JULY 6. 2007
northwest
Pride Under Fire
Portland correspondent reports from Jerusalem Pride
Story and photos by Adina Lapp
JUSt|OUt|l7
The Homos
and the Holy
A dialogue in Jerusalem has begun
by Adina Lapp
hile Portland Pride was showing off all the colors of its
The participants, who police estimated at 2,500, came dressed for
rainbow, Jerusalem’s Pride, “The Jerusalem March for
a party. One dyke dressed up as a religious boy; a gay couple wore pink
Pride and Tolerance,” was under threat. Dumpsters in
cowboy hats, pink parasols and matching shirts that read, “The Israeli
the streets were aflame and had been for a week lead Gay Party.” Some sported rainbow kippot, one man wrapped a rainbow
ing up to the June 21 event. The ultra-Orthodox group
flag around his head, and another wore the flag as a skirt. Anarchist
Badatz Eida Haharedit cursed all participants, supporters
and police.
groups
donned DIY T-shirts and homemade signs, while a few drag
Signs beginning with the words “God hates gays” were wheat pasted to
queens resisted the heat in fabulous nylons and long, heavy wigs.
almost every bulletin board in Jerusalem’s most religious neighborhoods.
Even the wildest outfits were tame in comparison to the latex suits
The signs either called for mass protest or mass prayer.
and assless chaps seen in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem’s flamboyant sister city.
The city was prepared for the worst.
Because Jerusalem is a historic, holy city, its Pride has always been a more
On the afternoon of the event, 8,000 police, army and private
modest, political affair.
security workers ate lunch on sidewalks next to piles of riot helmets,
“It’s a great feeling to walk in the streets of Jerusalem for democracy,
anti-stab vests and barricades. The police were deployed to prevent the
for GLBTQ rights. I’m very proud to be here,” said reveler Udi Feinberg,
violence that has marked the event in the past. In 2005, three
who came from Be er Sheva to celebrate. As the crowd began to stir, he
participants were stabbed by an ultra-Orthodox man and 100 other
walked toward his other friends from the national gay student organiza
protesters were arrested for attempting to block traffic. To prevent
tion Agudat Israel, twirling a small rainbow flag in his hand.
further violence, last year’s Pride was confined to a closed-off stadium
“I see it no different from a parade of people who like to desecrate the
guarded by 6,000 police far from the city center.
Sabbath, which happens every week. To me it’s not the biggest thing in
Signs of a celebration could also be found: rainbow flags on street
the world. Being brought up in Oregon, 1 was recruited [by the gays)
lights, gay couples publicly holding hands and an arch of balloons
a long time ago,” native Oregonian David Frankel said with a chuckle.
rising over the street.
He stopped meeting men because “I wanted a family, so 1 sup
“It’s easier to dehumanize people you don’t actually see,” said Aviad
pressed it.” Frankel moved to Jerusalem with his wife, Alena, two years
Orbach from University of Haifa. This year participants were separat ago to raise their three kids in a Jewish environment. “If 1 wasn’t
ed from protesters by rows of police against metal barricades.
Jewish, 1 never would have left Oregon. You couldn’t have pried me
Across the city, hundreds of ultra-Orthodox people held mostly
away with a crowbar.”
peaceful protests against the parade. The protests included lighting
While Frankel didn’t protest Pride, he didn’t participate, either. He
trash on fire, reading psalms and yelling at police. Nineteen protesters
was busy with his family. Yet other Oregonians did.
were arrested for attempting to cross through the barricades, and one
“I've come to support democracy, while there’s still some semblance
man was caught with a homemade bomb.
of it here,” said Eric Judkowitz, a Tel Avivian. His costume, which he
W
didn’t have time to change out of, was a beige air
force uniform that he wears every day at his job in
public relations. Judkowitz’s last home was in
Portland, where he managed a downtown Plaid
Pantry.
Another Oregonian, Itai Dewar, attended the
parade. He lived in Portland from 1990 to 2001. He
said of the parade, “1 was proud of our community,
which turned out despite the violent anti
demonstrations and participated in high spirits.”
Dewar lives in Tel Aviv, where “queer is not an
issue.” While the graduate student of Middle Eastern
studies at Tel Aviv University claims both his school
and synagogue are gay-friendly, he says some aspects
of Portland are irreplaceable: “1 think what Tel Aviv
is missing most is Forest Park." •
Trash can fires set by Pride protesters were a frequent sight around Jerusalem
in days leading up to the event.
Pin-dander ADINA LEPP is a freelance writer living in
Jerusalem. She can be reached at adina.lepp@gmail.com.
few protesters chanted, “Jerusalem is a holy city not
a homo city” at the end of the Pride parade route. From
the chants, the chasm between homosexuality and
Orthodox Judaism in Jerusalem could not seem greater.
Yet a few blocks away from the protesters, the gay
community center Jerusalem Open House hosts Orthodox gay
support groups. Jerusalem is also home to a hopping gay bar and
a fair amount of “ex-gay” conversion therapists.
Almost all Orthodox rabbis view gay desire as an “evil inclina
tion” such as adultery or
incest—something for
bidden but not persecut
ed. There is an unofficial
“don’t ask, don’t tell”
policy regarding gay
congregants. There is no
widespread exclusion,
and sermons on gays are
rare. The impression is
that homosexuals are
quietly accepted in the
Jewish community so
long as their fag, dyke
and trannie identities are
left at the door.
Yet there is evidence
Jerusalem Pride revelers were
that the tide is changing.
dressed for a party despite threats
After the 2001 release of of violence.
A
Trembling Before G-d,
a documentary detailing struggles and conflicts of a few gay Orthodox
Jews, support groups sprung up across the country and books were
written. The dialogue began.
"People used to say, ‘How can you be openly gay and Orthodox?
I smile and I say, ‘Like this,’ ” said Rabbi Steve Greenberg, the first
openly gay Orthodox rabbi.
The controversy begins with Leviticus 18:22, “Thou shaft not lie
with mankind, as with womankind; it is abomination.” While most
Orthodox read the quote as a prohibition on anal sex between men,
other branches of Judaism see the Torah as open to interpretation.
According to Greenberg, “The text is about humiliation and
shame between the penetrated and penetrator. [The quote] is
grounded in very old patriarchy, where the worst thing do to a man
is treat him like a woman.”
Rabbi Ariel Stone Halpern of Shir Tikvah, a nondenomina-
tional synagogue in Portland, added: “It could be interpreted to
mean that if you are lying with a man, make sure you don’t think
you are lying with a woman. That would be lying.”
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