Just a few weeks ago, my Baltimore synagogue and every synagogue around the world read the story of Noah’s Ark as part of weekly Biblical portion traditionally read in Judaism. Coming out of the ark, Noah was unsure if the entire world had been destroyed. Trapped inside for more than a year, he felt the swaying vibrations of the flood, below the gopher wood floor that could burst in seconds and drown him. Inside the ark, he pondered for nights, wondering when the storm would end and when he could finally come out. Could he ever come out? This is my experience as an LGBTQ+ Jewish teenager, my nerves building up inside the closet, never knowing when God would present me with the right time to take that first step outside.
Would the world be destroyed if I dare set foot out of the ark I built? Was there even an island of land to support me from the depths below?
Leaving his ark behind, Noah was greeted with the first rainbow as a promise that he would never again experience the anxiety and alienation from inside the ark, that his world would never be engulfed by the depths again. This is the experience of LGBTQ+ Jewish teenagers discovering KESHET for the very first time.
KESHET, derived from the Hebrew word for rainbow, is a national organization for LGBTQ+ Jews and their allies. It is instituted in Jewish schools, camps and synagogues around the country. My school, Beth Tfiloh, a large Modern Orthodox community day school, even has its own chapter of KESHET as a club for high school students. Beth Tfiloh teacher Phil Jacobs “[feels] allied with the students at school” and as the KESHET club’s faculty advisor, believes that while there has been so much progress in the few years since KESHET’s installation, there is still more to be done.
Initially known as ‘SIRI,’ the LGBTQ+ club at Beth Tfiloh relied on “a small handful of influential students” remembers Mr. Jacobs, but following their graduation, new leaders would emerge in their place.
“The [former] heads of the club came to me and asked if I wanted to join,” says sophomore Izzy Leavey, one of the club’s current two heads. A familiar face in Beth Tfiloh’s halls, Izzy expresses an overt queer identity, sporting pride stickers on their laptop and water bottle and even a pride flag backdrop on their smart watch. While they feel comfortable expressing their identity in a physical, material sense, passing the torch to Leavey opened their eyes to the responsibility of being a leader in a new frontier for the Orthodox Jewish community.
“In the KESHET club, students can say what they want [regarding LGBTQ+ issues] without people receiving it as ‘inappropriate’- we’re here to educate people.” Education is Izzy’s main philosophy.
Since SIRI’s rebranding as KESHET four years ago, a lot has changed. “I’m not afraid to talk about [the KESHET club] anymore,” says Mr. Jacobs, “When we first started, we did have some antagonism. I used to worry about announcing it [at the] Friday assembly, but not anymore – it’s small, but we’ve come a long way.”
“For starters we have a club, which we did not have before,” says Dr. Neil Rubin, the Jewish History Department Chair and faculty member involved in KESHET, “I think school staff became a lot more sensitive [since the installment of KESHET at Beth Tfiloh].”
Recently moved from Arizona and the newest addition to the KESHET club, sophomore Hannah Ellentuck noticed how safe many queer students feel expressing, “there are already a lot of students who are queer and out of the closet,” she notices. This shift is not only due to the institution of a safe space in school, but also its success amongst both LGBTQ+ students and allies.
With a more open approach to advertising, more allies have been attending KESHET’s bi-weekly meetings as well, “I’m appalled with anyone feeling left out, we are a klal yisroel [all of the Children of Israel] club”, Dr. Rubin references the proudly Jewish environment at Beth Tfiloh and how it relates to the inclusion of LGBTQ+ students.
“Some Orthodox students are uncomfortable With LGBTQ topics [brought up] in class,” explains Leavey, “[and sometimes], queer Orthodox students have a greater difficulty coming out and expressing themselves [as opposed to secular students].” However, a strong Jewish identity and the KESHET club go hand in hand. “We’re all made in Hashem’s [God’s] image,” says Mr. Jacobs, “We are all [His] sons and daughters, [our] parents, sisters, and brothers.” In a Jewish day school, we must be able to live without fear for that very reason. As an out, queer, Orthodox Jew myself, I must admit that I stand out of the crowd in many Orthodox settings, simply because of how overtly I express my identity. But KESHET provides a space for queer Jewish teens of all denominations to not only express themselves, but to “know that [they] are not the only one,” as put by Mr. Jacobs.
And as for the future? KESHET is ready to give back to the community. Both club heads and faculty advisors have expressed the desire to shift gears from Beth Tfiloh’s internal LGBTQ+ community to the greater local queer and Jewish communities. Talks of attending the yearly KESHET organization Shabbaton (communal Jewish Sabbath observance) have circulated club meetings, as well as talks of bringing the security of our club to others by means of charity. Charity, or tzedakah, is an integral value of both the Jewish and queer communities, focusing on those who are less fortunate and providing them with the necessities we are all intended to share. “We’ve established that we’re here,” says Mr. Jacobs, “It’s time we give back.”
