[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 16 (Wednesday, January 29, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E100]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




A TRIBUTE TO CONGREGATION BETH SIMCHAT TORAH AND RABBI SHARON KLEINBAUM

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. JERROLD NADLER

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, January 29, 2003

  Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, it is my very great personal pleasure to 
rise today to honor New York City's Congregation Beth Simchat Torah and 
its rabbi, Sharon Kleinbaum. CBST, as it is known to thousands of 
friends throughout the city and around the world, is the world's 
largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender congregation, and on 
February 9, 2003, we will celebrate the start of CBST's 30th year of 
service to the community.
  In 1973, ten people gathered in the basement of the Church of Holy 
Apostles in response to a small classified ad placed in the Village 
Voice. At the time, none of the national Jewish organizations supported 
gay rights. No synagogues officially welcomed gay members. The fact 
that we are able to join together, thirty years later, to celebrate and 
commemorate CBST is a testament to the strength of what those first 
congregants established--a place where it is possible to be both 
``openly gay and proudly Jewish,'' as Rabbi Kleinbaum says, a community 
in which all journeys are respected.
  This celebration is also evidence of the special place CBST occupies 
in the hearts of New Yorkers of all denominations and all sexualities, 
as a welcoming and loving place to celebrate one's faith. Every year, 
for the High Holidays services, CBST moves its services to the Jacob 
Javits Convention Center in order to accommodate the 3,000 or more 
people who are a part of the extended CBST family. In 2001, just two 
weeks after September 11th, CBST's services for Kol Nidre, the Jewish 
Day of Atonement, drew 6,000 people. I don't think I could adequately 
describe the important place CBST has had in the lives of so many of my 
fellow New Yorkers, but the numbers certainly begin to tell the story. 
I am proud to represent Congregation Beth Simchat Torah in Congress.
  There have been many heroes in the history of CBST. This year, we 
will thank the congregation's rabbi, Sharon Kleinbaum, for ten years of 
visionary leadership. In the course of ten eventful years, it has been 
her love of the CBST community that has made CBST an ever-growing force 
for positive social change. CBST, like the larger gay community of New 
York City, has lost too many members to AIDS, and through the years, 
Rabbi Kleinbaum has helped many CBST members through their own 
sickness, and the loss of friends and loved ones. She is the leader of 
a new generation of young Jewish leaders, deeply committed to the 
Jewish tradition but innovative and progressive in her view of its 
celebration, and passionate in her belief in the power of faith in 
people's lives. Rabbi Kleinbaum occupies a truly treasured place in the 
gay community, the Jewish community, and in the hearts of thousands of 
New Yorkers, and I am also proud to call her my friend.

                          ____________________