8/15/2010
Letter to the Editor, Concord NH Monitor
Rabbi Robin Nafshi
Re “Through the temple ceiling: Congregation’s first female, openly gay rabbi begins” (Monitor front page, July 21):
Nice article introducing Rabbi Robin Nafshi to the Concord community, and a well-written history of women and gay people in the Jewish rabbinate. But I disagree with the editors’ decision to put the rabbi’s sexuality in the headline, especially since the story reports that there is almost no controversy about it in the temple itself.
There won’t be true equality until a clergy person’s sexuality is not even mentioned in the newspaper because, like most people in Temple Beth Jacob, nobody cares.
Recently a group of orthodox rabbis issued a paper saying their congregations should strive to make gays and lesbians feel welcome and comfortable in their synagogues – “even though homosexuality is against Jewish law.”
For orthodox rabbis, Jewish law cannot be changed, but it can be reinterpreted in light of evolving knowledge and social norms. That’s news, a major break with the past.