Tensions of a gay Jew focused through film

Nate Kimball Staff Writer

A documentary about the dilemma of combating interests of sexuality and religion attracted approximately 100 students filled Blodgett Auditorium on Feb. 20. Hineini, a documentary about current Brown University senior Shulamit Izen’s fight to start a Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) at the New Jewish High School of Greater Boston, is much more than a simple coming-out tale. It is a story of the moral quandaries faced by many teenagers and speaks to everyone who has ever confronted this barrier.

President of the Vassar Jewish Union (VJU) Laura Robbins ’06, attended the New Jewish High School and was friends with Izen. The two held a question-and-answer session after the screening, which about 40 people attended afterwards in the Bayit.

Izen spent most of her high school career figuring out how she could define herself both as gay and Jewish. “How can I be holy?” she asked her guidance counselor. Through careful study of the Torah and her heritage, she has come to terms with her homosexuality. Izen had periods of doubt when she did not think that her two lives could mix, but came out of high school self-assured.
“New Jew,” as the students call their school, started in 1997 as a pluralistic Jewish high school, and the administration was still having difficulties coming to terms with the school’s definition of pluralism when Izen started to make strides with her GSA idea in 2000. Massachusetts requires that students be allowed to start a GSA at public high schools, but private high schools are allowed to use their own discretion in the matter.

While Izen succeeded in forming Open House, the GSA at New Jew, she said that there is still a long way to go. “There are just a handful of students in Open House now, and no one at New Jew is out,” said Izen. “People struggle with accepting that being gay and Jewish is not necessarily a contradiction in terms.”

Another issue Izen pointed out is the fact that there have been many fewer gay men than women who have come out at New Jew.

“It’s a doctrinal issue,” said Izen. “While the Torah specifically forbids sexual acts between two males, it does not say anything about sexual acts between two women.”

Izen was overwhelmed by the accepting attitude at Vassar. “I am very impressed with the interest in Hineini,” said Izen. “Everyone here is very welcoming.” After two years at Smith College, she says that Brown University is a wonderful, but different, atmosphere.
Izen said, “Hineini was five years in the making. I am so glad to see that the time and effort spent to produce the film paid off.”