Yeshiva U accepts LGBTQ+ student groups, but does not accept “Pride” clubs
Less than a week after Yeshiva University agreed to view the LGBTQ+ student club as part of a legal settlement, University President Ari Berman apologized for the way the university conveyed its announcement, stressing that the “pride” club still runs contrary to the values of the modern orthodox Jewish university, the modern orthodox Jewish university. He stressed that the newly approved club will be “according to Haracha,” or Jewish law.
“I apologize deeply to our community members (our students and parents, alumni and friends, faculty and Rabis) that this is how the news comes out,” Rabi Berman wrote in an email to students on Tuesday. “It’s not clear, it sows the chaos. The more misleading, misleading ‘news’ article says Yeshiva reverses its position, which is absolutely untrue.”
Since 2021, the university has been in a legal battle with its LGBTQ+ student body YU Pride Alliance. Yeshiva said that because of the orthodox position on same-sex relations, clubs are not legally recognized. The two parties announced a settlement last week where students will run an LGBTQ+ club called Hareni, which will “follow the approval guidelines of Yeshiva University’s Senior Rabbis.”
LGBTQ+ students celebrate settlements as new milestones. But Berman doubled down on an old proposal that began in 2022, when the university tried to create its own LGBTQ+ student club called Kol Yisrael Areivim. The plaintiff rejected the plan at the time, citing that the club would not be run by students. But Berman said Hareni was similarly created to “support efforts to achieve authentic, uncompromising students” living within the scope of Jewish law, “as stated before.”
“Jesiva has always conveyed what the Pride Club represents in contrast to undergraduate courses, where traditional views on marriage and gender were determined at birth,” Bellman wrote in a message to students. “Jesiva will never, nor will she approve such an undergraduate club, so we entered the lawsuit.”
As he saw, “Last week, the plaintiffs in the lawsuit against Yu accepted Hareni, instead of their initial lawsuit suing us, the lawsuit ended the case and the case had been dismissed.”
