First openly gay rabbi visits PSU

Steven Greenberg, the first openly gay Orthodox rabbi, lectured at Portland State Tuesday night about same-sex relationships in the context of Orthodox Jewish scripture and the way it is contemporarily interpreted.

Much of what Greenberg spoke about in the Smith Memorial Student Union Ballroom is featured in his new book, Wrestling with God and Men: Homosexuality in the Jewish Tradition.

Lauren Willford, a junior at Western Oregon University, drove an hour and a half to Portland with her partner just to see Greenberg speak. She said she wanted to attend the event because she is Jewish and gay.

“I thought it was inspiring,” Willford said.

Willford, who is also engaged, said that in her own synagogue and temple, she had an experience with a Rabbi who was not accepting or kind toward her. She said it was nice to hear from a Rabbi who was.

One of the main issues Greenberg talked about was the issue of religion adjusting to modernity. It is human experience, he said, that gives scripture meaning.

He also talked about historical, religious evidence of same-sex relations in a context that was not condemning. His overall message was that understanding does not need to come with acceptance, but that acceptance is the first step.

“We have shaped our culture wars in such a way that we demand agreement,” Greenberg said. He said that prevents people from learning anything and that “we have a lot at stake by learning from each other.”

Before the event, Willford met up with her friend Roberta McMahan, a post baccalaureate student at PSU, who had saved her a seat in the half-filled ballroom. McMahan said she came to the lecture because the topic interested her and because she thought her friends would like to hear from a figure in the Jewish community who embraces their lifestyle.

Portland resident Marianne Koch attended the lecture, she said, because she is Jewish and has a 16-year-old gay son.

“It was great,” Koch said. “You don’t see a gay rabbi very often. It was very refreshing.”

Koch said she feels that there are a lot of people who have trouble being religious and gay, and said that oftentimes their religions are not very accepting. “It puts good people in a hard place and that’s sad,” Koch said.

Greenburg said that struggling with the meaning of sex, love and gender is not only a struggle for gay and lesbian people, but it is a struggle for all of us.

Greenberg attended the prestigious Sundance Film Festival this weekend for his involvement in a documentary called For the Bible Tells Me So. He said the film explores conservative religious sects in the U.S., their interpretations of scripture and how it shapes their view on homosexuality. This is not the first film Greenberg has been involved in.

“It was a pleasure being here this weekend,” Greenberg said. “Even though I had to go out in the [snow] flurry to Sundance.”

Greenberg’s groundbreaking essay, Gayness and God: Wrestlings of a Gay Orthodox Rabbi that was published in 1993 under a pseudonym, inspired a documentary called Trembling before G-d. The film came out in 2001 and was about orthodox gays and lesbians in the Jewish community struggling with their own faith and sexual orientation. The documentary won a series of awards from different film festivals, as well as a nomination for the Grand Jury Prize at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival.

A brief question-and-answer session followed the lecture, and then Greenberg signed copies of his book.

Greenberg’s lecture is part of the second annual Gus & Libby Solomon Lecture Series presented by the Harold Schnitzer Family Program in Judaic Studies at PSU.