The community and synagogue rabbis of Efrat released a statement in response to the pro-LGBT agenda survey posted by the Efrat municipality on Tuesday that has caused an uproar in the primarily Orthodox Gush Etzion town.
Related: Efrat Municipality Using Survey to Force LGBT Agenda
Our English translation below:
For you are a holy people to the Lord your God
We read with shock and astonishment the survey published in Efrat, which seeks to promote public legitimacy for sins for which modesty is appropriate to them.
The Holy Torah illuminates our lives, and it directs us to modesty in these matters, and to the family life of a man and a woman, among whom lies the Shechinah. The calling of the western world to encourage different types of relationships and waving flags of public licentiousness harms the family institution in Israel, harms the presence of God among us, and does not helps the people facing these challenges.
Every man and woman, who feels distress of any kind, including distress in the field of physical inclinations, knows that from the rabbis of Efrat they will receive a loving heart and a sympathetic ear. We will meet with them with willingly, strengthen them and help them as needed.
Needless to say, it is not our way to persecute or humiliate a person for his inclinations, and even if he sinned, accidentally or intentionally, he is Israel, he is our brother. Our way is through the love of Israel.
On the other hand, our way is also not to wave the in-fashion flags, which do not give a real answer to the personal hardships, but rather through a personal and genuine listening to every person as he is.
We, who serve in the Holy Land, hear from the field that this survey caused many Efrat residents discomfort and a sense of non-belonging. Also the parents of the people who deal with these issues, whom we support and assist, are not looking to raise this flag or shout pride.
We call on the Efrat Council to remove the survey, and to focus its efforts with a genuine address to he or she who needs it, on a personal level.
Our Torah conditions the successful settlement of the land on the divine moral purity of the settlers, and therefore it is upon us to be careful to keep the Torah and its values and not to accept sin, and certainly to not to be proud of it in public, and with that, to assist privately anyone who needs it.
