Sandy Horwitz
Congregation Beth El Binah helped plan and will participate in Mitzvah Day on Oct. 30 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Jewish Federation of Dallas.
“Mitzvah” means “commandment.” To do a mitzvah usually refers to doing a good deed, but more literally means living by the commandments to make the world better.
BEB member Sandy Horwitz helped plan the day that includes about 100 projects at a variety of agencies around the city.
Horwitz said that she wanted to include something in the LGBT community so she planned an event at Legacy Founders Cottage in Oak Cliff. The afternoon will include doing some landscaping work and putting together gift bags.
Another project Horwitz organized is a pumpkin carving party at Chai House, a home for people with cognitive disabilities. She said she arranged that project because a member of the congregation lives at that facility.
The Jewish Federation is the central coordinating agency for the Jewish community in Dallas. More than 40 local organizations, including everything from ultra-Orthodox through most liberal Reform synagogues, as well as a variety of other groups, participate together in fundraising and volunteer projects as constituents of the federation.
I thought homosexuality was a violation of Jewish law. Can you be Jewish, live by the Torah commandments and embrace the LGBTQ community?
No, Jack. That’s Christian interpretation of Jewish law. Reform Judaism has same-sex marriage. Israel recognizes same-sex marriages performed elsewhere. (More people marry outside of Israel because the Orthodox control marriage there so in that country, it really is marriage equality). Conservative Judaism welcomes LGBT members and has gay and lesbian rabbis. Steve Greenberg is an openly gay Orthodox rabbi. Some fringe Orthodox groups have objections to homosexuality, but they are a minority and mostly have an objection to everyone else for one reason or another. We all have our extremists.