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Rabbi Sheila Shulman, the rabbi of London's gay and lesbian synagogue Beit Klal, started her rabbinical journey in 1984 at the age of 48 while enjoying a cheap holiday at a convent where she developed a strong friendship with a Benedictine nun. "She told me that I was passionate about the Jewish religion whether I knew it or not." Originally from Brooklyn, Sheila who is now 58 grew up in a poor immigrant family with strong socialist leanings, listening to Yiddish soap operas on the radio. "We didn't have a television until I was 13. Come to think of it we didn't have a telephone either," she says. In 1970 she moved to London deciding that the UK was a gentler place to continue her jagged career in academia and publishing. In 1958 Sheila applied to Leo Baeck College openly as a lesbian feminist. After she was ordained a few years ago, Rabbi Lionel Blue suggested that she start a gay and lesbian synagogue. "I wanted it to welcome everyone, gays, lesbians, Jews with non-Jewish partners, secular--for it to act as a community centre," she says. Although Beit Klal still does not have permanent premises, the congregation has recently been asked by the Board of Deputies, the representative body of Anglo-Jewry, to send a representative. "The Jewish community is waking up to the fact that we have a great deal to offer."
Compiled by Victoria Stagg Elliott |
All content herein is © 1995 Gay Times, London.