BY—JAsoN P. LORBER .

t’s easy to have preconceived notions
I about rabbis. No one knows that better

than Rabbi David Steinberg, a new hire
at Burlington’s Ohavi Zedek Synagogue.

“I never thought I could be one,” said
Steinberg in a phone interview with Out in
the Mountains. “I thought that rabbis had to
believe that God wrote the Torah, and I
didn’t believe that.”

Growing up, he also thought that rabbis
couldn’t be openly gay. But Steinberg later
learned otherwise.“ ‘

David Steinberg grew up in New York
City, where he attended Orthodox Jewish

‘schools. He later lived on Long Island,

where he had his Bar Mitzvah (a coming of
age ceremony for boys who have reached

' age 13 in the synagogue), and then served

as a regular Torah reader at a Conservative

synagogue. Being Jewish was a big part of ’

his life. And so was music.
A viola player, he studied music at the
University of Pennsylvania, where he grad-

’ , uated summa cum laude.

. Steinberg went on to Harvard’ Law
School where he earned his J .D. Upon grad-
uation, he moved to Portland, Maine, to
become a corporate lawyer.

But Judaism and music remained central
to Steinberg. He served on the Board of

'_ Directors of _his synagogue in Portland, as
co-president of their Brotherhood—organiza-

tion, and taught at the Portland Community
Hebrew School. Musically,’ Steinberg con-
tinued to play viola, and also sang prayers
as a cantorial soloist. In his spare time, he
played viola and sangwith the Casco Bay A
Tumrrilers Klezmer Band.
But he didn’t really‘ enjoy being a .

lawyer. “I was pretty bored -by the wor ”

' he said. Plus, he was living in the ‘closet.

- “I had been dealing with gay issues for'_
many years,” said Steinberg. “One of the '

‘ reasons why I took so long to come out was

that I had no openly gay Jewish role mod-
els.”

In 1989, when Steinberg was 28, he
attended the Conference on Judaism in
Rural New England, held in Lyndonville.
Vermont. He describes that as his catalyst
forcoming out. It was during his reading of
the book Twice Blessed a few months later
that Steinberg learned the Reconstructionist
Rabbinical College admitted openly gay and
lesbian students. Steinberg later recalled a
memory of wanting to be a rabbi when he
was 8 years old.

So he signed up. After 6 years of study
and part-time Hebrew school teaching and
tutoring —— including a year in Israel during
which Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was
assassinated — by 1997 he was an ordained

' rabbi. He also spent a year at Beth Simchat

Torah, a gay and lesbian congregation in
Greenwich Village. ‘
Steinberg helped found Am Chofshi, a .

 

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Reaches 02 I

chavurah (social group) serving the _

Jewish glbt community in southern Maine.

He met other openly gay and lesbian Jews
who were “completely integrated into
Judaism.” Steinberg said that was impor-
tant to him because “being gay was this

new concept for me, but being Jewish was

already central for me. Knowing that I
didn’t have to give up one to embrace the
other was a tremendously empowering '
experience.”

From 1999 to 2005, Rabbisteinberg
served Temple Beth Israel in Plattsburgh,
NY. As that congregation’s sole spiritual
leader, he played the roles of both rabbi
and cantor (the cantor has the role of lead-
ing the musical aspects of worship), and
taught students and adults in the religious

school. He also served on the Interfaith

Council of Clinton County, and as presi-
dent of the Interfaith Council in
Plattsburgh.

_ For Steinberg, being Jewish informs his"gay

-Steinberg recalls one of the most memo-

: required to believe in Torah, but rather to
engage in it. So when I come to parts of

Each Informs the Other

identity, and visa versa. “Being gay in a
predominately heterosexual society, I think I
have a critical view of what society takes as
a given. The same is true about being
Jewish in a Christian society.”

Steinberg is also quick to note, “That
doesn’t mean that you don’t accept society.
I’m actually quite conventional in my
tastes.” Steinberg’s pastimes include classi-
cal music, running, the gym, and The New
York Times crossword puzzles.

When confronted by those who say that
the Torah condemns homosexuality,

rable lessons he learned when he was a little
kid going to Hebrew School in Brooklyn,
“It’s okay to be mad at God, it’s just not
okay to ignore God.” Steinberg continued,
“There’s a traditional Jewish blessing that
says that God commanded us to engage in
Torah. [The prayer] doesn’t say that we’re

Leviticus that I don’t agree with, I still
believe that I’m being true to Jewish reli-
gion by. engaging with it.” A

Working in the Land of 02

Last month Rabbi Steinberg began a new
job in Burlington at Ohavi Zedek
Synagogue — which is often called OZ.
Successfully navigating his way down the
yellow—brick road, Steinberg serves as OZ’s
school principal and cantor. He oversees the
direction of the Synagogue’s educational
programs, leads prayers, and organizes holi-
day events. Steinberg also encourages lay
leadership of prayers and chanting the Torah
from the scroll, noting that one doesn’t have
to be ordained in Jewish worship.

Steinberg‘wants people to know how
vibrant, "progressive, and welcoming O2 is
to gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender
people. Much of that he credits to OZ’s
Rabbi Joshua Chasan, who performed
same-sex ceremonies before Civil Unions
were even discussed in Vermont.

Steinberg noted that OZ is a place with
past and present leadership that includes
GLBT people, including the immediate past
president who was a lesbian, and where one
of the current vice presidents is a lesbian.

Steinberg didn’t feel that being gay was
an issue when he applied for the job.
Throughout the entire process, he felt that
he and his partner were welcomed. ’
Steinberg lives with his partner of '2 years,
Peter Blackmer, who is Assistant to the

Dean of Libraries at UVM. The two were
joined in Civil Union in May 2005. V

I
Jason P. Lorber and his partner Nathaniel 
G. Lew are members of Ohavi Zedek 
Synagogue. ’ 

l