Event for the Gay and Jewish Communities at Congregation Ahavas Achim

From Trembling to Wrestling

The evening will begin with the screening of Trembling Before G-d, the unprecedented feature documentary that shatters assumptions about faith, sexuality, and religious fundamentalism. The film is built around interviews with Orthodox rabbis and intimately-told personal stories of Hasidic and Orthodox Jews who are gay or lesbian. Following the film, we will have a Q and A with Rabbi Steve Greenberg about his life and the path he charts for full inclusion of GLBT people into traditional Jewish communities. 

Featured in the film, Steve serves as a bridge between the rabbinic and gay worlds, being the first openly gay Orthodox rabbi. Steve has served as a senior educator for The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership and after being awarded a prestigious Jerusalem Fellowship he helped a group of Israeli gay activists realize a dream, the founding of the Jerusalem Open House, Jerusalem's first gay and lesbian community center advancing the cause of social tolerance in the Holy City. 

Rabbi Greenberg is the author of Wrestling with God and Men: Homosexuality in the Jewish Tradition, University of Wisconsin Press (2004), which won the 2005 Koret Jewish Book Award in Philosophy and Thought. He is scholar-in-residence at Hazon, the country's leading Jewish environmental organization and at Keshet, a national Jewish LGBT inclusion organization. Lastly, he is a founder and co-director of Eshel, a new initiative aimed at expanding empathy and welcome of LGBT people in Orthodox Jewish communities.