Rabbi Amy
EXPLORING THE INTERSECTION BETWEEN JUDAISM AND QUEERNESS. Interviewers: Tamar Ladd & Brooke Botwinick Written By: Tamar Ladd
Rabbi Amy Bernstein's journey to reestablish her place in the Jewish community, as well as foster LGBTQIA+ participation in Jewish life, led her to become the senior Rabbi of Kehillat Israel. Growing up, Rabbi Amy attended a Yeshiva. She reflects, "I really loved being part of a Jewish community and a Jewish day school. I loved feeling like we had something more than just being in the same school. We were part of the same people, we belonged to the same heritage, to the same family, and to Jews all over the world. There was something really special to me about growing up in a community of intention."
Her blissful Jewish upbringing was threatened when Rabbi Amy came out at sixteen. The Orthodox high school she attended was not welcoming and she faced difficult decisions. "I was devastated when I had to make a choice between what has been until then, my whole world, my family, my people, my teachers, and my best friends. I had to make a choice between that and living authentically as a lesbian. It was truly a devastating choice."
Her childhood community's exclusion made it difficult for her to feel close to and embraced by the larger Jewish community.
"Being a Rabbi is everything I love."
"I was so busy exploring this other part of my identity that I just shoved down the pain of not belonging in the Jewish world anymore."
After Rabbi Amy graduated from college, she moved back home to Atlanta with her girlfriend at the time. Rabbi Amy did not feel welcomed in the Jewish community after leaving college. It was difficult for her during the High Holidays as she experienced a hollow feeling without a place to belong.
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