(RNS) — Yeshiva University in New York City has settled a long-running lawsuit with its LGBTQ+ club by agreeing to formally recognize the group and give it all the rights and privileges of other clubs on campus.
The settlement ended a bitter four-year battle in which the Modern Orthodox Jewish school had resisted, on religious grounds, recognition of the club, known as the Yeshiva University Pride Alliance. As part of the settlement, the club’s name was changed. It will now be called Hareni, a Hebrew word meaning “hereby.”
A three-sentence announcement ending the legal saga was posted Thursday (March 20) on the Yeshiva University website. It said the club would “seek to support LGBTQ students and their allies and will operate in accordance with the approved guidelines of Yeshiva University’s senior rabbis.”
“It is with great pleasure and excitement that we announce to everyone that we are now an official club at YU!” Pride Alliance co-Presidents Schneur Friedman and Hayley Goldberg posted to a WhatsApp group.
In many Orthodox Jewish settings, including the vast Haredi world, strict adherence to Torah and Jewish law has meant denying LGBTQ+ identifying people equal rights.
Advocates for LGBTQ+ youth heralded the settlement.
“This is a big deal,” said Rachael Fried, executive director of JQY (Jewish Queer Youth), an organization that served as a home for queer Yeshiva University students who were not allowed to meet as a group on campus.
“It will lead to a big shift in the modern Orthodox world in general, but YU is a flagship institution in the Modern Orthodox world, and this should set an example for all the other modern Orthodox institutions that it is possible to be committed to Torah and to Jewish law, and to affirm LGBTQ identities.”
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The legal battle on the issue began in 2021 and went all the way up to the Supreme Court. First, a New York County Supreme Court judge ruled that Yeshiva was required to recognize the Pride Alliance. That was upheld by the New York Appellate Division. Yeshiva appealed directly to the U.S. Supreme Court, which decided the case must first go to the New York Court of Appeals. In the meantime, it ordered the university to recognize the group.
The university responded and announced it would suspend student groups instead of recognizing the alliance. In 2022, YU reached a settlement with the Pride Alliance to defer recognition of the club until litigation concluded and to allow other clubs to continue their activities.
Queer Jewish ally groups welcomed Thursday’s settlement giving the group formal recognition, but said they hoped it would lead to more change.
“This is a good first step and there’s a lot more work to be done so that every LGBTQ+ student is treated and accepted as any other student,” said Miryam Kabakov, executive director of Eshel, a New York-based nonprofit with a mission to build LGBTQ+ inclusive Orthodox Jewish communities. “We ultimately want homophobia to be completely non-existent at Yeshiva University. There is still a long way to go to make attitudinal shifts on the ground.”
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