Film on gay Jewish student shown at State House event

State legislators viewed “Hineini,” a documentary on a gay student’s “coming out” at a Boston area Jewish day school, and discussed the film with the student, Shulamit Izen, and the filmmakers at a special screening at the State House last week.

No More Closets: Coming Out in a Jewish High School

Filmmaker Irena Fayngold explores the tension between religious belief and sexual identity through the eyes of a teenager coming of age in the modern world in her film Hineini: Coming Out in a Jewish High School

Irena Fayngold’s Hineini: Coming Out in a Jewish High School tells the story of Shula’s determination to establish a Gay- Straight Alliance at the New Jewish High School (now the Gann Academy), a private pluralistic religious school in Waltham, Massachusetts. But it also tells the bigger story of what it means to be gay and Jewish in modern times and how to reconcile one’s sexual identity with a religion that calls homosexuality an abomination.

Coming out in high school: Film aims to help give voice to religious gay students

When Shula Izen plaintively wondered if it’s possible to be Jewish and gay and remain holy in the film Hineini: Coming Out in a Jewish High School, the moment rang true for many attending the sold-out Sunday afternoon screening at the Washington Jewish Film Festival at the Washington DC Jewish Community Center.

Hineini: Coming Out In A Jewish High School

An engaging portrait of a pioneering teen activist at The New Jewish High School of Boston -- dubbed “New Jew” by students and faculty -- “Hineini: Coming Out in a Jewish High School” examines the implications of affirming one’s gay orientation despite the Torah’s provision that “Homosexuality is an abomination before the Law.”

Arts & Culture Student, Jewish School Star in Documentary on Jewish Lesbian

In the poignant opening frames of the new film “Hineini,” Shulamit Izen thumbs through stacks of books at her local library, searching for an answer to the following question: “Is it possible to be Jewish and a lesbian?”

New Film Peers Into the Teenage Jewish Closet

To proclaim “Hineini” — the Hebrew word for “Here I am” — is perhaps also to posit a question: If this is who I am and I stand here, who are you and where do you stand? Then, maybe, who are we and where do we stand?

Gann documentary sparks Jewish-gay debate

Do openly gay students have a place at Jewish schools?

To be young, Jewish and gay

Even a documentary sometimes needs a star, and Shulamit Izen is just that in HINEINI: Coming Out in a Jewish School.

One girl’s push to form a gay group forced a school to search its soul

Tucked somewhere between the Scrabble Club and the Yiddish Club on the roster of 40 student organizations on the website of Gann Academy, the New Jewish High School of Greater Boston, is this listing for the group Open House: ‘’The gay-straight alliance at Gann Academy advocates for understanding and tolerance and provides a supportive space for discussion and learning.”

Identidades: El camino del arco iris

Cómo conciliar el judaísmo con el lesbianismo era la pregunta que desvelaba a la norteamericana Idit Klein cuando se acercó a lo que terminó convirtiéndose en Keshet, una ONG de Boston que ahora la tiene como presidenta.

Keshet’s ‘quick dates’

Event serves Boston's gay Jewish singles.

Q+A Irena Fayngold

Director Irena Fayngold’s documentary Hineini (boston-keshet.org) is about a teen’s struggle to form a gay-straight alliance in her Jewish high school in Boston and how the process changed everyone, including four closeted gay teachers who came out. Fayngold tells curve about the experience.

Keshet offers a proud alternative

Picnic brings together Jewish community for Pride.

Philly day school bathroom seen as symbol of transgender inclusion

At most Jewish day schools, naming honors tend to be attached to grand spaces — auditoriums, prayer spaces, gymnasiums and the like. But at the Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy, a pluralistic day school in suburban Philadelphia, Patrick Rock’s name will forever be associated with what might seem to be a rather ordinary space: a bathroom.

GA / Jewish leaders pushed to reach out to gay groups

Jewish gay and lesbian speed dating not only fills a social gap in the North American Jewish community, but it can also be a great fund-raiser. This was one of several program ideas shared at yesterday’s session on “Bridging the Gap: Jewish Leadership and the GLBT Community” by Idit Klein of the Boston-based Keshet organization.