Click on the following videos to listen to interview excerpts. To enable Closed Captioning, please click on “CC” on bottom right corner of each video.
Jono Lerner: “we need to see queer people serving in positions of leadership in our Jewish institutions… same-sex couples in our synagogues with their children and having their marriages in our synagogues… [including] interfaith couples”
Lily Hoenig: “some places… have to work on basics like ‘Hey, trans people are valid’… you have to get involved… reach out… listen… you’re not going to fix the problem by doing it your own way”
Glen Phillips: “have a permanent person employed… involved in programming and issues for queer Jews and family members of queer Jews... I find it quite shocking that there isn’t one at the JCC at all”
Jaye Beer: “it shouldn’t be expected of that minority person to do your teaching… higher level things is bathrooms and making things more equitable, egalitarian-wise with genders… we’re so far away from even [that] right now”
Bayla Greenspoon: “just talk about it… just open up… ask questions… include us in the conversations… don’t be afraid to say the wrong things… be curious”
Lauren Nackman: “Showing up to Pride parades is important, absolutely, but I think also… making it clear that there’s an actual religious place, like a spiritual place, for queer people”
Dorothy Elias: “intermarriage, as with queer, as with maybe not having children… those are all issues that the community needs to loosen the traditional ways of thinking and become more inclusive… it’s harming itself and other people”
David Steiner: “it’s probably getting to know us, or inviting us, or to realize that we are here”
Marc Gelmon: “I really think the Jewish community needs to just open up. I feel like it’s so closed… whether you’re trans or LGBTQ or just even not part of the Jewish community”
Jack Huberman: “I would like my congregation and the conservative movement to use the word ‘gay’, maybe have the word ‘welcome’ in some of its communications”
Val Fishman: “Education and raising your kids to be more accepting of people that don’t look like you and don’t behave like you”
SD Holman: “don’t make assumptions… just let people be whoever they are… be accepting… be inclusive of difference”
Marsha Ablowitz: “I know they tried at Jewish Family Service… but just because you’re Jewish and you’re gay, doesn’t mean that you’re going to get along with each other”
Reva Hutkin: “Orthodox community is not so welcoming and not so open and not so happy about us… I don’t know how to bring them into the 21st century”
Lisa Weiner: “I’ll have to pass because I have not really experience a non-acceptance since I’ve been in Victoria”
Shira Macklin: “I can’t imagine why anybody would have to be more inclusive… in the Jewish community… I don’t see that there’s a problem”
David Keselman: “it’s educating itself and really understanding that it is none of their business what I do at home”
Ruth Simkin Z”L: “People should just be who they are and if things become an issue, deal with it, whatever the issue is… so just do your life”
Avital Jarus Hakak: “I’m always happy to see some LGBTQ contents, but I would definitely be happy to see some more of it”
Jeff Kushner: “Some of the synagogues are very inclusive, some of them are less… and even the ones that are less so… I’ve yet to come across a place where I don’t feel welcome.”
Julie Elizabeth: “the only way it could be more welcoming would be if the Chabad could get on board and we both know that’s not going to happen, not in my lifetime anyway”
Ira Rogers: “the closer that community gets to orthodoxy, the more I would say, yes, that they could be more accepting than they are”
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