Rabbis representing the Reform, Conservative/Masorti and Reconstructionist movements in Israel have announced that they support the right of gay and lesbians to hold a controversial festival in Jerusalem August 18-28

Christian Century, May 17, 2005

Rabbis representing the Reform, Conservative/Masorti and Reconstructionist movements in Israel have announced that they support the right of gay and lesbians to hold a controversial festival in Jerusalem August 18-28. The International WorldPride festival--which will include a parade in downtown Jerusalem--has been denounced by leading Orthodox Jewish clerics in Israel, along with Muslim and Christian clerics in Israel and abroad.

U.S. evangelicals have launched a petition campaign to prevent the event from taking place. The non-Orthodox rabbis said they felt compelled to back the event to counter the "intolerance" and "homophobia" of some of their colleagues. Reform Rabbi Na'amah Kelman-Ezrachi, the first woman rabbi ordained in Israel, said that "it is incumbent to welcome the WorldPride parade and conference and to march with it."