Hundreds of US rabbis urge retraction of ultra-Orthodox letter panning gays
Close to 600 US and Canadian rabbis from across the spectrum of Jewish religious streams sign a letter calling on ultra-Orthodox rabbis in Israel to retract a recent letter which described gay people as perverts who are striving to destroy the notion of family.
The letter, which also urges the government to reverse recent legislation denying single men the right to father children through surrogacy, also advocates greater separation of religion and state in Israel.
It was initiated by A Wider Bridge, a San Francisco-based organization that focuses on ties between US and Israeli LGBTQ communities.
“The enshrining of discrimination into law, and harmful words spoken by religious leaders, sow the seeds of hatred and brutality in the land, and put vulnerable members of Israeli society at risk of violence and worse,” the letter claims.
“We call on the Israeli leadership to reverse its discriminatory policy in favor of equal rights for all citizens. In calling for these rights, including surrogacy, we call on the Israeli leadership to reiterate the separation of religion and state as an ideal of democracy.
“We, therefore, call on Israeli leaders and rabbis to retract these recent actions and return the State of Israel in T’shuvah [repentance], to this higher level of sanctity, dignity and safety,” the letter says.
The hundreds of signatures from rabbis representing Orthodox, Conservative, Reform and Reconstructionist Jewish communities, were collected since the letter was first published last week, the organization says in a statement.
