Sunday, the Rabbi Got AIDS

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1995. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Sunday, the Rabbi Got AIDS

Village Voice (12/05/95) Vol. 40, No. 49, P. 27
Beiser, Vince

Most Orthodox Jews are hesitant to acknowledge that AIDS exists in their communities. However experts estimate that in New York, some 15,000 of the area's 2 million Jews are HIV- infected. No one knows how many cases are in the Orthodox societies because virtually all are kept are concealed. Transmission routes such as sex with prostitutes and sex with injection drug users have been mentioned, but the majority of all HIV infections in these communities come from men having sex with men. For Orthodox Jews, this is the worst possible way because the Torah condemns homosexuality. Oftentimes, HIV infection--no matter how the virus is acquired--is seen as evidence of that person's homosexuality, a sin which can affect the whole family. Seropositive Jews often leave their communities, searching for more accepting ones, while others stay but guard their secret closely for fear of being shamed and outed. Denial is a serious problem among many gay Orthodox Jews. One Orthodox woman says she had to watch her homosexual brother die from AIDS with hardly any sympathy visits from people in the community because her parents did not want his sexuality or his infection known. Sarah's outrage about the denial and ignorance led her to help found the Tzvi Aryeh AIDS Foundation, one of the first AIDS organizations specifically geared toward the Orthodox community. Volunteers are currently working to establish a Yiddish-language AIDS hot line and organize groups to visit people with HIV and AIDS.

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