ORTHODOX REPLY ON LGBT+
SOME OF the UK’s most senior Charedi rabbis have responded to the Chief Rabbi’s guidance on LGBT+ pupils by emphasising “the authentic Jewish view”, while diplomatically avoiding criticism of Rabbi Mirvis.
The Chief Rabbi’s document, which was published just before Rosh Hashanah, focused on schools’ responsibility for the wellbeing of LGBT+ pupils and was hailed as the first of its type in the Orthodox sector.
While the Charedi rabbis affirmed that “no child should suffer bullying, regardless of his or her inclinations”, they moved to clarify any “misconception” that “compassion and other inter-personal obligations super-
sede Torah Laws relating to relationships”.
The letter, signed by Dayan Gavriel Kraus of Manchester; Rabbi Shraga Feivel Zimmerman and Rabbi Avrohom Gurwicz of Gateshead; Federation Beth Di head Dayan Yakov Yisroel Lichtenstein; Dayan Chanoch Ehrentreu, former London Beth Din head; and Rabbi Moshe Chaim Efrayim Padwa,
head of the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations; later stated that “any intimate physical relationship other than that between a married male and female, is totally, strictly and absolutely forbidden according to Jewish law”.
The letter added: “Some… have interpreted the Chief Rabbi’s message as a relaxing of the Torah’s attitude
towards alternative lifestyles (relationships).”
Acknowledging that while society had embraced alternative lifestyles, it stressed that “one of the fundamental principles and tenets of the Jewish faith is that all laws and practices of the Torah are eternal and immutable, regardless of how modern society may view them.”