A Wider Bridge is deeply troubled by the incident tonight in Zion Square, in which members of The Meeting Place were harassed, assaulted, and intimidated by a group of homophobic extremists. The aggressors attempted to light a rainbow flag on fire, and destroyed property of The Meeting Place before becoming physical with several LGBTQ activists […]
On the 3rd and 4th day of our trip, we continued to tour Jerusalem: visiting the national holocaust museum (Yad v’Shem), meeting some of Jerusalem’s LGBTQ leaders at the Alliance Guesthouse, viewing the Israel museum and spending time in the colorful Machne Yehuda market. Outside the Book of the Shrine View from the Mount of […]
Building upon the theme of this year’s Jerusalem Gay Pride which focused on the coexistence of religion and LGBT, members of Israel’s LGBTQ religious communities held an “Erev K’helah” conference on Sunday, October 8 to discuss LGBTQ relationships, marriage and family within the orthodox community. The conference, sponsored by the Schusterman Foundation, was well attended […]
A new documentary short looks at being Orthodox and LGBT in Israel. Lesbian activist Sarah Weil discusses The Meeting Place project which fosters unprecedented dialogue between the LGBT and Orthodox communities. In 2016, Sarah toured the United States with A Wider Bridge to discuss her work. A new 5-minute video documentary that was created by the Hanns […]
Through mourning the loss of 16-year old Shira Banki z”l, fatally attacked at the 2015 Jerusalem Pride March, the city’s LGBTQ community emerged as a thread to bring together a city divided at the seams. LGBTQ leaders took to Zion Square, the central plaza in the heart of Jerusalem, to hold open forums for unprecedented […]
Sarah Weil, Jerusalem based LGBT activist, social entrepreneur, writer and a religious Jew recently represented Israel at a conference in Berlin, Germany called “Too Queer to Believe” on the intersection of LGBTI and Religion. The speech from that conference has been published on the Huffington Post. Sarah Weil in a march for a better future […]
In a double-spread interview in Yedioth Achronot, Israel’s main newspaper, four members of Kehila Datit Ge’ah, the LGBT religious community, speak about the growing media storm over LGBT issues in the past weeks in Israel. The hate-speech of Rabbi Levinstein hit them hard, but on the eve of Jerusalem Gay Pride they’ve invited the rabbis […]
The event was organized by the LGBTQ Student Association, Women’s Gathering, Havruta, Bat Kol, Jerusalem Open House, Maavarim, Hoshen and Yerushalmiot. Sarah Weil (left) and partner Dalia in Jerusalem on Purim. Members of Jerusalem’s LGBT community held daylong Purim festivities called Puriya b’Tachana at the First Station on Thursday, in what organizers say was the first […]
In outreach effort, Orthodox Jews put a name and face to their coming out stories, hoping to tell others in their situation that they are not alone and to bring the orthodox community closer by making them understand that the closest LGBT person is actually a person they already know and like. We received three more […]
Tonight (Wednesday) at 8pm, in Jerusalem, the first Women’s Gathering of the Jewish new year, co-sponsored by A Wider Bridge. Yes, men can come too. Join this event on Facebook Sarah Weil, an LGBTQ activist and scholar from Jerusalem, is the creator of the Women’s Gathering events in Jerusalem, designed to bring the lesbian community […]