“Why Should We Be Less?”: Pesach Sheni in NYC

Co-sponsored with UJA and Prospect Heights Shul. 

For fifteen years, Pesach Sheni – a minor biblical holiday one month after Passover – has been reclaimed by the Israeli LGBTQ+ religious communities as a holiday of religious tolerance.

This year, communities across New York City will hold our own Pesach Sheni celebration with Dr. Orit Avishai, professor of sociology at Fordham University. Following dinner and drinks, Dr. Avishai will discuss her recently published book, Queer Judaism: LGBT Activism and the Remaking of Jewish Orthodoxy in Israel. Dr Avishai will share what makes Israeli religious LGBT activism unique, and what lessons (and mistakes) can be learned for other communities pushing for social change within their respective religious and political establishments.

Discussion will be moderated by Dr. Benjamin Katz, Israeli LGBTQ+ activist and postdoctoral scholar of psychology at Stony Brook University. Dinner and drinks will be provided. All donations will be earmarked for future Jewish-LGBTQ+ programming for the Brooklyn area.