Author Bio And Photos | Q and A with Rabbi Greenberg | Articles By Rabbi Greenberg

Rabbi Steven Greenberg is a Senior Teaching Fellow at CLAL -- The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership based in New York City. He received his B.A. in Philosophy from Yeshiva University and his rabbinical ordination from Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary. Since 1985 Rabbi Greenberg has served as a senior educator for CLAL, a think tank, leadership training institute and resource center. He has conducted hundreds of programs for communal lay and professional leaders of Jewish Federations, synagogues and philanthropic institutions in over fifty cities in North America

In 1993, while still in the closet, Rabbi Greenberg wrote a ground-breaking article entitled, Gayness and God: Wrestlings of a Gay Orthodox Rabbi, published in Tikkun Magazine. In response to this article, Greenberg received many supportive letters from Orthodox and non-Orthodox Jews, gay and straight, and was encouraged to begin the outline of a more serious treatment of the issue. In 1996, Rabbi Greenberg was recognized as a master educator and was awarded a prestigious Jerusalem Fellowship which provided him two years in Jerusalem to study educational policy issues and to research the biblical and rabbinic attitudes towards sexuality.

Once settled in Jerusalem, Rabbi Greenberg founded a gay men’s study group, Moah Gavra. Through it, he met filmmaker/director Sandi Simcha DuBowski in the beginning of his efforts to create a documentary film about Othodox gay Jews, and so began their collaboration.

During his stay in Jerusalem, Rabbi Greenberg was approached by a group of Israeli gay activists to help them in the founding of the Jerusalem Open House, Jerusalem's first gay and lesbian community center, advancing the cause of social tolerance in the Holy City. Greenberg continues to serve as the educational advisor to the Open House.

Upon his return to the US in March of 1999, Greenberg came out publicly as the first openly gay Orthodox rabbi. Since his coming out, Rabbi Greenberg has become a public advocate for ending the silence in the Orthodox community on the issue of homosexuality in the US and abroad.

In addition to being featured in DuBowski’s award-winning documentary, Trembling Before G-d, Greenberg joined with the film maker to create a worldwide outreach project employing the film as an educational tool. Following the release of the film in 2001, the duo have conducted over 500 post-screening community dialogues in the US, Canada, Israel, UK, Germany, Mexico and South America. Under the direction of Rabbi Greenberg and Tanya Zion, the outreach project conducted screenings and dialogues in Israel’s religious school system, reaching over 2,000 principals, educators and school counselors and opening up a conversation that had not been previously entertained.

In November, 2003, Dubowski and Greenberg partnered with therapist Naomi Mark to organize the first Orthodox Mental Health Conference on Homosexuality. The Conference brought together Orthodox therapists from all over North America to address the issues faced by gay and lesbian clients and their families for the first time.

The culmination of ten years of struggle, research and thought has come to fruition in Rabbi Greenberg's recently finished book entitled: Wrestling with God and Men: Homosexuality in the Jewish Tradition, University of Wisconsin Press (February 2004).

Rabbi Greenberg is currently touring throughout the US and Canada to speak about his book and the issues it raises.

To contact the author, email him at SteveGreenberg@WrestlingWithGodAndMen.com.

Rabbi Greenberg at Jerusalem's first Pride Parade in 2002.