ISRAEL AT WAR

17 Adar Bet 5782

Probably the vast majority of Jews believe Israel is in danger of war, but I'm here today to make you understand that we are already very deeply into an existential war that we are currently losing and only HKB"H can save us from utter destruction.  

Yes, there are tens of thousands of missiles aimed at us at any given time, but the cultural war is ongoing, it's assisted (even perpetrated) by our own government, and most people are either unaware of the need to fight back or else afraid to for fear of being labeled "racist."

These are some of the sites of recent battles:  Chomesh and Evyatar (eviction of Jews), Khan al Amar and Shimon HaTzaddik (non-eviction of non-Jews), the Kotel (Reform movement and WoW), nationwide ("aliyah" of non-Jews from Africa and Europe), the Knesset (religious "reforms" re: kashrut, conversion, Shabbat transportation, civil marriage and more), and then there are the missionaries.  If you thought this was restricted to Evangelical Christians, I've got a new one for you and believe me, it was new to me, too.  I call these the "Pride Missionaries."  

Tel Aviv Is Out: Dozens of New Queer Communities Change Israel's Landscape

Harish, in Israel’s north, is generally thought of as a sleepy town. The main streets don’t offer much for its residents, and it’s tough to find anything to do at night.

But in the summer of 2021, something historic happened. More than 20 years after the first LGBTQ Pride parade in Israel – in Tel Aviv – this community of 28,000 residents marked its very first Pride event.

It wasn’t taken for granted. A considerable proportion of Harish’s residents is religious and that the mayor wears a kippah.

“A little more than three years ago, we moved here from Netanya, and we found a void with regard to everything connected to the gay community,” says Ma’ayan Gilad, the LGBTQ community coordinator for Harish and the nearby town of Binyamina-Givat Ada.

“There were individuals here, but there was no work for their benefit,” she says. “I felt the need to bring people together and that’s how it started.

"I found myself talking to a woman from the ultra-Orthodox community who wanted to come out of the closet and didn’t have anyone to turn to, and supporting people in extreme circumstances. Last summer, we decided together that we wanted to hold the first Pride event in Harish. We did it with assistance from the Aguda – Israel’s LGBT Task Force, where I have volunteered in recent years.

"We brought in a drag show. We set up stands for children and adults where there were glitter tattoos for children and a henna artist for adults, and a photographer who took portraits for couples and families.

“I think we started a nice tradition that can’t be taken for granted in a mixed city of religious and secular people,” Gilad says. “We showed that we can live in peace with the neighbors, not to hold offensive events, but still address our needs and mark Pride month with a legitimate event.”

Activities for the LGBTQ community in Harish and nearby Binyamina-Givat Ada are run through a Facebook group that includes advertising for businesses from members of the community and through a WhatsApp group publicizing events and sharing surveys. The community will soon also be resuming meetings in which members of the community host others at their homes and share their personal histories.

“Within the LGBTQ community in Harish, there are families with children, there are singles, there are transgender members of all kinds, of all ages,” Gilad says. “In 90 percent of the cases, the members of the community have two reasons to move to Harish. The first is the low cost of housing, and the second is that there are a lot of other members of the community, which provides a comfortable feeling. I don’t claim that there isn’t homophobia and that everything is rosy. The authorities’ desire to work on behalf of the LGBTQ [community] is very apparent. Tel Aviv is not the only place where LGBTQ people can feel at home.”

60 LGBTQ communities

Harish is not the only such place. In recent years, more than 60 LGBTQ communities have developed, and various towns – including those beyond the greater Tel Aviv area, including Be’er Sheva in the south and Haifa in the north – and that provide funding for the community. Local governments employ 29 LGBTQ community coordinators, and there are 30 social workers specializing in the community – a number that is expected to triple by the end of the year, according to a Social Services Ministry plan. From the perspective of the Aguda, it’s a strategic step that will help support local LGBTQ communities.

“Work at the local authorities began a few years ago,” Ran Shalhavi, the Aguda’s CEO, says. “This step began due to the problems from the national government. For many years, we didn’t manage to pass almost any legislation, didn’t manage to make progress on the national political level, and we realized that the national leadership wasn’t reflecting the positions that the Israeli public had regarding the gay community.

“In a lot of surveys, we have been seeing a positive public position toward it, like in the matters of gay parenting and the fight against LGBTQ-hatred,” he continues. “At the same time, we’ve seen that the local authorities are getting stronger and are influencing the residents’ agenda, a process that became even more significant during the coronavirus pandemic. Among many in the community, there was a consensus that living out of the closet required moving to Tel Aviv, and we sought to shatter that argument.

“We began creating a two-part process,” he says. “The first was support for Pride events. We understood that it was a point that in many instances mobilizes the gay community and begins to develop a local activist community that creates change. In 2017, we began helping to fund Pride events around the country – in the first year, for about 15 communities. In the past year, we already got up to 35 Pride events. Even municipal governments that didn’t receive funding from us have referred to the event as an event of tolerance for the gay community and have been funding it – such as in Ramat Gan and Ra’anana.

“In addition to the Pride event, which is usually the first step in establishing a community, we began establishing local communities,” Shalhavi continues. “We got several people in Afula and began meeting with them. We asked them to invite their friends and we created a local community.

It's quite a long, sad and disgusting article, but this should be enough to prove my point. This is so reminiscent of Bilaam's plan to make God angry with us over the affair with the Midianite women, that I shudder to think of the consequences.

Hashem should have mercy on His dear children who are faithful to the covenant and terribly out-manned and out-gunned in this war for our very existence. 

Ana Hashem, Hoshia Na!!!