The UJC's "Homosexual Mission" to Israel

I. Do you know where your Federation contribution is going?

If you are Jewish, in all likelihood you were recently solicited by your local Federation for a charitable contribution. Most Jews are aware that the Federations provide “life-saving and life-enhancing humanitarian assistance to those in need,” and are a major focus of Jewish philanthropy in local communities; but you might have missed the part about the Federation sponsoring a homosexual Mission to Israel this summer so that American homosexuals can join activists from around the world in a confrontational and controversial celebration and parade through the holy city of Jerusalem.

The UJC (United Jewish Communities) is the umbrella organization “representing 155 Jewish Federations and 400 independent Jewish communities across North America.” According to their website, “UJC was established to chart a new course for the Jewish community: to improve the quality of Jewish life worldwide, nurture Jewish learning, care for those in need, rescue Jews in danger, and ensure the continuity of our people.”

For many Jews, “charting a new course” is an understatement if the UJC really believes that homosexuality or in their terms, LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual and Transgender), is a Jewish value and should be promoted with the charitable contributions of millions of American Jews who thought they were donating to help fellow Jews in financial need.

The UJC’s National LGBT Pride in Israel Mission is scheduled for August 2005 so that American LGBT activists can join Israeli and an expected 100,000 LGBT activists from around the world in the WorldPride conference and march through Jerusalem. Participants will also join “in discussions on LGBT educational and youth programs in Israel with representatives of leading Israeli LGBT organizations.” Did Federation supporters make their charitable donations knowing they would be used for homosexual “youth programs?”

The WorldPride celebration is a sequel to the 2000 celebration held in Rome and described by the late Pope John Paul II as an "offense to the Christian values of a city that is so dear to the hearts of Catholics across the world." Now most American Jews are unknowingly supporting an offense to the Jewish values of a city that is so dear to the hearts of Jews and Christians across the world.

The outrage about this “celebration” is so great that in an extremely rare occurrence, the leaders of the three major religions in Israel recently met and expressed unanimous condemnation. “‘They are creating a deep and terrible sorrow that is unbearable,’ said Shlomo Amar, Israel's chief Sephardic rabbi, at a news conference in Jerusalem… attended by Israel's two chief rabbis, the Jerusalem leaders of the Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Armenian churches, and three Muslim sheikhs. ‘It hurts all of the religions. We are all against it.’” These religious leaders say “the event would desecrate the city and convey the erroneous impression that homosexuality is acceptable.”

How can the UJC believe that a homosexual mission represents a positive Jewish value? Homosexual behavior has been considered immoral and a sin for Jews since the Torah was given, and even before that, a sin for all humans as part of the universal Noachide laws given to Adam and Noah. But Judaism has never considered peoples’ thoughts or inclinations to be a sin, only their actions; so a homosexual orientation or inclination per se is not a sin in Judaism. Even an Orthodox Gay group agrees that homosexual behavior is a sin. The difficult challenge is how they are to live their lives and deal with this conflict between their religious values and sexual urges. Of course, this is only an extreme example of the daily struggle, shared by all humans, to control our animal inclinations

Judaism teaches that all humans are created in the image of God and none are perfect, but they still deserve toleration, respect, and love. This is why Jews and Christians are taught to “hate the sin, not the sinner.” What they do not deserve nor should they expect is that the rest of the world accept and celebrate the “gay” lifestyle and homosexual behavior as correct and moral, especially within Judaism. Private consensual homosexual behavior between adults is primarily a sin against God, not man. So is idol worship. With the faddish return to paganism by some Jews, should the UJC also sponsor a Mission for Jewish Pagans?

Jews with homosexual orientations have a very tough problem and deserve empathy, understanding, and love – not celebration. They should not be discriminated against and should be welcomed on all Federation Missions to Israel, but why a specifically homosexual Mission?

It is understandable that well meaning leadership of the UJC sought to offer aid and comfort to Jews who are struggling to be visible and accepted within Judaism and society. But to do so with such an affront to traditional Judaism and the holy city of Jerusalem can only mislead people about the position of Judaism on homosexual behavior. As such it can only be considered a chillul Hashem, a desecration of God’s name.

II. Misleading Myths about Homosexuality

Why would the UJC as the umbrella organization for 155 local Jewish Federations sponsor a homosexual Mission to Israel to tie-in with the controversial and confrontational WorldPride celebration and march in Jerusalem?

It appears that the UJC leadership is taking an extremely partisan political position in one of the most divisive and contentious issues of the day with hope that no one would dare object for fear of being called a homophobe. The “gay rights” movement has been very successful in creating a poisonous atmosphere where any opponents of their political agenda are automatically labeled homophobes. These activists are primarily secular liberals whose value system of personal autonomy does not consider religious values to be relevant or in some cases even valid. As a result they mistakenly identify moral/religious judgments about homosexual behavior as homophobia. But one would think that religious values would be both valid and relevant to the UJC.

Part of their propaganda has been the injection of several key myths into the conventional wisdom:

Homosexuals are born that way: Regardless of propaganda in the mass media, there is no firm scientific evidence demonstrating that the cause of homosexuality is genetic or immutable. Of course within Jewish law, whether a homosexual inclination is caused by genetics, hormonal changes in the womb, psychological development, or mere whim is not at issue. The Creator of human nature would not have prohibited homosexual activity if He did not design this inclination to be controllable by human free will. He placed us in a quantum universe and gave us free will to control the multitude of inclinations that we all possess to varying degrees. Some are extremely difficult to control, but we are discussing human behavior, not a passive trait such as skin color.

The “studies” reported in the mainstream media are either myths or scientifically invalid. Most of these genetic claims have been withdrawn by the researchers who originally made them. (For an overview, see The Innate-Immutable Argument Finds No Basis in Science. Also see Dr. Jeffrey Satinover Testifies Before Massachusetts Senate Committee Studying Gay Marriage.)

Although there is no evidence that the behavior “homosexuality” is genetic, it is true that most homosexuals think they were born that way and find it very difficult to resist or change their inclination. To gain an insight into the complexity of the developmental process and why many homosexuals might believe they were “born that way,” see How Might Homosexuality Develop? Putting the Pieces Together by Jeffrey Satinover, M.D. available online at www.jonahweb.org.

Homosexuals cannot change: Sadly, many homosexuals lead very unhappy lives. The conventional wisdom created by the “gay rights” movement is to blame society, religion, and omnipresent homophobes for their unhappiness. Now, many psychiatrists and psychologists believe this unhappiness is a direct result of the homosexuality, and failure to recognize this causal relationship condemns them to a life of unhappiness.

This myth began with the non-scientific decision to remove homosexuality as a mental disorder from the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders). As Joseph Berger, Ph.D., a Distinguished Fellow with the American Psychiatric Association, explains, “What most people are not aware of is that when a group from the American Psychiatric Association first proposed the removal of homosexuality from the DSM in 1973, it was very clearly laid out in the ‘protocol’ that the move was purely in response to the designation of ‘stigma’ that those who identified themselves as homosexual claimed that they suffered as a consequence of ‘homosexuality’ being included as a psychiatric disorder. It was stated very clearly that the proposed removal was not intended to make any scientific statement about homosexuality per se.”

Since then most homosexuals who sought help from psychiatrists or psychologists in an effort to change their lifestyles and stop or reduce their homosexual activities were spurned and denied treatment. Fortunately some therapists worked to help these individuals and the practice of reorientation therapy developed; although there is tremendous pressure applied by “gay rights” activists to prevent psychotherapists from accepting clients who wish to develop their heterosexual potential.

According to Dr. Jeffrey Satinover, a leading researcher and therapist, “A review of the research over many years demonstrates a consistent 30-52% success rate in the treatment of unwanted homosexual attraction. Masters and Johnson reported a 65% success rate after a five-year follow-up. Other professionals report success rates ranging from 30% to 70%.” As Dr. Satinover explains,

“Dr. Robert Spitzer, the prominent psychiatrist and researcher at Columbia University has been the chief architect of the American Psychiatric Association's diagnostic manual and he was the chief decision-maker in the 1973 removal of homosexuality from the diagnostic manual. He considers himself a gay-affirmative psychiatrist, and a long time supporter of gay rights. He has long been convinced that homosexuality is neither a disorder nor changeable. Because of the increasingly heated debate over the latter point within the professional community, Spitzer decided to conduct his own study of the matter. [In 2003,] he concluded:

‘I'm convinced from the people I have interviewed, that for many of them, they have made substantial changes toward becoming heterosexual...I think that's news...I came to this study skeptical. I now claim that these changes can be sustained.’”

Of course Spitzer, once the darling of the “gay rights” activists, immediately became the target of their demonization, but he has not backed down from his conclusions that "the ability to make such a choice should be considered fundamental to client autonomy and self-determination" for homosexuals.

A Jewish organization JONAH (Jews Offering New Alternatives to Homosexuality) is dedicated to educating the world-wide Jewish community about the prevention, intervention, and healing of the underlying issues causing same-sex attractions.

The homosexual activities prohibited in the Bible were not within loving monogamous relationships: The Bible (Leviticus 18:22) is clear and unequivocal. “You shall not lie with a man as one lies with a woman, it is an abomination.” Many homosexual activists claim that the Torah and Judaism do not forbid homosexual behavior within “loving and monogamous” relationships, as if God (or in their view, the “writers” of the Torah) was not aware of such relationships.

As the wise King Solomon taught us, “There is nothing new under the sun.” The Bible teaches that God brought on the Flood in Noah’s time because, “all flesh had corrupted its way upon the earth” (Genesis 6:12). A fascinating Midrash (ancient rabbinic commentary on the Bible) teaches: “the generation of the Flood was only blotted out from the world because they wrote marriage contracts for males and for females.” (Midrash Rabbah, Vayikra 23.9)

Later, the Talmud teaches that Noahides (monotheistic non-Jews) who did not observe all of the Noahide laws at least did “not write a marriage contract for males…” (Tractate of Chullin(92 a&b). In explaining this discussion, Rashi, the great 11^th century commentator on the Bible and Talmud, points out the vital distinction between private actions and public policy: “Even though they are suspected of homosexuality and sequester themselves with males for intercourse, nevertheless, they are not so irresponsible about this commandment that they would write a marriage contract for them.”

These historical references, and many more like them, of homosexuals seeking public sanction for their “loving and monogamous” relationships should put to rest this baseless claim. There is no basis in over 2,000 years of Jewish learning to claim that the prohibition against homosexual behavior excluded loving monogamous relationships.

Children and teenagers can determine if they are homosexuals: Part of the UJC’s LGBT Mission to Israel is to work on youth programs. A widespread myth of the “gay rights” movement is that children and teenagers can determine if they are homosexual, but the data does not support this assertion. Youngsters in high school and even earlier are claiming to be homosexual, almost as if it is the “in-thing”. In fact, 75% of 16 year old boys who think they are homosexuals independently abandon homosexuality for heterosexuality by the age of 25!

So why did the UJC decide to sponsor this National LGBT Pride in Israel Mission? So far, they have not explained this publicly, and there has been little discussion in the Jewish media. Unless there is another explanation, we can only assume they were using charitable contributions from American Jews to promote a controversial political position. The shame is that they are doing so in the name of Judaism and without the knowledge of most of their contributors.

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Samuel Silver is Chairman of Toward Tradition (www.towardtradition.org), a national movement of Jewish and Christian cooperation, fighting anti-religious bigotry and secular fundamentalism. He may be contacted at ss@towardtradition.org

The UJC's "Homosexual Mission" to Israel

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