Date: Sat, 8 Oct 1994 22:47:46 -0700 From: Mills Mike Subject: Yeshiva U. Facing Anti-Gay Backlash [Editor's Note: This story came from GayNet. Unfortunately, it does not always seem to be clear which quotes in the story are attributable to whom. -Mike] Yeshiva U. Facing Gay Backlash Some Students, Faculty Want Clubs Banned By BINYAMIN JOLKOVSKY SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT [FORWARD 9/30/94] NEW YORK -- A number of students, faculty and board members at Yeshiva University are launching a campaign to have gay clubs banned from campus, saying that they are incompatible with the school's Jewish roots. Already the school's president, Norman Lamm, says his office has been blitzed by phone calls and faxes demanding the groups, which were formed during the last few years, be banished. Meanwhile, the editor of the school paper at Yeshiva's law school, Jeff Stier, said he planned a front-page editorial opposing the clubs and what he says is an acceptance by officials of the gay lifestyle. The campaign could be a prelude to a larger fight over the direction of an institution many regard as the soul of the modern Orthodox movement. For more than a century, Yeshiva, with its well-respected graduate and undergraduate schools, has provided professional training and credentials for Orthodox Jews and has produced spiritual leaders for the modern Orthodox community. In the late 1960s, however, Yeshiva altered its charter and became a nonsectarian university, and today, some 25 years later, fallout from those changes seems to be tearing the campus apart. The fight could wind up alienating financial backers on both sides of the debate, who may see Yeshiva either as too religious or not religious enough. Sparked Furor "We must decide once and for all just who and what we are," the editor in chief of the student paper at Yeshiva's Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Jeff Stier, told the Forward. Yeshiva, he said, is in a spot where it must choose between "the politically unpopular position of banning gay social groups and letting Torah principles central to the university's essence fall by the wayside." Supporters of the groups deny that gay lifestyles clash with Judaic tenets. Even if they do, says Mr. Lamm, who is a modern Orthodox rabbi, the groups represent a minor concession that helps the school qualify for a tax-exempt status, without which the school could not survive. The anti-gay movement apparently took off after a student, Michael Kay, during an address at Cardozo's graduation in June, noted that he had a homosexual lover. The remark -- and the lack of a censure from the school -- sparked a furor; Mr. Lamm says along with calls for a ban, his office received numerous complaints about the school's silence in the wake of Mr. Kay's remark. Meanwhile, Mr. Stier said his paper's editorial would attack the administration and specifically Mr. Lamm, who was present for the speech and said nothing then or since. Mr. Lamm does not deny that he remained silent; he acknowledges that he has refused interviews with all other members of the press, including from Yeshiva's own student publications. He says, however, that he did so "with the best of intentions." He said the remark was "embarrassing" and the school did not want to call more attention to it by responding. Mr. Lamm said he was concerned that such attention could harm Yeshiva's reputation among some of its backers. A source close to the board at Yeshiva's rabbinical school, who asked that his name not be used, said board members and faculty there intend to release a statement commenting on the graduation incident. At the same time, another student, Moshe Schwartz, has told the Forward that he and other students have obtained sufficient petition signatures to qualify for funding from the school for a "family-values" club designed to "offset the gay clubs." Mr. Schwartz said the club would bring "pro-family" speakers to campus and distribute literature criticizing the gay lifestyle and touting traditional family structures. Concern over funding for the school, its accreditation and perceptions about Yeshiva among employers are at the heart of Mr. Lamm's reasons for supporting gay groups on campus. "To deny gay clubs the right to function would be to deny Yeshiva University its right to exist," Mr. Lamm says. "We have no intention of closing our doors over this. ... It is more important [to keep the clubs so] our school stays open." The president, moreover, appears to resent the criticism over Yeshiva's policies toward gays. "We need not always have to look over our right shoulder for approval," he says. According to officials at the Justice Department, the Department of Education and the office of the attorney general of New York, banning homosexual clubs from Yeshiva's campuses would not violate the law because, unlike race, sexual preference is not a protected civil right. The American Bar Association, which accredits Cardozo, says it ordinarily would strip accreditation from a university that refused to sanction gay clubs, but "religious-sponsored institutions" are excluded from the rule. The New York City Human Rights Commission said that if Yeshiva banned the clubs, it would lose its tax-exempt status. In any event, says the head of Cardozo's Lesbian and Gay Student Alliance, Karen Marcus, banning gay clubs would send a message that gays are not wanted at the university. "There are clubs for blacks, there are clubs for other minorities [at Yeshiva]. Why should there not be clubs for gays?" A former gay activist at Cardozo, Marc Tyler, adds that if Yeshiva were to ban the groups, its law school would lose credibility as a bastion dedicated to teaching "justice for all." He says "no respectable law firm would hire" the school's graduates. A number of professors, administrators and board members appear to be joining the move to prohibit gay groups. "In this day and age, Yeshiva University -- as a bastion of Torah -- should take the high road and not be embarrassed with what others might say," a key modern Orthodox rabbi and chairman of Yeshiva's biology department, Moshe Tendler, said. "Morally, Y.U. has a responsibility to declare gay and lesbian clubs unacceptable. And, if necessary, suffer any consequences for doing so." "While Judaism regards the homosexual act with repugnance, it has the greatest sympathy for the homosexual as a person," adds Rabbi David Bleich, a professor of law at Cardozo and a dean of the Yeshiva's rabbinical school. He said, however, that "society has a definite obligation not to bestow a seal of legitimacy upon homosexual activity." 'Utter Nonsense' Several board members at Yeshiva are also critical of the sanctioning of the clubs. Two members of Cardozo's board of directors, Romie Shapiro and Leon Charney, say the clubs do not fit in with Yeshiva's mission. Another member, however, Abraham Guterman, who is also a member of Yeshiva's board of trustees, said that the school "is not a theocracy" and should not bring "religious factoring into debates over social issues." Indeed, while opponents of the clubs say they are incompatible with the school's mission, proponents say it is the perception the school is a religious institution that is out of line. "To call Cardozo or any other graduate school of Yeshiva University 'Orthodox' is utter nonsense," the commencement speaker, Mr. Kay, told the Forward. "How can an institution be Orthodox if it funds gay and lesbian clubs?" Says the student editor, Mr. Stier: "In trying to enjoy the best of both worlds, Norman Lamm's silence has wound up subjecting our students to the worst of both worlds"--*--