Yeshiva University, an Orthodox Jewish college in New York, has officially recognized an LGBTQ+ club after years of controversy that eventually led the dispute to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The university announced that the club “will seek to support LGBTQ students and their allies and will operate in accordance with the approved guidelines of Yeshiva University’s senior rabbis.”
Sexuality has been a contentious topic for some time at Yeshiva University. Legal battles reached the Supreme Court back in 2022, with the school arguing their acts remained consistent with the university’s religious independence, claiming they could not follow because of concerns the ruling “can not comply with that order because doing so would violate its sincere religious beliefs about how to form its undergraduate students in Torah values.”
The club claimed that Yeshiva University engaged in discrimination based on sexual orientation, violating New York City Human Rights Law. Justices ruled in favor of the students in 2022 and ordered Yeshiva to recognize the YU Pride Alliance. However, rather than complying, the school went as far as temporarily suspending all student clubs on campus to avoid acknowledging the club.
Katie Rosenfeld, an attorney for the YU Pride Alliance, called the move a “shameful tactic” and likened it to pushback during the civil rights era.
“Rather than accept one LGBTQ peer support group on campus,” she shared that the policy “is a throwback to 50 years ago when the city of Jackson, Mississippi closed all public swimming pools rather than comply with court orders to desegregate,” as reported by LGBTQ Nation.
In September 2022, over 1,600 Yeshiva community members signed a letter pushing to recognize the club. Faculty from YU graduate schools, like the Cardozo School of Law and the Wurzweiler School of Social Work, also condemned the lack of recognition with statements of their own.
Yeshiva University attempted to establish its own highly monitored version of a similar club known as “Kol Yisrael Areivim” [all Jews are responsible for each other] to support LGBTQ+ students. This faced heavy criticism from the YU Pride Alliance for lacking student input and genuine support. Students were outraged over Rabbi Hershel Schachter’s role as a supervisor due to a statement he made in 2010 denouncing homosexuality.
The gridlock came to the surface in early March. Tani Glaser, class of 2026, was allegedly harassed and assaulted. Yeshiva’s independent student newspaper, The Commentator, reported that the assailants used derogatory language, pushed Glaser into a table, and told the sophomore that he did not belong at Yeshiva. Only weeks later, YU decided to officially recognize an LGBTQ+ student club, marking a significant shift in the university’s approach to LGBTQ+ inclusion.
The club will now be known as “Hareni,” a Hebrew word derived from the phrase “Hareni mekabel alai,” which translates to “I hereby accept upon myself.” The newly recognized club’s name change symbolizes a new chapter rooted in acceptance and tradition.
An LGBTQ flag hanging in the front windows of the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law (Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
