{"id":666,"date":"2010-10-25T23:12:00","date_gmt":"2010-10-25T23:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2010\/10\/signing-the-keshet-pledge.html"},"modified":"2010-10-25T23:12:00","modified_gmt":"2010-10-25T23:12:00","slug":"signing-the-keshet-pledge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2010\/10\/signing-the-keshet-pledge.html","title":{"rendered":"Signing The Keshet Pledge"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
Well here\u2019s a small quandary.\u00a0 There is an amazing effort that is being produced by Keshet<\/span><\/a> called \u201cDo Not Stand Idly By: A Jewish Community Pledge to Save Lives<\/span><\/a>.\u201d\u00a0 Keshet is a Boston-based national effort to bring full inclusion to LGBQT people in Jewish life.\u00a0 Many, many organizations and thousands of individuals have signed on.\u00a0 I support it wholeheartedly except for one very, very small thing.\u00a0 See if you can spot it:<\/span><\/div>\n
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As members of a tradition that sees each person as created in the divine image, we respond with anguish and outrage at the spate of suicides brought on by homophobic bullying and intolerance. We hereby commit to ending homophobic bullying or harassment of any kind in our synagogues, schools, organizations, and communities. As a signatory, I pledge to speak out when I witness anyone being demeaned for their actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity. I commit myself to do whatever I can to ensure that each and every person in my community is treated with dignity and respect.<\/span><\/div>\n
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If you said it was the language of \u201ccreated in the divine image,\u201d then you have been reading my blog. \u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
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Most Jews just throw those words around without giving them much thought.\u00a0 This idea of being \u201ccreated in the divine image\u201d is actually not the strongest argument Jews have for making such a pledge.\u00a0 A better reason is the Jewish historical experience.\u00a0 As an oft-despised people that has suffered horribly from antisemitism, we are doubly obligated to prevent that from happening to any other human beings.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Will I sign it?\u00a0 Of course I will.\u00a0 The preamble here is the meaningless part of the pledge.\u00a0 What\u2019s important is the commitment to end homophobic behavior and speak out against it.\u00a0 Rabbi Wine taught that one of the best ways to judge whether an act is moral is by whether it engenders respect for the dignity of individuals.\u00a0 That\u2019s the important part of this pledge.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well here\u2019s a small quandary.\u00a0 There is an amazing effort that is being produced by Keshet called \u201cDo Not Stand Idly By: A Jewish Community Pledge to Save Lives.\u201d\u00a0 Keshet is a Boston-based national effort to bring full inclusion to LGBQT people in Jewish life.\u00a0 Many, many organizations and thousands of individuals have signed on.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[16,24],"class_list":["post-666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogentries","tag-homophobia","tag-liberal-judaism"],"yoast_head":"\nSigning The Keshet Pledge<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Well here\u2019s a small quandary.\u00a0 There is an amazing effort that is being produced by Keshet called \u201cDo Not Stand Idly By: A Jewish Community Pledge to Save\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2010\/10\/signing-the-keshet-pledge.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Signing The Keshet Pledge\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Well here\u2019s a small quandary.\u00a0 There is an amazing effort that is being produced by Keshet called \u201cDo Not Stand Idly By: A Jewish Community Pledge to Save\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2010\/10\/signing-the-keshet-pledge.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Atheist Rabbi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-10-25T23:12:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jeffrey L. 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