Education, Tikkun Olam

LGBTQ Inclusion in the Jewish Community Forum

About this project

The LGBTQ inclusion in the Jewish community forum aims to create a platform to explore the issues about inclusion and contribute to an inclusive and accepting community. Participants of the forum were Jewish community leaders and professionals from community organizations. During the project's two years, the participants organized several community panel discussions, seminars, and conferences and also created an educational booklet about inclusion.

Why is it important?

In the public discussions of the Jewish community, inclusion and integration are rarely mentioned, and we speak the least about LGBTQ inclusion. Yet, it would be important to deal with it as many LGBTQ Jews can face prejudices, lack of acceptance, or in certain cases, even discrimination in the Jewish community. Not talking about it almost always leads to tension and frustration – we can experience this in our immediate environment as well as in the broader society. Prejudices against any social group are a result of the lack of knowledge and experience. If prejudices are followed by actions, they can cause a lot of harm to the life of individuals and communities.

Why is it special?

It was the very first time that LGBTQ inclusion got such a high profile in the community. We can also consider the collaboration among the organizations and the community professionals unique, as during the 2-year program series, a permanent team of nearly ten people worked together to bring the topic of inclusion into the community, organize the events, and create the educational booklet. The one-day conference in 2017 in both English and Hungarian offered 12 programs all together. Participants could choose from panel discussions, lectures, workshops, and other discussions. The highlight of the conference was the plenary panel debate that the Jewish community's formal and informal leaders attended.