Jewish Voices for Marriage Equality

Jews from the Portland area gathered this evening to hear rabbis, lawyers, and lesbian and gay Jews share why the freedom to marry is important in their lives. Whether discussing Jewish law, explaining civil law or sharing an individual story, each speaker presented her/is experience from a different, but uniquely Jewish perspective. Rabbi Alice Goldfinger of Congregation Beit Ha'am shared that when she first spoke on supporting marriage for gay and lesbian couples in San Francisco in 1992, her synagogue rotunda was vandalized: "Rabbi Goldfinger is a dyke."

While approximately 80% of Jews support marriage equality, we must not wipe our hands of our responsibility to lift up those who are oppressed: Tzedek, tzedek tirdof (Deuteronomy 16:20). Justice, justice, you shall pursue! Our pursuit of justice is not over because the majority of Jews support marriage equality. On Yom Kippur, when we atone not only for our own sins, but for those of our entire community and our entire people, we take responsibility for one another. When one of us does not pursue justice, or stands in the way of justice, we are all responsible.

Driven by communal responsibility, we continue to pursue justice, healing the world by pursuing the world we want to live in.

Kerry

Organizer Artwork

We're hard at work in Maine. The Religious Coalition for the Freedom to Marry has three BIG events coming up:

• Oct. 15th: Bishop Gene Robinson speaking in Portland
  
• Oct. 18th: Interfaith rallies, marches and services in Portland, Auburn and Bangor
  
• Nov. 1st: Interfaith vigils as the intensity of the campaign increases

Katy Jayne, Maine Civil Liberties Union and Religious Coalition Organizer, and I spent Sunday afternoon coming up with a gameplan to develop, support and promote these events. The process was exhausting, but we made organizer art.

Kerry

Shabbat Shalom and Hag Sameach from Maine!

Shabbat shalom and hag sameach from Maine!

We are entering the Jewish holiday, Sukkot, the Festival of Booths, during which Jews traditionally take our meals, even sleep, in temporary shelters reminiscent of the transitory wandering in the wilderness for 40 years.
On Sukkot, it is traditional to read Psalm 27:

• 11 Teach me your way, O LORD; lead me in a straight path because of my oppressors.
• 12 Do not turn me over to the desire of my foes, for false witnesses rise up against me, breathing out violence.
• 13 I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.

While reading this passage at Temple Beth El in Portland this evening, I thought of our oppressors, those who hold us LGBTI people and allies down, especially those who are currently doing so in Maine. In the Portland Press Herald this morning, Bill Nemitz described a marked difference between the Yes on 1 campaign and the No on 1 campaign: while the Yes campaign puts forth the same 4 spokespeople, uses website images from online stock photo galleries, and ultimately lacks realness, the No on 1 campaign speaks in diverse voices, uses photos of real Mainers on its website, and thrives on the authentic drive of Mainers, not agendas.

Even in the two days since I arrived in Maine, it is clear that our oppressors are using the same language to bear false witness against us. The Religious Coalition for the Freedom to Marry in Maine is standing for what is just and fair, led by that which is Holy on a path toward goodness.

On this Sukkot, let us all have the courage to be led to goodness in the face of our oppressors.

shabbat shalom and hag sameach,

Kerry Chaplin