Latest news with #Hareni
NBC News
14-05-2025
- Politics
- NBC News
Yeshiva University bans LGBTQ student club again after yearslong legal battle
Yeshiva University in New York City has once again banned its LGBTQ student club, saying the group's actions are 'antithetical' to the Jewish educational institution's religious values. The decision comes two months after the school reached a settlement with students to recognize the group and end a yearslong legal dispute that at one point reached the U.S. Supreme Court. The undergraduate club, which was formerly known as YU Pride Alliance, was renamed Hareni in March, when the settlement was reached. But both sides now say the other violated the terms of the agreement, which included a mandate that the club 'not advocate against the Torah's teachings' and a requirement that the university continue and enhance its sensitivity training and anti-discrimination policies. 'Recent actions and statements have indicated that Hareni is operating as a pride club under a different name and as such is antithetical to the Torah values of our yeshiva,' Rabbi Yosef Kalinsky, the dean of the university's undergraduate Torah studies, said in a May 9 letter to students, which was published by The Yeshiva University Observer. 'There is no place for such a club in yeshiva. As such, we are directing the Office of Student Life to discontinue this club.' Kalinsky's letter came one day after Hareni's legal counsel sent a letter to a university attorney alleging that senior leaders at the school had made public statements 'that display animus and hostility toward the University's LGBTQ students and may violate the terms of the Settlement Agreement.' The letter, shared publicly by The Yeshiva University Observer, cited several examples, including an April 6 essay by Rabbi Meyer Twersky that stated in part, 'Identification with the L.G.B.T.Q acronym entails identification with a heretical, nihilistic philosophy which champions and celebrates all forms of sexual deviance.' In a phone interview with NBC News on Wednesday, a Yeshiva spokesperson said the club's members held an unsanctioned event and started using graphics, terminology, colors and logos that had been banned under the March agreement. The new LGBTQ club, the spokesperson suggested, was just the old club renamed. When asked for comment on the university's decision, Hareni sent an emailed statement to NBC News through the group's attorney Max Selver at Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel LLP. 'We are deeply disappointed by the announcement of Hareni's cancellation, which followed a letter from our legal team raising concerns that YU was violating the terms of our settlement—specifically through ongoing displays of animus and hostility that threaten the safety and well-being of LGBTQ students on campus,' the statement said. 'That this effort ended not with dialogue, but with unilateral dissolution and hostility, only underscores how urgently LGBTQ students at YU need support, safety, and community. That need hasn't gone away—and neither have we."
New York Times
12-05-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Yeshiva University Reverses Itself and Bans L.G.B.T.Q. Club
Two months after Yeshiva University said it would recognize an L.G.B.T.Q. student club on campus, bringing a yearslong legal battle to an end, the school has reversed course and banned the organization. The school said the club, once known as the Pride Alliance but renamed Hareni earlier this year, had violated both Jewish principles and the legal settlement. But lawyers for the students said it was leaders at the school, a Modern Orthodox Jewish institution with campuses in Manhattan and the Bronx, who had violated the agreement with hostile religious rhetoric. In a letter to the community on Friday, the university repeated an argument it made unsuccessfully in state court in 2022, saying its undergraduate programs are 'fundamentally religious.' The school said that 'recent actions and statements' from the student club had led administrators to believe that it was 'operating as a pride club under a different name and as such is antithetical to the Torah values of our yeshiva, as well as in violation of the approved guidelines and of the terms of the settlement agreement.' 'There is no place for such a club in yeshiva,' the letter continued, using the general term for a Jewish educational institution. Yeshiva's decision in March to recognize the club had seemed to end the legal battle, which had plunged a university in one of the country's most liberal cities into a nationwide debate over religious freedom, civil rights and whether houses of worship, religiously affiliated organizations or even pious individuals could be compelled to provide public accommodations to people with differing views. The dispute had been closely watched by religious organizations and religious freedom groups. While many Jewish congregations support L.G.B.T.Q. rights, many Orthodox leaders interpret the Torah as promoting traditional ideas of gender and sexuality. Throughout years of legal wrangling, Yeshiva went to great lengths to deny the club official recognition, including briefly banning all on-campus clubs. As the case worked its way through the courts, it also drew the attention of state lawmakers, who criticized the university's position and suggested it might have imperiled its ability to access public funds. The official dissolution of Hareni comes at a time when the rights of L.G.B.T.Q. Americans appear under threat from the Trump administration, which has attacked elite universities and mounted a campaign against the participation of transgender people, in particular, in public life. In a statement, the club said its members were 'deeply disappointed by the announcement of Hareni's cancellation,' which it said came one day after their lawyers sent a letter to the university objecting to 'ongoing displays of animus and hostility' from university leadership. The lawyers, Katherine Rosenfeld and Max Selver, said in their letter that those statements included university guidelines released last month that said the club would not be permitted to host social events, must not use 'Pride flags, symbols and emojis as well as the term 'Pride Club,'' and must include a 'sexual morality' disclaimer on all its printed materials. The students' lawyers also said they were alarmed by hostile public statements from senior rabbis at the school, including a letter printed in a campus newspaper from Rabbi Hershel Schachter, who said he 'emphatically rejects the ideology, lifestyle and behaviors which the L.G.B.T.Q. term represents.' In another statement, a second senior rabbi, Mayer Twersky, said 'the L.G.B.T.Q. acronym' represented 'a heretical, nihilistic philosophy which champions and celebrates all forms of sexual deviance.' 'We must unconditionally reject their demands and can never settle,' Rabbi Twersky wrote. In response to the letter from Hareni's lawyers, Yeshiva lodged its own complaints against the student club, which it said had 'repeatedly second-guessed and opposed Yeshiva's spiritual leadership' since its approval in March. The university's lawyer said Yeshiva had not intended the legal settlement to amount to official recognition of the Pride Alliance, and that administrators were alarmed when the new club, Hareni, simply rebranded the Pride Alliance's social media accounts. After the March settlement, posts were made on those accounts that said the Pride Alliance 'will go forward using the club name Hareni' as 'an official club at Y.U.,' the Yeshiva lawyer said. The university also objected to the use of Pride flag emojis and the word 'pride' in posts on those accounts, and the fact that Pride Alliance posts were still visible on them. Officials appeared to be particularly incensed by an event they said the club held on May 7 and an opinion piece published in a campus newspaper the day before by the club's co-presidents, Hayley Goldberg and Schneur Friedman. In that essay, the students said they planned to hold social events despite the university's prohibition, and that they would not affix a morality disclaimer to the club's printed materials. They said such a statement would be 'egregious.' The student leaders also said that questions about the interplay between L.G.B.T.Q. rights and Jewish religious law, or halacha, 'are valid, but they are not the issue at hand.' In reality, they wrote, universities, clubs, presidents and Yeshiva leaders 'do not determine how individuals, straight or gay, trans or cis, approach halacha.' They added, 'The individuals themselves do.'
NBC News
21-03-2025
- Politics
- NBC News
Yeshiva University will recognize LGBTQ student club after years of dispute
Yeshiva University in New York has agreed to recognize an LGBTQ student club after years of legal disputes that at one point reached the U.S. Supreme Court. The university said Thursday in a statement that it reached an agreement with the students to end the litigation and will officially recognize the club, which will be called Hareni and 'will operate in accordance with the approved guidelines of Yeshiva University's senior rabbis.' 'The club will be run like other clubs on campus, all in the spirit of a collaborative and mutually supportive campus culture,' the university said. The club was formerly known as the YU Pride Alliance and was long the subject of litigation over whether the university had to recognize it. The school contended that such recognition would violate its religious beliefs. In 2022 the dispute wound up in the Supreme Court, which cleared the way for the club to be recognized while also telling Yeshiva it should return to state court to seek quick review and temporary relief. In its own statement Thursday, the club confirmed the agreement and said it will enjoy the same privileges as other student organizations on campus. It plans to host charitable events, movie nights, panel discussions and career networking events and will publicly use 'LGBTQ+' on flyers and advertisements. 'This agreement affirms that LGBTQ+ students at Yeshiva University are valued members of the community,' said Schneur Friedman, a president of the group. 'This victory is not just for our club — it's for every student who deserves a safe space to be themselves,' said Hayley Goldberg, another Hareni president. 'I'm excited to move forward, build community, and continue advocating for a school where everyone belongs,' Goldberg said.
