Steven Greenberg

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Steven Greenberg (2013)

Steven J. Greenberg (born June 19, 1956 ) is an American rabbi with an ordination as an Orthodox rabbi from Yeshiva University in New York. He is often referred to as "the first openly homosexual Orthodox rabbi". Greenberg works at the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership (CLAL) . In 2004 he published his book on Homosexuality in Judaism, Wrestling with God and Men. Homosexuality in the Jewish Tradition , which won the 2005 Koret Jewish Book Award for Philosophy.

Greenberg is listed as number 44 on the Daily Beast and Newsweek lists of the 50 Most Important American Rabbis for 2012.

Life

Greenberg is the son of conservative Jewish parents and grew up in Columbus , Ohio . At the age of 15 he began taking lessons from an Orthodox rabbi. After his school education he studied at the Yeshiva University in New York , and at the Jeschivat Har Etzion , a Chesder yeshiva in Judea near Jerusalem . Greenberg graduated from Yeshiva University with a bachelor's degree in philosophy and received his ordination as a rabbi from Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS).

At the beginning of his professional career he was a rabbi in an Orthodox Jewish community on Roosevelt Island in New York, and since 1985 he has worked at the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership (CLAL), an American-Jewish think tank .

Greenberg lives in Cincinnati with his partner and their daughter, who was born in November 2010 .

Homosexuality and Orthodox Judaism

In the media, Greenberg is often referred to as "the first openly homosexual Orthodox rabbi" since he came out homosexual in an article in the Israeli newspaper Maariw in 1999 and in the 2001 film Trembling Before Gd , a documentary about Orthodox and Jewish homosexual women Men, had contributed.

The Orthodox Jewish side has questioned whether he can still be considered an Orthodox rabbi, especially since the media reported that he married a homosexual male couple in a synagogue in Washington in November 2011 . Shortly after the publication of the first report on the wedding, Greenberg had made it clear in a statement that the ceremony was indeed a wedding according to the law of the District of Columbia , but not a religious Jewish wedding . A short time later the declaration was published in the US in the Jewish press.

In response to the ceremony of a good hundred Orthodox rabbis signed declaration was published, the homosexual marriages as "desecration of values of the Torah " ( "desecration of Torah values") refers.

Works (selection, English)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Rabbi Steven Greenberg, JCRC Board Member. (No longer available online.) Jewish Federation of Cincinnati, archived from the original on April 15, 2013 ; accessed on April 10, 2012 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.jewishcincinnati.org
  2. ↑ Abigail Pogrebin: America's Top 50 Rabbis for 2012. In: The Daily Beast. April 2, 2012, accessed April 10, 2012 .
  3. ^ Steven Greenberg: Wrestling with God and Men: Homosexuality in the Jewish Tradition. 2004, pp. 7–8 , accessed on January 13, 2012 (English).
  4. ↑ Julie Gruenbaum Fax: Rabbi marries Orthodox gay couple. (No longer available online.) In: Jewish Journal. November 14, 2011, archived from the original on November 16, 2011 ; accessed on January 13, 2012 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.jewishjournal.com
  5. ↑ David O'Reilly: Orthodox rabbi teaches what it's like to be gay. In: The Inquirer. January 27, 2011, accessed January 13, 2012 .
  6. ↑ Laurie Goodstein: Bishop Says Conflict on Gays Distracts From Vital Issues. In: The New York Times . September 11, 2004, accessed January 13, 2012 . Simon Rocker: Judaism and the gay dilemma. In: The Guardian . February 26, 2005, accessed January 13, 2012 . Nicole Neroulias: An Interview With Rabbi Steven Greenberg: Orthodox And Gay. In: Huffington Post . July 7, 2010, accessed January 13, 2012 . Ted Merwin: Gay And Orthodox, According To Jon Marans. In: The Jewish Week . July 19, 2011, accessed January 13, 2012 .
  7. ^ Roee Ruttenberg: Orthodox rabbi marries gay couple in historic wedding in DC. In: +972. November 11, 2011, accessed January 13, 2012 .
  8. ↑ Steve Greenberg: An Orthodox Gay Wedding? In: Morethodoxy. November 18, 2011, accessed January 13, 2012 .
  9. ^ Steve Greenberg: The Case for Companionship. In: The Jewish Week. December 6, 2011, accessed on January 13, 2012 (English): “I did not conduct a 'gay Orthodox wedding'. I officiated at a ceremony that celebrated the decision of two men to commit to each other in love and to do so in binding fashion before family and friends. Though it was a legal marriage according to the laws of the District of Columbia, as far as Orthodox Jewish law (halacha) is concerned, there was no kiddushin (Jewish wedding ceremony) performed. "
  10. ↑ 100 Orthodox Rabbis Issue Same Sex Marriage Declaration. In: The General. December 5, 2011, accessed on January 13, 2012 (English): “We, as rabbis from a broad spectrum of the Orthodox community around the world, wish to correct the false impression that an Orthodox-approved same-gender wedding took place. By definition, a union that is not sanctioned by Torah law is not an Orthodox wedding, and by definition a person who conducts such a ceremony is not an Orthodox rabbi. "
personal data
SURNAME Greenberg, Steven
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Greenberg, Steven J.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American rabbi and author
DATE OF BIRTH June 19, 1956