LGBTQIA+ Celebration
LGBTQIA+ Celebration is a JRC Value.
JRC is a place where the LGBTQIA+ community is not merely welcomed but joyfully celebrated. Our members and guests who identify as lesbians, gay men, bisexual/pansexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex, asexual, or on any point in the spectrum of sexual orientation and/or gender identity are wanted and beloved here.
The importance of LGBTQIA+ Celebration corresponds to the JRC Board’s strategic values of kehillah (community) and btzelem elohim (made in God’s image).
JRC's Values in Action
JRC's members, both as a congregation and as individuals, are dedicated to a variety of social justice movements and causes. You'll find a link at the bottom of each of our VALUES pages that will connect you to a congregant coordinating these efforts; please reach out for more information.
Addressing the Current Crisis in Israel-Palestine | Disability Inclusion | Environmentalism | Immigrant Justice | LGBTQIA+ Celebration | Protecting the Vulnerable | Racial Equity & Antiracism | Welcoming Interfaith Families
How we engage with LGBTQIA+ Celebration at JRC.
- JRC’s senior rabbi, Rachel Weiss, is proud to be Evanston’s first lesbian rabbi.
- JRC’s clergy joyfully officiate weddings for people of all genders and sexual orientations.
- Our religious school’s post-b’nai-mitzvah program for teens includes Tzelem, an LGBTQIA+ Jewish identity exploration group.
- JRC marches in the Chicago Pride Parade, where we recite the Al HaNisim for Pride.
- Every year, we celebrate Pride Shabbat in June at our lakefront Friday night services.
- In 2023, member Nancy Katz shared this beautiful d’var torah for Pride Shabbat.
- We use both masculine and feminine language for God in many of our traditional prayers.
- Each of our seventh grade students decide how to describe the traditional coming of age ceremony for themselves: Bar Mitzvah for he/him, Bat Mitzvah for she/her, B’nai Mitzvah for they/them, or B’rit Mitzvah (entering the covenant of the mitzvot).