Tag: AJN

AJN Letters: Rabbi Shimon Cowen taken to task – June 1 2012

1 June 2012
The Australian Jewish News Melbourne edition

Letters to the editor should be no more than 250 words and may be edited for length and content. Only letters sent to letters@jewishnews.net.au will be considered for publication. Please supply an address and daytime phone number for verification.

Rabbi wrong on reparative therapy for homosexuality

IN response to Rabbi Shimon Cowen (AJN 25/05), I feel I must take a stand regarding the false portrayal of homosexuality as a mental illness or developmental disorder.

In 2009, the American Psychological Association voted to repudiate reparative therapy after a comprehensive two-year study concluded there was scant evidence that sexual orientation could be changed.

Their research showed that reparative therapy could lead to depression, self-harm and even suicide.

In mid-May this year, the Office for the Americas of the World Health Organisation issued a statement that “‘therapies’ to change sexual orientation lack medical justification and threaten health,” and that “there is a professional consensus that homosexuality is a natural variation of human sexuality.”

There are no rigorous scientific studies which show that “Practices known as ‘reparative therapy’ or ‘conversion therapy’ … demonstrate any efficacy of efforts to change sexual orientation”.

As our spiritual leaders, could our rabbis be supporting us to be loving parents invested in nurturing our children’s potential instead of pathologising and demonising homosexuality (and our lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender and intersex Jews)?

Should rabbis encourage parents to denounce their own children as “abominations”? Could we instead focus on investment in the kind of values and ethics that lead to minimising sexual abuse and domestic violence in our community?

Rabbi Cowen, we want our spiritual leaders to echo the statement by Dr Roses from the Office for the Americas of the World Health Organisation: “These supposed conversion therapies constitute a violation of the ethical principles of health care and violate human rights that are protected by international and regional agreements.”

SARAH CALLEJA
Counselling psychologist
South Yarra, Vic

Study into reparative therapy repudiated

RABBI Cowen’s letter (AJN 25/05) distorts the events and findings surrounding Dr Robert Spitzer’s research into reparative therapies. To be precise and set the record straight:

Dr Spitzer’s 2003 paper was challenged by his colleagues because it was not refereed and because it reached questionable conclusions; it was not a situation, as Cowen implied, in which he was “assailed by the APA [American Psychiatric Association] and various lobbies”.

The primary objection to Dr Spitzer’s work was not, as Cowen stated, that his sample was drawn from highly religiously motivated individuals. But as Spitzer said, “In retrospect, I have to admit I think the critiques are largely correct.

“The findings can be considered evidence for what those who have undergone ex-gay therapy say about it, but nothing more.”

This year, Dr Spitzer said that his 2003 study was simply to answer the question “How do individuals undergoing reparative therapy describe changes in sexual orientation?”

Rabbi Cowen wrongly implies in his letter that the study was to investigate the success rate of such therapies.

Finally, Dr Spitzer bared his soul by concluding, “I also apologise to any gay person who wasted time and energy undergoing some form of reparative therapy because they believed that I had proven that reparative therapy works with some ‘highly motivated’ individuals.”

There is clearly no evidence whatsoever that reparative therapy works. In fact, there is ample evidence that for many individuals it causes extreme anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts.

Promoting the possibility of a “cure” for homosexuality ignores current medical knowledge and may indeed result in harm to individuals who are pressured into attempting such fake therapies.

How many of our fellow Jews, especially how many of our children, must suffer from depression and related issues before those who promote quack therapies recognise the harm they are doing?

JONATHAN BARNETT
President, Keshet Australia

‘I’m gay and I don’t need fixing’

RABBI Shimon Cowen’s letter last week reflects an attitude towards gay people that there is something wrong with being gay and that we need to be fixed. I’m here to tell Cowen and others from similar backgrounds that I don’t need fixing.

I’ve stood by my partner as he’s taken on the Orthodox attitude towards himself and his sexuality. While there has been significant changes in some attitudes within the broader Jewish community, there are still large segments that lag behind modern understanding of sexuality, and then there are those who simply don’t want to do anything to upset the Orthodox.

The notion that sexuality can be changed has been shown to be incorrect, the study that Rabbi Cowen relies on is often misquoted and misunderstood. Recently, the author withdrew the study because of the way religious people continue to misuse it.

Those in authority fail in their duty of care if they refuse to understand the nature of the diverse range of sexuality, and doubly so if they make any attempts to subvert the innate nature of the very personal notion of sexuality.

The anxiety caused in young people whose sexuality is not accepted by their faith groups is well documented, and gleefully ignored by those who believe it an abomination.

Rabbi Cowen and others of his ilk need to accept people for who they are; they need to encourage them to grow as individuals and they need to embrace the diverse nature of their community. It is the only way to true social cohesion and understanding for all.

GREGORY STORER
Carnegie, Vic

Suffering caused by reparative therapy

RABBI Shimon Cowen, is continuing to misuse Dr Robert Spitzer’s work as it has always been misused by those whose minds are closed to the truth.

Dr Spitzer’s study is meaningless: it only measured people who said they had changed.

It contained no objective evidence, no proof at all of actual change.

Furthermore, it was based on memories from years earlier; it included ex-gay advocates with a political axe to grind; and tested no actual treatments.

It was based entirely on phone interviews.

Dr Spitzer never implied in the study that being gay was a choice, and he never said it was possible for anyone who wanted to change – no matter how devout – to do so by means of therapy.

By way of contrast, the World Health Organisation calls reparative therapy “a serious threat to the health and well-being – even the lives – of affected people”.

Homosexuality is a natural expression of human sexuality: it cannot be cured, only suppressed.

I have personally spoken with many men who have suffered this attempted cure. Even those who remain in “successful” heterosexual marriages admit their homosexual desires continue unabated.

Just as men in prison may become “situationally homosexual” to relieve their frustrations, these men have become “situationally heterosexual” within their marriages. Their underlying natural orientation and desires are unchanged – which leads many of them to despair and suicide.

It is reprehensible in the extreme for someone claiming to be a man of God to peddle false hope in this manner.

DOUG POLLARD
Eltham, Vic

AJN Letters: Rabbi Shimon Cowen draws on Robert Spitzer – May 25 2012

25 May 2012
The Australian Jewish News Melbourne edition

Letters to the editor should be no more than 250 words and may be edited for length and content. Only letters sent to letters@jewishnews.net.au will be considered for publication. Please supply an address and daytime phone number for verification.

Rabbi Glick’s view of homosexuality

IN last week’s AJN (18/05), the editor commented that Rabbi Avrohom Glick’s statement that homosexuality “can be cured … in most situations” is “an affront … to all those who believe in equality irrespective of sexual orientation”.  I am sure that Rabbi Glick acknowledges that the commandment of loving a fellow Jew extends equally to homosexuals.

The editor also commented that Rabbi Glick’s remarks raise questions about his role as director of student welfare.  Rabbi Glick serves in a school under the aegis of the Lubavitcher Rebbe.  The Lubavitcher Rebbe himself published an essay on homosexuality, in which he wrote that the point of education in general is to modify “inborn dispositions”, including homosexual dispositions, which pose challenges for the ethical requirements of Torah.

He wrote that “for some it is easier and for others it is harder”, but with the exercise of free will and the help of educators, therapists and counsellors, individuals can overcome these drives.  In his position at a Jewish, Orthodox, and particularly, a Lubavitcher school, it is a simple matter of religious freedom and charter that Rabbi Glick should be able to express this view.

Rabbi Glick’s statement that practical homosexual orientation could be experienced as abnormal and be altered was in fact demonstrated in a psychological research paper published by Dr Robert Spitzer in 2003.  This appeared as a revision of Spitzer’s position when, 30 years earlier, he was integral in having homosexuality removed as an illness from the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) Diagnostic and Statistic Manual of Mental Disorders.  Spitzer was at once assailed by the APA and various lobbies for his new research, and over time a number of recantations were elicited from him.

The primary objection which was used to disqualify Spitzer’s new work was that his sample of interviewees was drawn from highly religiously motivated individuals who sought to change their homosexual orientations – a sample, it was argued, that did not represent average homosexuals.  And yet this is precisely the point: because these individuals had a conscious spiritual identity, a higher self, resonating with the Creator’s moral template, which negates homosexual conduct, they were often able to engage with and transform “another”, contrary physical self, as Spitzer found.  Without any concept of an autonomous spiritual self, capable of struggle with psychophysical impulse, the politically ascendant psychology of the APA necessarily rejects freedom, choice and cure in homosexuality.

RABBI SHIMON COWEN
Balaclava, Vic

Principal aware of Cyprys abuse rumours + Editor comment | AJN

[ The two stories below should be read in conjunction. ]

18 May 2012
The Australian Jewish News Melbourne edition
PETER KOHN AND TIMNA JACKS

Principal aware of Cyprys abuse rumours

 

“My understanding is that homosexuality can be cured … my understanding is that in most situations, the answer is yes.”

Rabbi Avrohom Glick
Head of Jewish studies and
student wellbeing

 

MAGISTRATE Luisa Bazzani will announce on Monday whether the case against alleged rapist David Samuel Cyprys will proceed to trial.

In the Melbourne Magistrates Court last week, Rabbi Avrohom Glick, Yeshivah principal from 1986 to 2007 and presently a teacher and head of Jewish studies and student wellbeing at Yeshivah, gave evidence at a committal hearing for Cyprys, who was charged with 53 offences, including rape, against 12 boys, during his long association with the college and the Chabad community.

Before Rabbi Glick began his testimony on Monday, prosecutor Andrew Grant told the court the rabbi wanted to change a key point in a written statement he made to police late last year, in which he had stated: “Rabbi [Yitzchok Dovid] Groner never divulged to me the names of individuals that brought complaints to him.”

However, asked by Grant to set the record straight, Rabbi Glick said in court that Rabbi Groner had in fact told him Cyprys was the subject of a complaint by a parent regarding molestation.

Rabbi Glick said that in “the early 2000s”, Rabbi Groner told him of a complaint by a parent of one of the alleged victims and, although Cyprys’s name did not come up at that time, he “suspected” he was the individual Rabbi Groner was talking about.

Around that time, Rabbi Glick said he had become aware of rumours in the Yeshivah community that Cyprys was homosexual, which led him to suspect it was he the rabbi had alluded to.

But shortly before his death in 2008, Rabbi Groner had divulged Cyprys’s identity to him, Rabbi Glick told the court. “He called me and said to me that he had been approached by a mother who advised that her child had been molested by David Cyprys. She was agitated, threatening to take police action. He called me to ask if I had knowledge of that. I said I had no knowledge of that.”

Rabbi Glick said Cyprys became a youth leader and teacher and may have been involved with transporting students who attended the Gan Yisrael camps until the 1990s. As a security guard and locksmith who ran a security firm, Cyprys was also “subcontracted” for maintenance jobs on campus, he said. He was also a martial arts enthusiast who ran classes for boys.

Around the time the rumours started, Rabbi Glick was approached by the father of a student, urging him that Cyprys should not be employed at the college because of his sexual orientation. Rabbi Glick recalled responding to the parent that Cyprys did not work for the school and he was not his employer. Rabbi Glick added, “I told him Rabbi Groner would not permit Cyprys to work as a security guard if he was a threat to anyone.”

Asked by Bazzani if the rumours resulted in precautions being taken to protect students, Rabbi Glick said Cyprys was no longer involved with the school at that time.

Rabbi Glick had become Yeshivah principal in 1986, the year after Cyprys ended his studies at Yeshivah College and had “not very much” contact with Cyprys and “very little” contact with Jocelyn Searby, a consulting psychologist at the school, with whom Rabbi Groner had close ties.

Questioned by Cyprys’s barrister Marcus Dempsey about procedures in the 1980s to deal with young teenage students who believed they might be gay, Rabbi Glick said they were told “it was not Jewish practice” but they would not be asked to leave the school unless they were “promoting those practices”.

Rabbi Glick said he knew of no student at Yeshivah in the 1980s and 1990s who was openly gay. Asked by Dempsey: “Was homosexuality something to be cured from?”, he responded: “My understanding is that homosexuality can be cured … my understanding is that in most situations, the answer is yes.”

He said students had recourse to shluchim [mentors] to discuss these problems and could go to a religious studies teacher, to Rabbi Groner or to himself for counselling. Asked if he knew whether Cyprys had been counselled by Rabbi Groner, he said he suspected so, but Rabbi Groner “did not keep meticulous records”.

When questioned by Dempsey on Tuesday, Senior Detective Lisa Metcher said she had found no evidence in her search of Yeshivah records that Cyprys had been counselled.

On Tuesday, the court heard police testimony about two alleged rape incidents involving one of the boys.

Detective Senior Constable Tamara Annette Cornelissen gave evidence about one of the alleged victims, who had mentioned the act of “penetration” in a police interview. Two such incidents were identified in the interview.

Cornelissen confirmed the victim’s claim in his statement that the accused “covered my mouth to stop me screaming”.

18 May 2012
The Australian Jewish News Melbourne edition
ZEDDY LAWRENCE

Further cause for concern

COMMENT

OVER the past two weeks, the claims and allegations that have surfaced in the Cyprys hearing have shocked the community. That such abuse may have occurred in the first place is alarming enough; that the school seems to have failed to take appropriate measures when fears were raised is equally disturbing.

But these are not the only concerns that have emerged and that will doubtless be discussed over the coming days.

One is the issue of attitudes towards homosexuality, in particular that it can somehow be “cured” as if it were an illness or abnormality. Such a claim is an affront to the gay and lesbian community, and indeed to all those who believe in equality irrespective of sexual orientation. In this day and age, that a teacher responsible for student welfare at a school could hold such a view will no doubt raise eyebrows and prompt debate about his suitability for the role.

On the subject of homosexuality, it should also be made clear that such a sexual orientation has nothing to do with paedophilia. The two are quite distinct and it would be wrong for anyone to draw the impression from reports of the case that being gay and being a potential child abuser are in any way connected.

AJN Letters: Maurice Sendak + Chaim Ingram on Marriage Equality – May 18 2012

18 May 2012
The Australian Jewish News Melbourne edition

Letters to the editor should be no more than 250 words and may be edited for length and content. Only letters sent to letters@jewishnews.net.au will be considered for publication. Please supply an address and daytime phone number for verification.

Wild thing made my heart sing

THE death of Maurice Sendak takes me back to my childhood, on a journey that many of us could share similarly. I recall turning the pages of his Wild Things book with wonderment and enjoying the scariness of the story and illustrations.

Not knowing until today that Sendak was of Jewish heritage, it is but one of the many things about him of which I was previously unaware. Another is that he had a male partner of 50 years, Eugene Glynn, who pre-deceased him in 2007.

I’m confident that Sendak’s diverse legacy will live on and enrich the lives of future generations, as it did mine.

MICHAEL BARNETT
Ashwood, Vic

Rabbis opposition to same sex marriages

DIKLA Blum (AJN 11/04) need be neither surprised nor baffled by the Rabbinical Council of NSW submissions (in consort with those of the Organisation of Rabbis in Australasia and the Rabbinical Council of Victoria) to the Senate and the House of Representatives opposing a change in the law that would recognise samesex marriage.

As a self-describing “mainstream” Orthodox Jew, Ms. Blum ought to be aware that the concept of homosexual marriage – and indeed homosexual relations – is incompatible with Orthodox, i.e. halachic Judaism.

Moreover since homosexuality is outlawed in the Noachide Code which is the basis of the JudaeoChristian ethic that has governed modern Australia since its inception, rabbinical organisations as guardians of that ethic have seen fit to fight to guard and protect that ethic.

Regarding the RCNSW’S use of the word “mainstream”, our president Rabbi Ulman has already clarified (AJN 27/04) that “by its very definition Reform/progressive theology deviates from the mainstream” and therefore it is an adjective we are fully entitled to use.

As for the representation issue: the rabbinic bodies in Australia purport to represent Torah and Torah values as is our mandate.

If this happens to conflict with the dogmas and mantras of the modern age which have turned some heads 180 degrees on this particular issue within a single generation, we the teachers of Judaism cannot be held to blame.

As it happens, I believe that were a survey of the opinions of the Orthodox community, and for that matter the wider Jewish community, to be conducted anonymously Ms Blum would again be surprised.

RABBI CHAIM INGRAM
Bondi Junction, NSW

AJN Letters: RCNSW & Marriage Equality – May 11 2012

11 May 2012
The Australian Jewish News Melbourne edition

Letters to the editor should be no more than 250 words and may be edited for length and content. Only letters sent to letters@jewishnews.net.au will be considered for publication. Please supply an address and daytime phone number for verification.

RCNSW should be careful what it claims

IT is with much surprise that I read the statement by the Rabbinical Council of NSW on the topic of same-sex marriage and their assertion over “mainstream Judaism (AJN 27/04)”.

For the record, I support same-sex marriage wholeheartedly.  And for further clarification, lest it be thought that I am a Progressive Jew, I can abate the Rabbinical Council’s fears that I have never ascribed to this stream of Judaism.

So, as a self-selecting Orthodox, thus “mainstream” Jew by the Rabbinical Council definition, I am baffled by the Rabbinical Council’s desire to manufacture such conflict around this issue.

One might think that our community faces sufficient challenges – anti-Semitism, anti-zionism, the threat of BDS, assimilation to name but a few – [without needing] to voluntarily create conflict and attempt to marginalise significant sections of our community.

The reality is that we are a pluralistic community with a variety of different beliefs and customs, from political beliefs, through to religious customs originating from our respective countries of origin, as well as our views on Jewish expression.

I wonder, as such, where the Rabbinical Council draws the line of what constitutes “mainstream Judaism”.  What can we expect next?  Is Ashkenazi tradition the “mainstream”, or should we look to Sephardi custom?  Is Hebrew prayer the “mainstream” expression of the right way to connect with God, to the exclusion of those who cannot speak or read the language?

And in putting forward the Senate submission, under the assertion they represent “all mainstream synagogues in NSW”, did the Rabbinical Council seek input from the members of these so-called “mainstream” synagogues?

So confident is the Rabbinical Council in its position of representation that surely the council would not object to such an action of surveying the opinions of its members? Perhaps we should put that to the test?

DIKLA BLUM
Glebe, NSW

AJN Letters: Gays & Celibacy + Purim & Mardi Gras – March 9 2012

9 Mar 2012
The Australian Jewish News Sydney edition

Letters to the editor should be no more than 250 words and may be edited for length and content. Only letters sent to letters@jewishnews.net.au will be considered for publication. Please supply an address and daytime phone number for verification.

Adapting the Torah to reflect values

SOME of our rabbis seem to expect celibacy from those who are gay. Is this the compassion we would like from spiritual leaders?

We now know that homosexuality has been found among animal species, so we cannot confidently state that it is a personal choice.

Gays are all part of creation. Can those of us who are not gay comfortably sit back and tell gays, it is forbidden for you to follow your instincts but we, who consider ourselves normal, can enjoy them? After all, is the Torah not full of death sentences for what we nowadays regard as not so serious?

Is it possible to mistake the meaning of the Torah? Perhaps it was constructed for its time, it being assumed that later generations would have the knowledge and skills to read it in a new light.

Or it might it be an inspired manmade work reflecting the values of its time, to be reassessed with every century. Should we be using the Torah to make life barely tolerable for a sub-stantial minority? I know I cannot.

PETER COHEN
Bentleigh East, Vic

Misrepresenting the meaning of Purim

PROFESSOR David Shneer (“Pride and prejudice ….and Purim” AJN 02/03) woefully distorts the Purim message.

Applying phrases to Judaism like “the holiness of transgression” (sic.) and “revelling in worldly pleasures” do nothing, in my opinion, to enhance his credibility as a serious writer on Jewish themes. Nor for that matter does his risible invocation of the name of the Rambam in spurious support of his views.

To quote the Rambam: “The Torah states (Lev. 18:2) ‘after the actions of Egypt … you shall in no way do’ Our sages commented ‘ what perversions did they do in Egypt? A man would marry a man and a woman a woman.…’”(rambam, Hilchot Isurei Bi’ah 21:8).

The reason for disguising ourselves on Purim is to hide our true identity. Just as Queen Esther was deemed by all to be part of the problem and ended up being part of the solution, so do we masquerade as the opposite of what we truly are. Nothing to do with any “redemptive potential of masquerade” or “see(ing) the infinite possibility … in each experience”. Disguises incidentally also help us carry out optimally the mitzvot of the day, namely gifts to the poor (which the Rambam says is best done anonymously) and giving token food gifts to one’s friends (which one might be embarassed to do ordinarily).

In the English language the word “pride” has two antonyms: “shame” and“modesty”.in Judaism,pride as the opposite of shame is a worthy virtue. However, as the reverse of modesty, pride is viewed negatively. Traditionally, Purim disguises will never leave large areas of body flesh exposed as in a certain other annual carnival.

There is indeed no point of connection between Purim and Mardi Gras.

One can only hope that Professor Shneer’s piece was intended as an early purimshpiel.

RABBI CHAIM INGRAM
Bondi Junction, NSW

A Jewish flavour to Mardi Gras | AJN

9 Mar 2012
The Australian Jewish News Sydney edition
CASSILEE KAHN

A Jewish flavour to Mardi Gras

MORE than 100 members and supporters of same-sex Jewish advocacy group Dayenu marched to the beat of Havenu Shalom Aleichem, “Peace be upon you”, joining 140 floats and more than 9000 people in the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.

Same-sex Jewish advocacy group Dayenu expressed their Jewish identity when they participated in the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras last weekend.

Dayenu marchers expressed their Jewish identity by dressing according to the theme of Purim, singing and dancing to the Hebrew lyrics while they followed their float, which was adorned with a Star of David.

Dayenu president Roy Freeman said the group’s attendance at the Mardi Gras was the biggest in recent years and conveyed a wide-reaching message.

“It sends a message to the Jewish community that we’re here and to the gay and lesbian community that there’s a Jewish gay and lesbian community as well,” Freeman, who will make aliyah explained.

“It sends a very powerful message that we’re proud of who we are and it doesn’t matter what anyone says, we exist and we’re here and we’re very excited to be part of Mardi Gras.”

Members from Jewish youth groups Habonim and Netzer participated in the parade to demonstrate their support for Dayenu.

“I think it’s really important that later this month, we support this community and all they do. They’re great and they’re vibrant, and as a youth movement we’re really proud to support them, we support equality for everyone,” said Netzer NSW president Gemma Hilton.

ajn 20120309 p5 A Jewish flavour to Mardi Gras

Kevin Rudd’s sister slammed over slur | AJN

22 Jul 2011
The Australian Jewish News Melbourne edition
CHANTAL ABITBOL

Kevin Rudd’s sister slammed over slur

JEWISH leaders have criticised Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd’s sister for comparing the gay-marriage lobby to Nazi mass murderers.

In comments made to The Australian last week, Loree Rudd threatened to quit the Australian Labor Party if it backs gay marriage at its national conference in December. The devout Christian also accused some of the party’s members of being brainwashed by a “global gay Gestapo”.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has repeatedly expressed her opposition to same-sex marriage and has indicated her Government will make no changes to the Marriage Act. Nonetheless, many ALP members and supporters are urging her to reconsider her position.

While not weighing into the political debate, the B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission (ADC), Australia’s peak Jewish human rights body, called for Loree Rudd to apologise for the comparison between policy advocates and Nazis.

“It is completely unacceptable for anyone to co-opt and trivialise the name of one of the most active and feared arms of the Nazi machinery for their own political purposes,” ADC president Anton Block told the media.

“The Gestapo was directly responsible for the murders of Jewish, Romani, homosexual and disabled people. To use its name in this context shows a level of ignorance and insensitivity that has no place in contemporary political discourse.”

Roy Freeman, founder of J4ME, a Jewish group advocating for same-sex marriage, called Rudd’s comments “offensive and obviously untrue”.

“This kind of language is unacceptable in 21st-century Australia,” he told The AJN. “Those who glibly throw around such comparisons diminish the crimes committed by the Nazis and attempt to demonise the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) community.”

NSW Jewish Board of Deputies chief executive officer Vic Alhadeff told media, “Drawing a comparison between advocates of gay marriage and the Gestapo is insensitive and counterproductive.”