Congregation Beit Simchat Torah ("CBST") is a synagogue located in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. It was founded in 1973, and is the world's largest

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term ...

synagogue. CBST serves

Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

of all sexual orientations and gender identities, their families, and their friends. Members commute from as far away as the Bronx and New Jersey. The congregation is led by Senior Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum and Assistant Rabbi Yael Rapport. It is not affiliated with any denomination or branch of

Judaism Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in t ...

History

The congregation, founded in 1973 by twelve gay Jewish men led by Jacob Gubbay, originally met in Chelsea's

Church of the Holy Apostles The Church of the Holy Apostles ( el, , ''Agioi Apostoloi''; tr, Havariyyun Kilisesi), also known as the ''Imperial Polyándreion'' (imperial cemetery), was a Byzantine Eastern Orthodox church in Constantinople, capital of the Eastern Roman E ...

and brought its prayer materials to services each week. In 1978 they began renting space in the

West Village The West Village is a neighborhood in the western section of the larger Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, New York City. The traditional boundaries of the West Village are the Hudson River to the west, West 14th Street to th ...

at 57 Bethune Street, in the

Westbeth Artists Community Westbeth Artists Housing is a nonprofit housing and commercial complex dedicated to providing affordable living and working space for artists and arts organizations in New York City. The complex comprises the full city block bounded by West, Be ...

residential-artistic complex, for offices, a Hebrew school, and a sanctuary with a capacity of 300 which they use for Saturday morning services, while continuing to hold Friday night services in the church., pp.98–99 In addition, the synagogue rents the

Jacob Javits Convention Center The Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, commonly known as the Javits Center, is a large convention center on Eleventh Avenue between 34th Street and 38th Street in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, New York City. It was designed by architect James I ...

for

Yom Kippur Yom Kippur (; he, יוֹם כִּפּוּר, , , ) is the holiest day in Judaism and Samaritanism. It occurs annually on the 10th of Tishrei, the first month of the Hebrew calendar. Primarily centered on atonement and repentance, the day' ...

services, which draw over 4,000 people. Senior Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum celebrated her 20-year anniversary with CBST in 2012.

New building

In June 2011, after 16 years of searching for a home, the congregation purchased a large space in midtown Manhattan, in a commercial condominium at 130 West 30th Street between Sixth Avenue and Seventh Avenue. The new space is located in the landmarked SJM Building designed by noted architect

Cass Gilbert Cass Gilbert (November 24, 1859 – May 17, 1934) was an American architect. An early proponent of skyscrapers, his works include the Woolworth Building, the United States Supreme Court building, the state capitols of Minnesota, Arkansas and ...

and built in 1927–28. Ground was broken in 2013 and construction was completed in 2016. The "Dedication of Our New Home" was marked that year with a celebration on April 3.

Notable members

* Barbara Gaines (born 1956), television producer *

Brad Hoylman Brad Madison Hoylman (born October 27, 1965) is an American Democratic politician. First elected in 2012, Hoylman represents the 27th District in the New York State Senate, covering much of Lower and Midtown Manhattan in New York City. He is ...

(born 1965), New York State Senator *

Cynthia Nixon Cynthia Ellen Nixon (born April 9, 1966) is an American actress, activist, and theater director. For her portrayal of Miranda Hobbes in the HBO series ''Sex and the City'' (1998–2004), she won the 2004 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supp ...

(born 1966), actress and activist * David L. Reich (born 1960), President & COO of Mount Sinai Hospital, and President of Mount Sinai Queens * Janet Weinberg (1955-2018), advocate for

people with HIV/AIDS HIV-positive people, seropositive people or people who live with HIV are people who have the human immunodeficiency virus HIV, the agent of the currently incurable disease AIDS. According to estimates by WHO and UNAIDS, 34.2 million people were ...

and disabilities *

Edie Windsor Edith "Edie" Windsor (née Schlain; June 20, 1929 – September 12, 2017) was an American LGBT rights activist and a technology manager at IBM. She was the lead plaintiff in the 2013 Supreme Court of the United States case ''United States v. ...

(1929–2017), successfully brought a federal lawsuit, ''

United States v. Windsor ''United States v. Windsor'', 570 U.S. 744 (2013), is a landmark United States Supreme Court civil rights case concerning same-sex marriage. The Court held that Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which denied federal recognition o ...

'', against the

Defense of Marriage Act The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) was a United States federal law passed by the 104th United States Congress and signed into law by President Bill Clinton. It banned federal recognition of same-sex marriage by limiting the definition of marr ...

*Mike Moskowitz, former

Orthodox Orthodox, Orthodoxy, or Orthodoxism may refer to: Religion * Orthodoxy, adherence to accepted norms, more specifically adherence to creeds, especially within Christianity and Judaism, but also less commonly in non-Abrahamic religions like Neo-pa ...

Rabbi who became an LGBTQ Ally and now works as a Scholar-in-Residence for Trans and Queer Jewish Studies at CBST *

Randi Weingarten Randi Weingarten (born December 18, 1957)''Who's Who in America'', 2007. is an American labor leader, attorney, and educator. She is president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and a member of the AFL–CIO. She is the former presiden ...

(born 1957), president of the

American Federation of Teachers The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) is the second largest teacher's labor union in America (the largest being the National Education Association). The union was founded in Chicago. John Dewey and Margaret Haley were founders. About 60 per ...

References

Notes Further reading * *Kleinbaum, Rabbi Sharon (ed.)
Siddur B'Chol L'vav'cha
With All Your Heart: The New CBST Siddur Bchol Lvavcha for Friday Night'' ** ** *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Beit Simchat Torah LGBT organizations based in New York City LGBT synagogues in the United States Jewish organizations established in 1973 Synagogues in Manhattan Transgender topics and religion Unaffiliated synagogues in New York City

History

New building

Notable members

See also

References

External links