2024-08-11 Report

Jewish Rainbow Brunch

The event was at the Shar Shalom Synagogue.

There were about 50 people at the brunch; probably 20 of those were queer.

The event was run by Sky Smith; he’s administering a program of multicultural presentations at the Shaar; the first one for example was by someone whose father moved to Halifax in the 1960s, from a Jewish community in India which left Israel three thousand years ago.

There were two short presentions:

• a member of the congregation who has a trans daughter; she said when the daughter came out, she said, "I don't care what you are as long as you're a mensch."
• and another woman who had recently moved here from Israel, and was in the Israeli army and wanted to talk about the misconception that queer folk can’t serve, or are ostracized; she said that was far from the truth.

Rabbi Gary Karlin had a few serious and a few funny things to say.

The discussion afterward ranged over many topics but there was quite a bit about the hows and the whys of antisemitism at Halifax Pride this year; people were curious about Pride’s logic, and Sky and I did a back-and-forth about that which I think people really appreciated. Sky noted that this event was called "Rainbow Brunch" not "Pride Brunch" because of the degraded relationship with the festival.

It was very refreshing to be in a space where discussion and argument were welcomed and not in a place where the rules of engagement were: "If you disagree you shut up and go home."