London – British Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis called on a meeting of more than 100 Orthodox rabbis to be more inclusive toward the LGBTQ community.
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On Tuesday, at his annual pre-High Holidays conference for the rabbinate, Mirvis also called for extra concern for other special groups as well.
“Every person is precious. Single parents, women, the unaffiliated, LGBT Jews – let no person feel they have no place in our shuls,” Mirvis said at the annual conference, this year titled “Every One Counts.”
His remarks came on the heels of the controversy surrounding Rabbi Joseph Dweck, Britain’s top Sephardi rabbi, who was nearly pushed out of his position this summer following his comments welcoming the growing acceptance of homosexuality.
Following the resolution of the controversy, Mirvis said he was “appalled” by the behavior of those who rejected Dweck’s teachings.
At the end of the conference, he said: “As rabbis, we have now a responsibility to carry the inspiration we have taken from the last two days and use it build ever more engaging and inclusive communities, which would be inclusive of every person,” the London-based Jewish Chronicle reported.
What more inclusiveness? Show up to minyan, keep Kosher, avoid toeavah, don’t commit chillul Hashem and you’re included. Just like straight Jews.
Is he for REAL?
Unfortunately these rabbis have been influenced by culture too much that they lost their grip on Torah hashkafa and mesorah.
Warms my heart to hear an important Rabbi speak with sensitivity and care for others – too often yidishkeit is presented as a rule book without care for ppl. Talmidei chachomim marbe sholom b’olam…one doesn’t need to condone an aveira by accepting a transgressor…and Dweck never condoned any aveiros …but that’s nuance and general public goes for broad strokes of black and white right and wrong…dweck was simply saying the movement of acceptance has collateral benefits in the way we approach other people….but because he implied that acceptance isn’t all 100% bad he was charged with condoning aveiros
and this is a chief rabbi?
It’s HURTS so badly that we came to a stage that an official orthodox rabbi can speak like a reform rabbi HASHEM TAKES US OUT OF THIS GULIS WE CAN’T ANYMORE!
Let the LGBTQ community attend their own Shuls; I don’t wish to associate with them; case closed.
What about the tumah influence these people are going to have around them? Imagine two married gays or ladies coming to shull and sitting besides your children…Didn’t tumah spread to everyone in the times of Noah? What about those who are working hard to overcome these issues within themselves, and now see that we accept not problem gays in the shull, how does that affect their ability to overcome their own yetser? Let’s say the child of a neighbor goes off the derech, do you allow that child to go in your house and turn on the lights in front of your children? Why not? Because of influence. If shabbos, for which there isn’t as much yetser, we wouldn’t want, all the more so for gays, which for some is a temptation and can spread even for those who don’t, we should be worried.
Perhaps the Rav should be removed form his position and banned from our midst as he is corrupting everyone… causing the public into sin.
Oh come on. If you have no objection to ‘kashered’ intermarrieds in shul and you object to gays in shul you’re just a bigot. Both are forbidden.
Maybe we can just do a quick conversion on one spouse to a different gender after they are in a relationship. Then it will be fine by everyone.