Orthodox Jewish school makes history by ordaining its first out gay rabbi

Gay Jewish Orthodox Rabbi Tadhg Cleary | YouTube screenshot

Yeshivat Chovevei Torah — an all-male Orthodox Jewish rabbinical school in Riverdale, New York — has ordained its first out gay rabbi, Tadhg Cleary.

Cleary’s June 12 ordination ceremony came six years after the school refused to ordain another gay student whose public wedding engagement went viral online, Forward reported. The head rabbi who refused to ordain the gay student, Rabbi Dov Linzer, gave his blessing for Cleary’s ordination, calling him “an enormous [Torah scholar] who is God-fearing, scrupulous in his observance and happens to be gay.”

“We want to be giving semicha to him for the totality of who he is, not to turn him into a symbol or a statement,” Linzer said. “If we were interested in making a statement, you would have heard about it from us first.”

Cleary reportedly informed the school of his sexual orientation before he applied and said that he would only accept admittance if he could live as a fully out gay man. However, his admittance and ordination put the school…

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