KESHET: The Rainbow Connection

Just a few weeks ago, my Baltimore synagogue and every synagogue around the world read the story of Noah’s Ark as part of weekly Biblical portion traditionally read in Judaism. Coming out of the ark, Noah was unsure if the entire world had been destroyed. Trapped inside for more than a year, he felt the swaying vibrations of the flood, below the gopher wood floor that could burst in seconds and drown him. Inside the ark, he pondered for nights, wondering when the storm would end and when he could finally come out. If he could ever come out. This is my experience as an LGBTQ+ Jewish teenager, my nerves building up inside the closet, never knowing when God would present me with the right time to take that first step outside.  

Would the world be destroyed if I dare set foot out of the ark I built? Was there even an island of land to support me from the depths below? 

Leaving his ark behind, Noah was greeted with the first rainbow as a promise that he would never again experience the anxiety and alienation from inside the ark, that his world would never be engulfed by the depths again. This is the experience of LGBTQ+ Jewish teenagers discovering KESHET for the very first time.  

KESHET, derived from the Hebrew word for rainbow, is a national organization for LGBTQ+ Jews and their allies, instituted in Jewish schools, camps and synagogues around the country. My school, Beth Tfiloh, a large Modern Orthodox community day school, even has its own chapter of KESHET as a club for high school students. Beth Tfiloh teacher Phil Jacobs “[feels] allied with the students at school” and as the KESHET club’s faculty advisor, believes that while there has been so much progress in the few years since KESHET’s installation, there is still more to be done.  

Initially known as ‘SIRI,’ the LGBTQ+ club at Beth Tfiloh relied on “a small handful of influential students” remembers Mr. Jacobs, but following their graduation, new leaders would emerge in their place.  

“The [former] heads of the club came to me and asked if I wanted to join,” says sophomore Izzy Leavey, one of the club’s current two heads. A familiar face in Beth Tfiloh’s halls, Izzy expresses an overt queer identity, sporting pride stickers on their laptop and water bottle and even a pride flag backdrop on their smart watch. While they feel comfortable expressing their identity in a physical, material sense, passing the torch to Leavey opened their eyes to the responsibility of being a leader in a new frontier for the Orthodox Jewish community.  

“In the KESHET club, students can say what they want [regarding LGBTQ+ issues] without people receiving it as ‘inappropriate’- we’re here to educate people.” Education is Izzy’s main philosophy.  

Since SIRI’s rebranding as KESHET four years ago, a lot has changed. “I’m not afraid to talk about [the KESHET club] anymore,” says Mr. Jacobs, “When we first started, we did have some antagonism. I used to worry about announcing it on Friday assembly, but not anymore – it’s small, but we’ve come a long way.”  

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This post was initially published as an article for CAMP Rehoboth’s “Letters” magazine as a column for an issue on a local Welcoming Schools initiative, on December 19, 2024.