new york | A new initiative at Yeshiva University here aims to tackle an issue that organizers say has received insufficient attention in the Orthodox community: Judaism and sexuality.
Tzelem, which is Hebrew for “image,” is a nascent organization founded by two Y.U. alumni, Koby Frances and Jennie Rosenfeld, who say they hope to encourage a greater willingness to discuss questions surrounding intimacy, relationships, dating and sexual identity among the Orthodox.
To accomplish that goal, they are planning a series of educational programs and seminars concentrated on Orthodox high schools, the Y.U. campuses and singles.
“People just don’t know what Judaism says about sex because they haven’t been taught,” says Rosenfeld, a doctoral candidate in English literature at the City University of New York. “The idea is that education is really key.”
Frances, a doctoral candidate in clinical psychology at CUNY, agrees. People “are willing to discuss these issues, but just don’t know how,” he says.
The program, which will launch this fall, will operate under the auspices of Y.U.’s new Center for the Jewish Future, which is being headed by Rabbi Kenneth Brander, a former leader of the Boca Raton Synagogue in Florida.
“I think that kids and adults in the Y.U. and Orthodox communities are raised with a large degree of discomfort and awkwardness with the opposite sex,” says Alan Goldsmith, a Yeshiva University senior.
“Rabbis and parents must encourage a healthy outlook on sexuality within the framework of halachah,” he says. “We have to avoid demonizing sexuality.”
Teens will receive particular attention from Tzelem, which aims to work with Orthodox high schools to de-velop curricula and seminars that address sexuality.
Tzelem has different aims for college-aged and young adult Jews. One initiative is to develop updated curricula for teachers who train kallot (women engaged to be married). Brander says such classes must expand beyond the traditional instruction in the laws of niddah (family purity) to include such topics as abuse, infertility and gynecological procedures.