A commitment to inclusion is a common refrain in contemporary Jewish life. Our values call us to move beyond words. To be genuinely inclusive to LGBTQIA+ community members, Jewish Los Angeles must take action.
JFEDLA recently released a follow-up report to our landmark Study of Jewish LA: Community Among Jewish LGBTQIA+ Young Adults. This research is rooted in the belief that to better serve our entire Jewish community, we must first strive to more comprehensively understand it. In broad strokes, the report suggests that many Jewish LGBTQIA+ young adults are seeking Jewish community but are somewhat wary to enter traditional spaces, which creates both a challenge and an opportunity to ensure LGBTQIA+ Jews feel safe and welcome.
Asher Gellis, founder and CEO of JQ International — “the premier LGBTQ+ Jewish organization in Los Angeles,” according to JQ’s website — helped shape this research from the beginning. For him, and for the entire Jewish community, the challenge now is clear: to live out the value of inclusion by implementing the report’s findings.
“Do you want 19% of the youth being produced in our community to stay in the Jewish community?” Gellis said, referencing a statistic in the report about young people identifying as LGBTQIA+. “Or do you want them to leave because the community is not adapting to serving their needs to make sure that they feel they belong?”
The report suggests that Jewish Los Angeles consider practical changes that will extend an open hand to LGBTQIA+ community members open to increased engagement. These considerations range from increasing queer, non-traditional, and non-denominational content to enhancing staff trainings on LGBTQIA+ support to sending explicit messages of LGBTQIA+ inclusion. Just as Jewish symbols can signal belonging and safety, visible signs of LGBTQIA+ inclusion can transmit the values of welcoming and community.
“When a Jewish person sees a mezuzah on a door, there’s a level of relief. ‘Oh, I’m talking to somebody who’s not going to be hostile towards me.’ Queer people do the same thing [with the rainbow flag],” Gellis said. “I used to say, ‘Gays are so over the rainbow.’ But they’re not. They’re going to look for it on your website.”
Gellis commended two local Jewish organizations — IKAR and At The Well (both of which were mentioned in the report) — that are putting inclusion into action authentically and consistently. The first step toward meaningful change is for synagogues and Jewish schools to become aware of how queer community members are experiencing them. Awareness, as the report confirms, is a solvable issue.
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“I don’t know an institution out there, including my own, that doesn’t need to do ongoing education towards becoming better and more inclusive,” Gellis said. “[This work] is about integrating identities so people feel whole celebrating who they are as a part of both the queer and the Jewish communities.”
Neglecting to make sincere outreach efforts to this vibrant and growing part of our community would be more than a strategic misstep — it would be a failure to live out our values. The capacity and resources are within reach. What’s needed is concerted, sustained action.
“It can’t be like a priority that you want to fix in 30 minutes,” Gellis said. “It’s a priority that you’re naming and you’re investing in for a number of years to make transformative change.”
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To dive deeper into this groundbreaking research, download the Study of Jewish LA’s follow-up reports.
