Categories for Keshet

Ensuring Freedom for All of Us

Yesterday marked Independence Day, a day dedicated to the United States Independence as a nation and the freedom for all of its citizens. Yet we know that celebrating freedom on the 4th of July has always come with an asterisk: freedom, initially, only for white men, and today, even though…

Celebrating Pride in a Red State

Pride month exists as a duality: it is both a month of celebration, joy, and pride and also a month of anger and grief. Pride commemorates the Stonewall riots, one of the foundations for the LGBTQ+ rights movement, and is a time for us to reflect on our history of…

We Can’t Stop Fighting

Four years ago, I stood outside of Stonewall, the place where the movement for LGBTQ+ rights was ignited, and said to my best friend, “Promise me in fifty years, wherever we are, we’ll come back for the 100th anniversary.”  Growing up queer in New York, Greenwich Village was one of…

Reflections on the River: Queerness, Jewishness, and Belonging

נחל (nachal): river  נחלה (nachala): inheritance There is no beginning to this story. We begin midstream. We begin in a gush of water from our mother’s bodies. In our first moist breath.  It is rain that gathers there and begins to flow. It is the snow that fell in drifts…

Expanding Our Reach With Your Help

As attacks proliferate against our community, Keshet is expanding to meet the need. We are excited to welcome two new staff members, both based in Texas: Rachel Gollay, Southwest Community Mobilization Manager, and Kachel Kohnhorst, Southwest Education & Training Manager. Our Southwest team is already hard at work strengthening our…

Honoring the History of Juneteenth

Juneteenth was never something taught to me in school. I instead learned that one day slavery was abolished and that was the end of it. It was treated unceremoniously, as if the collective consciousness of our nation simply changed and enslaved Black Americans became free.  The first time I ever…

Report Back on the TX and FL Legislative Sessions

THANK YOU to those who took bold action over the past few dangerous and demanding months to share your Jewish values with your legislators, values that urge that ALL people, regardless of sexual orientation, gender, or any other identity, be treated with dignity by the people elected to serve them.…

Meet Keshet’s New Board Chair, Ari Kristan

We Need Each Other

It is Pride month, a time which usually fills me with joy and hope.Yet I need to be honest: right now, I am writing from an emotional place of fury. So many of us feel the devastating effects of the 500 anti-LGBTQ+ bills introduced in 46 states this year, with…

Beha’alotcha | Queering Chronology (Numbers 8:1 – 12:16)

This commentary was originally published as part of Bayit’s Builder’s Blog, part of an ongoing series that explores Torah through an ethic of social justice and building a world worthy of the Divine. Existing as a Black, bisexual Jew is a big deal for me. My identity informs how I…