Letters
UTTERS To the Editor: I am a gentile and a Christian. The article "Gay Jews" (February/March) tarnished the image that I have always held of Jews. "For thou art a holy people unto the Lord thy...
...For me, the discovery of Chicago's Congregation Or Chadash marked a turning point in my life...
...I expect more from Jews and I want to get it...
...There -was a date given for the purchase by Levy, but no other information regarding his tenure as owner...
...In all the words written and read about our imprisoned brothers, never have they jumped off the page with such clarity, perception, and human feeling...
...It is indeed unfortunate that I must urgently request, for the protection of my parents and family, my ex-wife and her family, and my personal privacy, that my name and address be withheld...
...Jews in the mainstream must learn to recognize the validity of the way we love, and, in the To the Editor: Mr...
...It is probably impossible for the heterosexual to comprehend the magnitude of the trauma of "coming out," particularly when it involves, as in Mehler's case and in my own, the break-up of a marriage...
...He should have noted that homosexuality has been observed as a stress response in animal populations...
...I connected the cemetery with Levy's ownership but time prevented us from obtaining more information...
...Once again, we are indebted to the Greenbergs for sharing their experiences and knowledge...
...After the official tour, while visiting the kitchen area, we read a list on the wall that highlighted Monticello's existence...
...I believe that Jews who visit Monticello and notice the dirth of information regarding Levy's relationship to it should notify those responsible for the content of the guides' talk...
...She indicated that the place had been donated to the government by descendants of Jefferson...
...Carollyn Lee Peerman Lynchburg, Virginia ticularly crowding, have increased the incidence of homosexual activity...
...Surely you could have found someone, with suitable qualifications, to point out the inadequacy of your writer's arguments...
...Further, by emphasizing the individual, he helps our lives to become more fulfilling as the needs for both inner awareness and a sense of community are re-realized...
...While the obvious stress is separation from sex partners of the opposite sex, other stresses, par6/Moment UTTERS Continued from page 6 Jewish ethical tradition, to accept and support gay Jews as equal members of the Jewish community...
...Look gay," indeed...
...Name Withheld To the Editor: In "Gay Jews," Barry Mehler writes, " As I approached, I noticed a small group of elderly men waiting for the service to begin...
...While Mehler's piece necessarily touches only the surface of this important and complex topic, it covers a wide range of issues, and presents an eloquent plea for the recognition and acceptance which gay Jews seek and so desperately need...
...Phyllis Simpson Penllyn, Pennsylvania To the Editor: Stephen Birmingham's article (February/March) is not only healthy but refreshingly helpful to society as he takes an interest in both his own culture and that of another people...
...Howard Cohen Piano, Texas...
...With idle curiosity we looked over the locked metal gate...
...I rediscovered that night the most valuable thing which Judaism has to offer: its ethic of love, humanity and caring for one's fellow man, as well as my own desire to structure my life according to that ethic...
...and the barrier to complete fulfillment of either crucial aspect of your life, are burdens which might indeed alienate any Jewish homosexual...
...Fraylach Unger Van Nuys, California To the Editor: I have just completed Blu Greenberg's "Encounters in Russia" (February/March...
...Instead, I find references to biblical and rabbinic sources which, by the severity of their pronouncements, are brought to ridicule...
...Mehler's article asks us to consider homosexuality as being within the normal range of human sexual orientation...
...That Shabbat evening I found more than just a group of new friends, an opportunity to observe Judaism without guilt or hypocrisy, a forum for discussing important issues, or even a lover with whom I can share my life and have a Jewish home...
...He notes that homosexuality is prevalent and time honored in people, and other animals, but also points out that many such behaviors are less than admirable...
...It was immediately obvious that this was a Jewish cemetery with several graves in it...
...Our further ram-blings on the property brought us to a small, unmarked, stone walled enclosure...
...How else can one explain the presence of an out-and-out propaganda piece on homosexuality...
...It seems to me that homosexuality among Jews is especially abominable because there would be no procreation and Jews are "the fewest of all people...
...It seems that, even at this point, I can still only "come out" so far...
...Deuteronomy 7:6...
...How could he even think this, let alone write it...
...The homosexual is entitled to the same consideration and justice which is mandated for all God's creatures but the practice of homosexuality remains biologically deviant and Jewishly unacceptable...
...For the homosexual who is also a committed Jew, the pain is even more intense: it is somehow easier to be an outcast in a diverse secular society than to face the rejection of one's own ethnic/religious community, to feel cut off from one's own heritage...
...Gert M. Jacobsohn Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania To the Editor: After reading moment regularly for the past several months, I was gratified to find the article for which I had been waiting: Barry Mehler's "Gay Jews...
...the awareness that your masquerade as a heterosexual in Jewish society, even to the point of adultery, is hypocrisy...
...I recognized the name, as that of the man responsible for abolishing flogging in the United States Navy, but I knew nothing else about him...
...They hardly looked gay...
...Byrna Weir Rochester, New York To the Editor: Stephen Birmingham's recent discussion of Monticello, (February/March) and of Uriah P. Levy's connection with the Jefferson home brought to mind my visit there in December 1971...
...Shakespeare thought of tragedy as being a fall from a great height...
...Why shatter the image...
...But I will not support a magazine that ingeniously sneaks in propaganda that I consider demeaning within its otherwise well-written articles...
...Please cancel my subscription...
...They have suffered much and yet have contributed much to world civilization...
...As society slowly learns to reject its irrational taboos against homosexuality (and Judaism more slowly still), the gay synagogue movement must continue to grow, to meet the needs of Jewish homosexuals who wish never to lose their Jewish life...
...Jews are world leaders...
...Why do Jews have to lead in the smut of gay liberation...
...Did he know they were Jewish by their looks, too...
...At no time during the tour did our guide mention that the house and grounds were purchased and restored by Levy...
...Pleasant, Michigan To the Editor: Can it be that Mehler's article on the gay movement has brought into the open an editorial policy which has previously been hidden from me...
...I am, and have been, both tolerant and sympathetic to persons of deviant sexual behavior...
...The knowledge that the mainstream of Jewish life considers your own very real and natural feelings an abomination...
...Thank you, moment, and a special thank you to Blu...
...For thou art a holy people unto the Lord thy God: the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth...
...Why do Jews have to drag themselves down in front of those who love and respect them...
...Caiman Levich Mt...
...No reference was made to the family (heterogeneous) as the basis for Jewish communal and religious life...
Vol. 2 • May 1977 • No. 7
