Magazine Article

Bridging the gap

Shwayder, Maya

2014

Overview

Jonathan Gilad, 29, runs a group in Washington, DC, called \"Nice Jewish Boys,\" a social group for young, gay Jewish professionals. He says [Hebro] events are a big deal and he frequently travels to New York specifically to attend the parties. \"It's a smaller community in DC, but Hebro parties are on our calendar,\" says Gilad, a native of Westchester who was raised modern Orthodox. \"It's become a conduit for the DC gay Jewish community, as well. Hebro has made our job [of connecting young gay Jews] a lot easier.\" \"There is a lot of gay Jewish stuff in New York,\" [Jayson Littman] relates. \"A lot of those other groups do gay work in the Jewish community, but Hebro provides Jewish events in the gay community.\" Hebro is not the place for a Woody Allen-style neuroticism of \"I don't know how to reconcile these two identities,\" Littman says. In all the schools in which JQY does programs or hosts speakers, there are hardly any students who have come \"out,\" [Justin Spiro] says. \"They don't realize there is a safe space for them and we need to create that safe space,\" he says. Educating this generation is imperative for spreading wider change and acceptance, he believes. \"I realize that I can't change society in the next months or years,\" he admits. \"But the message is that it's a mitzva to treat all people with respect and love and care and sensitivity.\"

• Publisher: Jerusalem Report
• Subject: Littman, Jayson / Spiro, Justin / Weisinger, Ethan