About Nehirim
Our Mission
Nehirim (“Lights”) builds community for GLBT Jews, partners, and allies. Our retreats and other programs celebrate GLBT culture and spirituality, and empower GLBT Jews to become active voices in their home communities. Through this work, we welcome GLBT Jews into the Jewish community, and in turn, build a more vibrant, diverse, and inclusive Jewish community by incorporating the gifts of GLBT people.
Our Vision
Our vision is of a Jewish community enriched by the diversity of its members. We are not about the assimilation of difference; we are about the celebration of it! Just as the inclusion of women into Jewish leadership transformed the Jewish community, so too the inclusion of GLBT people into Jewish life will as well — for the better. We also envision the day when no GLBT person will be taught to hate themselves, or that religion and sexual expression are incompatible — when no GLBT person is wounded by sanctioned or subtle exclusion.
To realize this vision requires a multi-pronged approach. Working “top-down,” policies and laws are necessary to institutionalize non-discrimination and inclusion. Nehirim, however, works from the grass roots, “bottom-up”: transforming mainstream Jewish institutions by transforming the people who make them up. Our immersion weekends inspire our participants to take leadership roles at home, to be more visible in their home communities, and to transform institutions from within.
Our History
Nehirim began in 2004, as a small retreat convened by its founder, writer and activist Jay Michaelson. Since then, thanks to Nehirim’s network of volunteers, staff, and supporters, we have brought thousands of GLBT Jews, partners, and allies on retreat, and have transformed thousands more lives. We run about fifteen retreats and twenty local programs every year. On June 1, 2010, Nehirim merged with NUJLS, the National Union of Jewish LGBTQQI Students.
Nehirim is an independent national organization, not affiliated with any movement or ideology. We are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization organized under the laws of the State of New York.
Our Core Values
Although national in scope, Nehirim retains our grassroots orientation, and our retreats and other programs are made possible by the efforts of hundreds of volunteers, as well as our professional staff. We are first and foremost a community — and community is what we offer to all our participants.
We are a very diverse group. We are secular, religious, cultural, agnostic, frum, and post-denominational; we are youth, students, elders, families, singles, and 30-50somethings; we are trans, lesbian, bi, gay, queer, questioning, genderqueer, and straight allies; we are spiritual, cynical, alternative, normal, urban, rural, of all classes and economic backgrounds, diverse in ethnicity and national origin.
And yet if there is one belief that unites us, it is that being queer and Jewish is a gift, not a predicament! GLBT Jews have unique perspectives on God, community, love, Torah, and Israel — and we have a remarkable, hidden history of generations of scholars, mystics, and poets. Nehirim is about celebrating our gifts, building our community, and inspiring queer Jews of all ages, backgrounds, and levels of observance to claim their heritage.
What Does “Nehirim” Mean?
“Nehirim” means lights. More specifically, it is a word found in the Talmud and the Zohar which refers to the radiant colors of the rainbow and the sky, like the brilliant lights of the sunset. The word thus represents not only the spectrum of queer sexual identities, as does the popular rainbow symbol, but the spiritual essences of those constituent parts as well. Moreover, as the term “nehirim” is not well known, yet is found in Jewish tradition, it is itself a symbol for how queer Jews can claim lesser-known aspects of the Jewish tradition as they articulate their own identities today.