About Us

Keshet’s Vision:

Keshet envisions a world in which all LGBTQ Jews and our families can live with full equality, justice, and dignity.

Keshet’s Mission:

Keshet works for the full equality of all LGBTQ Jews and our families in Jewish life. We strengthen Jewish communities. We equip Jewish organizations with the skills and knowledge to build LGBTQ-affirming communities; create spaces in which all queer Jewish youth feel seen and valued; and advance LGBTQ rights nationwide.

Our story:

Not too long ago, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer Jews were largely invisible in American Jewish life. Marriage equality wasn’t on anyone’s radar — certainly not on the radar of most synagogues and Jewish organizations — and there was not a single gay-straight alliance at a Jewish high school.

Keshet changed that reality. Founded in 1996 as a small, volunteer-run group in Greater Boston by Jonathan Krasner and Jared Goldfarb, Keshet is now a national organization with offices in the Bay Area, Chicago, and New York, in addition to our headquarters in Boston. We are the only organization in the U.S. that works for LGBTQ equality in all facets of Jewish life — synagogues, Hebrew schools, day schools, youth groups, summer camps, social-service organizations and other communal agencies. We have developed the leadership of LGBTQ Jewish teens, trained Jewish educators to prevent anti-LGBTQ bullying and celebrate LGBTQ Jewish identity, and mobilized Jewish communities to protect marriage equality and transgender rights.