- The Washington Times - Monday, October 24, 2022

Yeshiva University, an orthodox Jewish tertiary school in New York City that went to the Supreme Court to block a “pride alliance” of LGBTQ students, said through its attorneys Monday they would sanction a club for those students on campus “willing to adhere to a Torah-based lifestyle.”

The school said the Kol Yisrael Areivim Club would be established for undergraduate “LGBTQ students striving to live authentic Torah lives.” The students would be able to “gather, share their experiences, host events and support one another,” the school said, “all within the framework” of Jewish laws known as Halacha, which among other things prohibits homosexual acts.

“The club will provide students with space to grow in their personal journeys, navigating the formidable challenges that they face in living a fully committed, uncompromisingly authentic halachic life within Orthodox communities,” the school said in a news release.

An attorney who represents YU Pride Alliance did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Washington Times.

The school said it would continue to fight a New York state court ruling that it is “not a religious institution” lacking “full religious authority over our environment,” a letter from the school’s executives said. 

That state ruling triggered an unsuccessful emergency appeal to the high court, which said Yeshiva must exhaust lower appeals first.

The letter states school leaders “recognize that our undergraduate students, including our LGBTQ students, who choose to attend Yeshiva come with different expectations and navigate different challenges than those who choose a secular college.”

Rabbis Ari Berman, president of Yeshiva University and its associated Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, and Rabbi Hershel Schachter, spiritual authority at the schools, signed the letter along with board chairs of both institutions. The four leaders said they “have been working to formulate a Torah framework to provide our LGBTQ students with an enhanced support system.”

A “Frequently Asked Questions” document circulated with the letter states the schools’ leaders could not endorse all of the accommodations sought by YU Pride Alliance.

“Pride Alliance is a recognized movement in colleges throughout the country that not only fights anti-LGBTQ discrimination, a cause which we fully support, but also promotes activities that conflict with Torah laws and values,” the FAQ document stated, adding, “[A]an adoption of this national brand is inherently unacceptable in the context of Yeshiva.”

Establishing a student club that supports LGBTQ students as well as the observance of Jewish law “is in line with other devout faith-based universities nationwide, which do not host Pride Alliances but have established clubs consistent with their own faith-based languages and traditions,” the FAQ document said.

Students at other faith-based schools have initiated protests and lawsuits over the alleged exclusion of LGBTQ students and faculty. Seattle Pacific University is the target of one such lawsuit this year, while a number of other schools, including Brigham Young University, were targets of a 2021 class action filed by the Religious Exemption Accountability Project. That group claims Title IX exemptions for faith-based schools are unconstitutional.

• Mark A. Kellner can be reached at mkellner@washingtontimes.com.

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