The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Congregation Mishkan Israel celebrates diversity
Host a Pride Shabbat for human understanding and identity
HAMDEN — The members of Congregation Mishkan Israel celebrated with joy and song Friday evening, as they took part in a Pride Shabbat service.
The LBGT-focused event marked a night of human understanding and identity.
Rabbi Herbert Brockman said that the idea was fitting — a chance to be sensitive to those who have been ostracized and allow congregants to link an at-times abstract concept with their fellow worshipers.
“The idea of putting a face to ... making a connection to what you see and what you know, removes your sense of difference, and you come to see how basically we’re pretty much the same in most ways,” Brockman said. “It’s Shabbat, and it’s a time to celebrate creation — that’s what Shabbat’s about … and (LGBT people are) as much a part of our creation as heterosexuals are part of that creation.”
During the service, four worshippers offered thoughts on their respective lives and identities, speaking with humor, wit and grace — on being a transgender man or lesbian woman, on being the brother of a gay man, on being members of the Jewish faith.
Dana Astmann grew up attending Congregation Mishkan Israel, returning to the temple in her mid-20s. She’s known Rabbi Brockman, who married her and her wife, Cynthia, since she was 8 years old.
She is on a committee that plans rituals at the temple and, she said, came up with the idea of Friday’s Pride Shabbat service and was given the go-ahead to make it happen.
During the service, Astmann spoke of creating room there — a chance to meld her identity as a gay woman, and as a member of the faith.
It is a welcoming congregation by nature, she said — to the point “that it had started to go without saying.” But she wanted to make that clear, and end any sense of isolation — both for herself and for others, allowing LGBT people to feel heard and seen and comfortable.
“I always felt welcome at CMI, but I didn’t see people like me — I’m still the only queer person in the room sometimes. And I’ve felt welcome as a Jewish woman in the queer community, but I’ve still been the only Jewish person in the room. I wanted to create the space that I have been craving for so long: where I wasn’t the only one of me in the room,” said Astmann. “Tonight’s Pride Shabbat is that space. I’m so glad we’re all here.”
After speaking, Rhea Hirshmann, Alex Forte, Dustin Radar, and Astmann read “A Blessing For Pride.”
It ends with the lines: “Open our hearts to welcome each other fully and truly; open our hands to embrace, to support, to life each other b’gila, b’rina, b’sha,om, uv’rei-ut — with joy, with song, with peace, and with deep friendship. On this Shabbat, as we celebrate renewal, Pride, and community, let us walk together with strength, compassion, and love.”