Brussels gets first gay Jewish organization

Group aims to ‘bridge the gap’ for local LGBT Jews who have cut ties with their religious communities

Reform Jews in Brussels opened the city’s first gay Jewish organization.

The group’s inaugural meeting took place on Oct. 18 and it now has 60 members, according to David Weis, one of the founders of the community, called “LGBT Jews in and around Brussels.”

LGBT is an acronym for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender.

Two Progressive communities — a term which in Europe is applied to Reform and Conservative denominations — have pledged their support for the new group, which nonetheless operates as a separate entity both to the Beth Hillel congregation and to the International Jewish Center community.

“Our aim is also to build close links with the Luxembourg Liberal Jewish community which has been very supportive as well,” Weiss said.

According to the European Union of Progressive Judaism, similar groups already existing in France, Britain, Germany and the Netherlands.

Some of the community’s most active members are English-speakers living in Brussels, Weiss said.

“The fact that Progressive Jewish movements in the United Kingdom and the United States have started welcoming LGBT Jews,” Weiss added, “means that expats often still have links with Jewish communities back home. In Belgium many LGBT Jews have cut their links with Jewish communal life, and we hope indeed to bridge that gap among Belgian Jewry.”