AUSTRALIA’S Orthodox rabbis will soon have a set of guidelines on engaging with gay congregants under an initiative being developed by the Rabbinical Council of Australia and New Zealand (RCANZ). RCANZ president Rabbi Yaakov Glasman, senior rabbi of St Kilda Shule, reflected that making Orthodox shules optimally accessible to non-heterosexual people “is especially confronting for religious Jews because of how deeply they value the Torah which forbids the form of intimacy they naturally desire”. He said that while the halachic ruling against homosexuality needs to be adhered to, “We can and should be encouraging gay religious Jews to stay connected to their faith to the best of their ability.