Expelled From Hillel, LGBTQ Jews Are Out of the Closet but Into the Cold
By withdrawing support for B'nai Keshet, Hillel has effectively isolated queer Jews from Jewish campus life at Ohio State. Do gay Jews have no place in Hillel's donor-driven idea of Jewish diversity?
Three years ago, I found myself - closeted and terrified - at a Rainbow Seder at Ohio State Hillel. To celebrate the Jewish holiday of Passover, Hillel staff applied the traditional Seder text, which recounts Jewish liberation from slavery in Egypt, to the LGBTQ experience. When a Hillel staff person compared the darkness over Egypt to the darkness of the closet I had never felt so vulnerable, or so relieved. Outing myself to my Jewish community petrified me, but being out, being me, felt like being freed. As queer Jewish students shared their stories, I realized that LGBTQ-affirming Judaism was just as powerful for them as it was for me.