Jerusalem Open House

Jerusalem Open House for Pride and Tolerance
הבית הפתוח בירושלים לגאווה ולסובלנות
البيت المفتوح في القدس للفخر والتسامح
Founded 1997
Type LGBT Rights
Location
Area served
Jerusalem
Key people
 Chairperson of the Board:
Eran Globus
Executive Director:
Ofer Erez
Website joh.org.il

The Jerusalem Open House for Pride and Tolerance (JOH, Hebrew: הבית הפתוח בירושלים לגאווה ולסובלנות‎ HaBayit HaPatuach, "Open House" Arabic: البيت المفتوح في القدس للفخر والتسامح‎ Al-Beit Al-Maftoukh) is an activist organization of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) people and their allies. Since 1997, the JOH has aimed to provide direct services for the LGBT community within the city of Jerusalem and to secure LGBT rights in Israeli society at large.

History

The Jerusalem Open House was founded in 1997. The annual Jerusalem Pride marches organized by the center have become the largest human-rights demonstrations in Jerusalem.[1] In 2006 the JOH hosted WorldPride. The JOH also founded the first LGBT health clinic in Israel—the Open Clinic—and developed programming including a comprehensive youth program and unique projects bridging LGBT and religious identities.

Jerusalem March for Pride and Tolerance

In 2002 JOH sued the city of Jerusalem for not allowing them to have a pride parade. The JOH won this case, and the city of Jerusalem paid the group the equivalent of 10,000 USD in settlement.[2] Since, the JOH has organized the annual pride parades in Jerusalem under the name "Jerusalem March for Pride and Tolerance."[3][4]

In 2005 a municipal ban attempted to halt the parade, but it was overturned by a district court order.[5][6][7] Protesters, many of them religious Jews, lined the mile-long parade route shouting insults and displaying signs with messages like: "You are corrupting our children," and "Jerusalem is not San Francisco."[5] During the parade, Yishai Schlissel, a Haredi Jew, stabbed three parade participants with a kitchen knife. During a police interrogation, he described the motive behind his actions: "I came to murder on behalf of God. We can't have such abomination in the country."[8] The perpetrator was subsequently convicted of three counts of attempted murder and sentenced to 12 years in prison. The Jerusalem District Court also ordered that NIS 280 million (about USD 60 million) be paid as compensation to the victims.[9] Schlissel was released in 2015 and returned to the Pride Parade in 2015 to attack again.[10]

The 2006 Pride parade was also steeped in controversy. Radical right-wing activists Hillel Weiss, Baruch Marzel and Itamar Ben-Gvir declared a "holy war" against those participating in the Parade and announced that unless the parade was cancelled, violence would ensue.[11] The Parade's coordinators filed a complaint, accusing them of incitement to murder.[12] A week before the parade violent rioting broke out in the Haredi neighborhood of Mea Shearim. Seven policemen and a number of unknown protesters were wounded. However, the parade proceeded without incident.

In 2015 six people were stabbed at the parade by Schlissel, the same perpetrator of the 2005 stabbing.[3] This stabbing resulted in the death of Shira Banki, who was 16 years old.[3][13] Schlissel has since been sentenced to life in prison for six counts of attempted murder.[14]

Advocacy

The JOH takes action on a variety of issues concerning the LGBT community through campaigning and advocacy. Current campaigns include efforts to convince the Rabbinical School of the Conservative movement to accept LGBT people into its Rabbinical program in Israel; to achieve recognition for LGBT victims of the Holocaust and their inclusion in Israel's national Holocaust memorial ceremonies; and to protest against conversion therapy.[15][16][17]

Religious programming

The JOH offers ongoing religious programming, including Kabbalat Shabbat services and holiday services. The center also organizes meetings and events for people of all religious denominations, including a social group for Orthodox gay men.[18] In addition, JOH supports exchanges with LGBT synagogues abroad.[19]

JOH has also hosted family friendly gatherings for Purim.[20]

Health services

In 2008 JOH opened a clinic which offers anonymous HIV testing and counseling to anyone. The clinic can also prescribe post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP), but pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is not available in Israel.[2][21]

Youth services

JOH offers services specifically for youth living in the area around Jerusalem, including doing outreach in schools and helping young people come out to their families.[22][23]

Controversy

The JOH has been involved in some controversy, both within Israel and in the United States.[24][25][26]

In 2014 the JOH was erroneously linked to the killing of Muhammad Abu Khdeir. There was a rumor that Khdeir had been a member of JOH and that was the reason for his murder. JOH claimed that this was not true and the group reiterated that they want peace between Israelis and Palestinians.[24] The group has had Palestinian members since 2001, although Palestinians have been forming their own groups since around 2007.[25]

In 2016 a Shabbat service planned by A Wider Bridge and in which JOH participated as part of the National LGBTQ Task Force's Creating Change Conference was first cancelled, then un-cancelled, and finally protested against by anti-Israeli protesters in Chicago.[26][27][28][29][19][30][31][32] Protestors accused the groups of pinkwashing and physically disrupted a presentation that JOH members were giving about the attack at the 2015 Jerusalem March for Pride and Tolerance.[33][34]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Jerusalem Open House for Pride and Tolerance – AWiderBridge". awiderbridge.org. Retrieved 2017-07-11.
  2. 1 2 "Jerusalem LGBT group sees 'incremental' progress". Washington Blade: Gay News, Politics, LGBT Rights. 2016-12-07. Retrieved 2017-07-06.
  3. 1 2 3 "Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat will not attend LGBTQ pride parade". The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com. Retrieved 2017-07-06.
  4. ↑ "Hundreds march in capital's 13th Gay Pride parade". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 2017-07-11.
  5. 1 2 Matthew Kalman (1 July 2005). "Jerusalem's gay pride marchers attacked / 3 participants stabbed, 13 protesters arrested as ultra-Orthodox crowd tries to halt parade". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 3 August 2015.
  6. ↑ "BBC NEWS | Middle East | Jerusalem bans gay pride parade". news.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2017-07-11.
  7. ↑ "Upcoming amendment will test Israeli gov't regard for LGBT rights | +972 Magazine". 972mag.com. Retrieved 2017-07-11.
  8. ↑ "Israeli man faces attempted murder charges for stabbing three gay pride marchers". Wikinews.
  9. ↑ Tal Rosner (8 February 2006). "Gay Parade stabber gets 12 years in prison". Ynetnews. Retrieved 3 August 2015.
  10. ↑ Oren Liebermann; Jason Hanna (31 July 2015). "Repeat attacker stabs 6 at Jerusalem gay pride parade, police say". CNN. Retrieved 3 August 2015.
  11. ↑ Efrat Weiss (18 October 2006). "Baruch Marzel: Pride parade will lead to violence". Ynetnews.
  12. ↑ Neta Sela (27 October 2006). "Gay group files complaint for incitement to murder". Ynetnews. Retrieved 3 August 2015.
  13. ↑ "Teenager stabbed during Jerusalem Pride march dies". Washington Blade: Gay News, Politics, LGBT Rights. 2015-08-02. Retrieved 2017-07-06.
  14. ↑ "Jerusalem Pride attacker sentenced to life in prison". Washington Blade: Gay News, Politics, LGBT Rights. 2016-06-26. Retrieved 2017-07-06.
  15. ↑ "HOLOCAUST GAYS ACKNOWLEDGED". MambaOnline - Gay South Africa online. 2006-04-27. Retrieved 2017-07-11.
  16. ↑ "LGBT activists and homophobes against free speech". The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com. Retrieved 2017-07-11.
  17. ↑ Schusterman, Lynn (2015-02-16). "Conversion Therapy: Jerusalem, Unite to Fight Prejudice Against LGBTQ Jews". Haaretz. Retrieved 2017-07-11.
  18. ↑ "WATCH: In Israel, Modern Orthodoxy embraces the religious LGBTs — partly". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 2017-07-11.
  19. 1 2 "A larger LGBTQ tent". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 2017-07-11.
  20. ↑ "Jerusalem's LGBT community celebrates Purim". The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com. Retrieved 2017-07-11.
  21. ↑ Rudoren, Jodi (2015-08-06). "Soul-Searching in Israel After Bias Attacks on Gays and Arabs". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-07-11.
  22. ↑ "Panic in Cleveland, Gay Pride in Jerusalem". Tablet Magazine. Retrieved 2017-07-11.
  23. ↑ "Grapevine: Windows on style". The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com. Retrieved 2017-07-11.
  24. 1 2 "Jerusalem LGBT center falsely linked to killing of Palestinian". Washington Blade: Gay News, Politics, LGBT Rights. 2014-07-17. Retrieved 2017-07-06.
  25. 1 2 Murphy, Maureen Clare (2013-07-12). "Though small, Palestine's queer movement has big vision". The Electronic Intifada. Retrieved 2017-07-11.
  26. 1 2 Shire, Emily (2017-07-02). "We Were Kicked Off Chicago's Dyke March for Not Being 'the Right Kind of Jew'". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 2017-07-11.
  27. ↑ "How Intersectionality Makes You Stupid". Tablet Magazine. Retrieved 2017-07-11.
  28. ↑ "Protesters disrupt Jewish reception at Chicago gay conference". The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com. Retrieved 2017-07-11.
  29. ↑ "The Dangerous Myth of Israeli 'Pinkwashing' Must End". The Forward. Retrieved 2017-07-11.
  30. ↑ "Amid anti-Israel controversy, LGBTQ group condemns anti-Semitism". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 2017-07-11.
  31. ↑ Stern, Mark Joseph (2016-01-25). "The LGBTQ Left Has an Anti-Semitism Problem". Slate. ISSN 1091-2339. Retrieved 2017-07-11.
  32. ↑ Gruver, Tim (2016-01-20). "Pinkwashing accusations toward Israeli speakers shake up LGBTQ conference". The Seattle Globalist. Retrieved 2017-07-11.
  33. ↑ "Protesters obstruct Jewish reception at gay rights convention". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 2017-07-11.
  34. ↑ "After anti-Israel rally at gay rights conference, an Israeli discovers BDS". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 2017-07-11.
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