”

While she recognized that this could take time, Apple said, “it would be really good to see some change and a bit more openness. We can use the United States as a role model for that.”