During the week in which the LGBTQAI community celebrates its local presence, Rabbi Ellen Jaffe-Gill, spiritual leader of Tidewater Chavurah, represented the Jewish community at Hampton Roads Pride’s interfaith event on June 26 at New Life Metropolitan Community Church in Norfolk.
“One of the fundamental precepts of Judaism is that every human being was created b’tzelem Elohim, in God’s image—and there are no exceptions,” Rabbi Jaffe-Gill told the capacity audience before offering a memorial reading.
The rabbi has long been an LGBT ally. She and her husband, Spencer Gill, were longtime members of an LGBT synagogue during their years in Los Angeles, celebrating their wedding, Spencer’s conversion to Judaism, and Spencer’s bar mitzvah there.
Rabbi Jaffe-Gill’s first exposure to the interfaith program during Pride Week was in 2016, when Ohef Sholom Temple hosted the celebration. “I hope the Tidewater Jewish community will continue to be a presence at this joyous and spirit-filled event,” she says.