Episode Details

Rabbi Denise Eger joins Rabbi Ari Averbach to trace her 38‑year rabbinic journey from Memphis to the pulpit, and the hidden struggles of LGBTQ students in seminary. She recounts organizing secret support networks, her ordination in 1988, and serving as rabbi of Beth Chayim Chadashim during the height of the AIDS crisis—pastoring the sick, educating institutions, and building community care when mainstream support was absent.

The conversation follows Eger’s leadership in changing Reform movement policy and practice around LGBTQ inclusion, including public visibility that helped shift Hebrew Union College and the Central Conference of American Rabbis toward nondiscrimination and support for same‑sex marriage. She reflects on Rabbi Harold Schulweis’s moral courage to learn and change, the importance of in‑reach (kiruv) to welcome Jews who feel excluded, and the long work of expanding Jewish belonging.

Turning to today, Eger warns about cancel culture, virulent antisemitism, and online radicalization of youth, calling for sustained moral courage from clergy and lay leaders. She closes by honoring LGBTQ ancestors and celebrating Pride, sharing liturgy from her Mishkan Ga’ava collection that remembers those who fought and sacrificed so future generations could live openly and with dignity.

LINKS:

Morality Legality and Homosexuality — A Rosh Hashanah Sermon by Rabbi Harold M. Schulweis
Rosh Hashanah 5753, September 27, 1992

TEXT
AUDIO

Mishkan Ga'avah: Where Pride Dwells—A Celebration of LGBTQ Jewish Life and Ritual
Edited by Rabbi Denise L. Eger
Foreword by Loren Ostrow