Rabbi Lawrence Jackofsky died on Aug. 23. For 27 years, Rabbi Jake was Southwest regional leader
of the Union for Reform Judaism.
Rabbi Jake helped steer Congregation Beth El Binah into the Union. When we submitted our bylaws, the only change
he requested was in our mission statement. We couldn’t be a gay and lesbian synagogue, since synagogues don’t have
a sexual orientation, any more than another temple could be straight.
Synagogues don’t discriminate.
Or at least they’re not supposed to.
One of Jake’s goals was to establish a synagogue with an outreach to the LGBT community in each of the cities in
his region. In San Antonio, that meant a new small temple. Beth El Binah has a torah on long-term loan to that
synagogue. In Houston, it meant connecting LGBT leaders from that city and Dallas. There, the larger synagogues
established programs to welcome the LGBT community. In New Orleans and Austin, it meant bringing speakers from
Beth El Binah to help open their temples to LGBT members.
When AIDS hit our congregation hard, Jake visited our members in the hospital and at their homes.
When we were a young congregation, Jake secured a loaner Torah from URJ for us.
When mainstream congregations were adopting gender neutral language for their services, Jake met with us to listen
to how we were saying it before submitting his suggestions.
Every congregation and organization throughout the Southwest region has wonderful memories of Jake and he’ll be
missed. These were just a few of ours. |
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For more information, please see:
Green Family Camps,
Union for Reform Judaism,
Dallas Morning News
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