Jewish Rituals & Ceremonies

Make sure you give a great first impression at your congregation this High Holiday season!

Joshua Maxey talks to Keshet about safety and security as an LGBTQ+ Jew of Color.

What does queer dignity in death look like? How can Jewish communities honor LGBTQ+ members in their passing? The story of Ben Rosenstein offers an entry point into these questions

An on-the-go companion to our Shabbat and Havdalah guide.

Bring these alternative four questions — and answers — to your seder table.

If you were to create a zine telling the story of this current moment and how we all got free, what would it include?

Being a queer Jew of Color can often feel like being asked to become a prophet — check out Saffron Mala Kaplan's insightful d'var torah!

How do we engage in teshuvah right now? Maybe we go outside the binary of right/wrong. Maybe we don't repair, but rather seek to understand and empathize both with ourselves and with those we have harmed and who have harmed us.

Let the shofar wake you up to what is possible this High Holiday season.

What Keshet's staff rabbis are thinking about and hoping for as the holidays approach.

Keshet intern Nuriel Gutman shares why these two holy days have more in common than you might think.

Use this guide to plan your own Pride Shabbat celebration, whether at your synagogue or in your living room.

Renowned author Lesléa Newman has written a fantastic new children's book just in time for Pride and we want you to know about it!

A conversation with K. Marcus, author of Frankenstein's Matzah, first Jewish picture book to feature a nonbinary main character.

Gabriella Spitzer has added a wonderful queer haggadah to our canon, and Keshet wants you to know about it!

Keshet Associate Director of Education and Training, Rabbi Lonnie Kleinman, reflects on how even when times are at their hardest, we can bring ease and comfort to each other and lengthen our days.

Concrete suggestions and best practices to design and support affirming B'Mitzvah celebrations.

Learn how teshuvah can be a source of catharsis and healing, particularly from an LGBTQ+ perspective.

Learn from Rabbi Mike Moskowitz about why discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community is an affront to life — and life's Source.

Reflections over the four cups to bring about a more liberated world.

Adapted from "Ma Nishtana - A LGBTQ+ and Ally Haggadah," this version of Dayeinu centers the struggles of LGBTQ people.

Add an orange to your seder plate to honor the LGBTQ+ and feminist Jewish history and future.

The definitive guide to the best hamantaschen for your zodiac sign.

While I was gloating about how my daughter doesn’t have to bring in Valentines because she attends a Jewish preschool, I missed the whole flip side. Purim. On Wednesday, we got an email that the kids should come into school in costume on Friday.

Invite Ushpizin/ata, our LGBTQ+ Jewish ancestors, into your Pride celebrations

Go beyond apples and honey with traditional and new foods for participatory magic! Created by Binya Koatz and daph ben david with Keshet.

Thank you for joining for the 2021 Community Pride Seder. Keshet works for LGBTQ Inclusion in Jewish life nationally and we are here to provide you with a tool kit that you can use for the entirety of this Seder and other LGBTQ programs through Pride and to use in your day-to-day life to be more inclusive and equitable for all LGBTQ+ people in your community.

Congregation Sha’ar Zahav's 16th Annual Pride Seder Pride Haggadah. June 2021

Celebrate the Jewish holidays and important LGBTQ+ dates!

A guide to counting the Omer, including meditations and blessings in feminine, masculine, and nonbinary Hebrew.

Many Jews light a yahrzeit candle in memory of those we have lost. In partnership with Cong. Beit Simchat Torah, Keshet is offering this printable sticker to help us mark Transgender Day of Remembrance.

Suggested ritual for a wedding ceremony for two men, including a rewritten Sheva Brachot (Seven Blessings).

This resource is intended to make this ritual inclusive for all kinds of families- with a gender-neutral traditional version, as well as new blessings for queer chosen families and for queer youth.

Bringing together various aspects of Purim celebrations and tradition, this webinar will explore the ways in which Jewish organizations can avoid the pitfalls of Purim and create a truly celebratory and liberating Purim celebration.

A personal reflection of a transgender person going to a mikveh.

An LGBTQ inclusive haggadah to use at Passover.

A bentcher that uses non-gendered language for God.

A supplement for a Passover seder to discuss bullying.

A complete LGBTQ+ themed Passover haggadah, co-created by Rabbi Micah Buck-Yael and others, following the traditional structure of the Seder.

Compiled and with original readings by Rabbi Nikki Lyn DeBlosi, PhD, this haggadah was originally created for use at the Bronfman Center for Jewish Student Life at NYU.

The author offers changes to a marriage ritual to make it more inclusive and affirming for LGBTQ people.

Intention to be read before reading Leviticus 18 on Yom Kippur, regarding the Torah’s enumerations of prohibited sexual relationships

A secular-humanist Rabbi discuss the differences and commonallities between same gender and different gender weddings.

A template and discussion on how to hold a queer affirming wedding ritual.

Rabbi Cohen, who served an LGBTQ congregation for ten years, looks at pastoral issues that might emerge as couples prepare for their wedding.

This article discusses a framework for thinking about same gender weddings.

A discussion and guide on how to include the Sheva Berachot in a Queer wedding.

A sermon delivered on Rosh Hashanah eve using twilight as a metaphor for transgender people, remarking on the holiness of intermediate space.

A statement from the Jewish Renewal community on the importance of women and LGBTQ in the leadership pof their movement.

This Torah Commentary reminds us that just as the Torah cannot stay in the ark, so too shouldn't LGBTQ pepole stay in the closet.

A Passover Haggadah insert about the story of one person's coming out journey.

Poem and blessings to accompany ritual immersion for a person who is coming out as LGBTQ compiled by Mayyim Hayyim, mikveh and educational center.

A reflection on the Al Cheyt high holiday prayer which focuses on the sins of transphobia and homophobia.

The author explores the details of traditional Jewish wedding ceremonies according to Jewish law and provides a detailed adaptation for Queer couples to use.

Liturgy and ritual for a coming out ceremony.

A ritual to add to the Passover seder about marriage equality.

LGBTQ+ Jews have always been here, will always be here, and can never be erased. Indeed, perhaps this is the moment of collective action we were made for.

Read this powerful poem from Thea Hillman marking one year since October 7.

Listen to this beautiful song to get into the Pesach spirit!

Supplement your seder discussion of the Four Children with this activity to encourage all voices to be heard.

Check out this guide to enhance your Shabbat and Havdalah services.

This activity can help you and your community make masks into works of art that affirm your identity this Purim!

Sage Cassell-Rosenberg gives their perspective on finding light in dark times and sharing their dreams for a more equitable Jewish future.

Contributor Tali Anisfeld shares their thoughts on Simchat Torah in this moving personal essay.

How do we atone when we miss the mark and cause harm? Contributor Aviva Davis provides useful insight.

A big theme of the high holidays is "teshuvah," often translated as repentance. But teshuvah can mean so much more; it can also mean honoring yourself for who you are.

Xava de Cordova on Tisha B'Av and the myriad faces of tragedy: grief, brokenness, laughter, and transformation.

Learn how you can get involved as a teen dedicated to LGBTQ+ equality.

"All the binary distinctions enforced at Passover are similarly hard to maintain." An excerpt from Joy Ladin's book, The Soul of the Stranger: Reading God and Torah from a Transgender Perspective.

Created by Cantor Melissa Berman of West End Synagogue in NYC.

Dive into this text study compiled by Keshet staff with a friend. Study these words and discover your own personal revelations!

A D’var Torah for Purim by Rabbi Micah Buck-Yael

Dr. King: "Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic."

Some seeds are not ready to sprout right away, and need time in the dark to feel the sun filter through. I’m glad I had the time and the care to heal and grow at my own pace.

Queer joy fosters a closeness with others that is unique and beautiful. Being in the presence of queer joy made me feel more confident in my queerness.

Tu Bishvat is an opportunity for us to cultivate our growth and development. We can offer gratitude to the natural world around us for giving structure to our chaotic lives. 

My leadership is the fruit and the flowers in bloom, and Martin Luther King, Jr. and the rest of my ancestors are the invisible roots I sometimes forget to pause and thank.

Download these gender-inclusive aliyah cards for your Torah service.

Tish’a B’Av is the major day of communal mourning in the Jewish calendar. This exercise is designed to gain a deeper understanding of Tish’a B’Av through exercises built around empathy and allyship.

On this Zoom discussion we came together for a pre-Passover schmooze with the Keshet team, and to hear about our favorite ways to make the Seder as queer as can be! We also took some time to hear from our community about their favorite Passover resources so we could prepare to celebrate!

This document, provided by the Community Hevra Kadisha of Greater Boston, works to provide a framework for inclusion of transgender and gender nonconforming Jews in traditional Jewish death and burial practices.

Sigd is a holiday celebrated by Ethopian Jews on the 29th of Cheshvan. Here, you will find more information about Sigd and the ways that our community celebrates it! How are you celebrating Sigd? We'd love to hear stories and see photos of how you are bringing your full, queer selves to this chag (holiday).

In this Torah Queery, Chaim Moshe HaLevi explores the origins of Chanukah and compares it to other winter religious festivals.

This Torah Queery makes a connection between the ritual cow slaughter with LGBTQ Pride celebrations.

This Torah Queery reflects on the proximity between Tu B'av and Tisha B'Av.

This Torah Queery focuses on the importance of celebrating diversity.

Essay by Rabbi Ayelet Cohen, a cis and straight ally dedicated to trans liberation. Though written in 2006 the message rings true today.

This Torah Queery reflects on the ways in which Moses would have been an ally to the LGBTQ community.

This Torah Queery reflects on the challenges of vulnerability and welcoming strangers.

This Torah Queery is about the nature of G-d and G-d's love.

This Torah Queery highlights the importance of using costumes on Purim to reveal our true selves.

A Torah Queery reflecting on the spirtual resonance of Sukkot.

This Torah Queery reminds us that on Pesach, we are obligated to think of ourselves as having personally come out of Egypt.

A Torah Queery about Jonah's attachment to judgment.

A reflection on the story of Ruth and Naomi.

This Torah Queery looks at the link between Passover and Yom Kippur.

This Torah Queery calls upon us to continuously grow and change to become more our true selves.

This Torah Queery explores the question of whom LGBTQ Jews might add to the list of sacred guests.

This Torah Queery draws an analogy between the celebration Pesach Sheni (second Passover) and the allowance of LGBTQ marriage

This Torah Queery reminds us of the importance of questioning, an act central to Judaism.

A Torah Queery that offers a reinterpretation of the Creation story which includes multple gender identities and sexual orientations.

A Blessing of the Sun ritual and how it connects to LGBTQ liberation.

This Torah Queery explores ideas of parenting.

Remarks given at Temple Emanuel in Newton, Massachusetts by Daniel Bahner, Keshet’s National Director of Education and training, which focus on the importance of being an ally.

This Torah Queery examines the Song of Songs as a path for being aware of God's presence in the universe, which is our ultimate purpose behind all of our Jewish traditions.

This Torah Queery decontructs Leviticus 18:22 word for word.

This Torah Queery highlights the conneciton between the High Holidays and the experiences of Queer people.

This Torah Queery reflects on Simchat Torah and why we don't read the book of Joshua.

A Jewish drag queen write about what Purim means to them.

A Torah Queery reflecting on the tension between powerful rulers and abuses of power.

Purim is about movement from the covert to the overt: each character has something to hide and later to reveal.

Rabbi Barbara Penzner explores the concept of ‘nistarot,’ hidden thoughts and secrets, to illuminate the different ways Jews have had to hide parts of their identities throughout Jewish history, and the ways that LGBTQ people too have had to hide parts of their identities.

A personal reflection on being a transgender person at synagogue.

All Genders Wrap is a series of tutorial videos with a cast of a diverse group of Jews of all genders demonstrating how to wrap tefillin.