Homosexual Jews' meeting scorned in Israel

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TEL AVIV (AP) Homosexual Jews from around the world held their first convention in Israel and got a cold reception.

Under fierce pressure from Orthodox rabbis who hold fast to the Biblical condemnation of homosexuality, hotels and collective farms turned away the gays, forcing them to meet and tour in secret.

The Jewish National Fund, patron of Israel's forests, tried to refund a $9,000 donation to plant trees in the name of the International

Conference of Gay and Lesbian Jews.

"This is supposed to be a Jewish state, not just a heterosexual Jewish state," said Arnie Newman, 26, of 'Erie, Pa., acting as spokesman for the group.

Most of the 100 delegates from 13 countries left Israel this week after a three-day conference and a week's tour. Many of them were Americans. The Americans said they represented 2,500 members of gay synagogues and social clubs in 16 cities across the country.

Newman said the organization

was founded in 1976 in response to the United Nations anti-Zionism resolution..

"We wanted a greater identity with Israel and with Judaism,” he said.

But Jewish law, enforced here by the powerful religious minority, is spelled out in Leviticus 19:22: "You shall not lie with a man as with a woman. It is an abomination.”

"We are in violation of a particular commandment, but what Jew isn't?" countered Newman. "Mortal man has no right to decide which of the 613 commandments to keep and no one can keep them all."

Newman maintained that many homosexual Jews "are very traditional, going to synagogue regularly and keeping kosher homes. And we

run the whole gamut

doctors,

lawyers, teachers, everything. I met my first gay Jewish garbageman here."

A prominent Jerusalem rabbi, Simon Dolgin, called homosexuality "a transgression against the law. of God. At best, or at worst, it's a private matter. But no one should' make a convention to flaunt it in public."

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Israel's gays remain largely closeted. Public displays of homosexuality are rare, and in a recent television broadcast, American gays spoke freely while their Israëli counterparts turned their backs to the camera for fear of losing their jobs if revealed.

Israeli law stipulates up to 10 years in prison for homosexual activity, though no prosecutions have ever been reported.