Dear


When Rabbi Steve Greenberg, Naomi Mark and I sat down to figure out how to leverage the momentum of Trembling Before G-d, our goal was to create Jewish communities free of discrimination, family dismemberment, and the suffering experienced by gay and lesbian people and their loved ones. We wanted to change public attitudes, educate rabbis and religious leaders, and foster debate on respect for all.

We are very happy to say that, in a short amount of time, on a shoestring, we have made significant progress. We have taken limited funds and put them to maximum use.

In the past year,

- We trained 11 facilitators in Jerusalem who held screenings and led dialogues for over 2,000 principals, teachers, rabbis, and school counselors across Israel – mainly in the religious school system - breaking the taboo of dealing with gay and lesbian high-school students and equipping professionals with the tools to best handle with sensitivity the needs of those at risk.

- We convened the first-ever Orthodox Mental Health Conference on Homosexuality in New York so that religious therapists, psychiatrists, and psychologists from across North America could meet to begin to create a caring network for gays and lesbians in the community and their families. The Jewish Week just wrote a story about its success.

- We produced and released a DVD of Trembling Before G-d with three hours of new films which document the life changes the film has sparked in communities and individual’s lives across the globe, including a featurette called "Trembling on the Road," with stories from London, Jerusalem, Mexico, Ohio, Baltimore, San Francisco, the first Orthodox synagogue screenings and beyond, and "Petach Lev" about our work in Israel.

We are very proud of this progress. Yet we are writing this letter because our resources have run out at a critical time. We cannot stop – and that is why your help now is so crucial.

Our pressing needs are three-fold.

Trembling will be broadcast on national Israeli television in 2004. We need to hire an Outreach Coordinator to work with the Orthodox community – at least 500,000 strong – around the broadcast – in partnership with the Jerusalem Open House, the first gay and lesbian center in the holy city. We have a one-time chance of a national platform. We want to establish a hotline and train counselors. Already the the effect of our work the past year has been a dramatic increase of reports from the teachers and principals we trained who are now responding to a wave of people coming out. This will only increase with national TV attention. A pressing piece of this work is translating the DVD and the website of the film into Hebrew.

With the convening of the first Orthodox Mental Health Conference on Homosexuality, we need to hire a field organizer and build an unprecedented Orthodox Mental Health Network on Homosexuality which will create resources for individuals at risk, families, rabbis, educators, and communities – doing suicide prevention, marital and family counseling, health work, referrals, education, and public programs.

With the publication of Rabbi Steve Greenberg’s new book, Wrestling with God and Men: Homosexuality in the Jewish Tradition (March 2003, University of Wisconsin Press), and the release of the Trembling Before G-d DVD, we need to design curriculum for educators to use with the book and DVD exploring the personal, familial, and halachic struggles with homosexuality.

We have devoted countless hours to this work over the past ten years with limited support. Most films trail off, but Trembling is a movie that has become a movement. We would like you to be part of it. History is being made.
Those who give $250 or more, receive a free signed copy of the Trembling Before G-d DVD. For $500 or more, you also receive a free signed copy of Rabbi Steve Greenberg’s new book, Wrestling with God and Men: Homosexuality in the Jewish Tradition.

Thank you for your generosity.

Happy holidays! Chag sameach!

Sandi Simcha DuBowski
Executive Director, Trembling Before G-d Outreach Initiative

Rabbi Steve Greenberg
Director of Education, Trembling Before G-d Outreach Initiative

Naomi Mark
Director of Mental Health, Trembling Before G-d Outreach Initiative

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Thank you for your support in creating Jewish communities free of discrimination, family dismemberment, and the suffering experienced by gay and lesbian people and their loved ones.

Donations to The National Foundation for Jewish Culture for the Trembling Before G-d Outreach Initiative are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.

Yes – I will support the Outreach Initiative with a gift of:

$ 10,000 ____

$ 5,000 _____

$2,500 _____

$1,000 _____

$500 ______ (Receive a signed copy of Wrestling With God and Men! - $475 is tax-deductible).

$250 ______ (Receive a signed copy of the Trembling Before G-d DVD! - $225 is tax-deductible).

$100 ______

$50 _______

_____ Do not send DVD or book.

Please send checks to:
National Foundation for Jewish Culture
330 7th Avenue
New York, N.Y. 10011
c/o Larry Pitterman
Mark in the memo field `Trembling Outreach’

If you would like to pay by credit card, please check the appropriate box.

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Expiration Date: ____________________

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For more information, visit www.tremblingbeforeg-d.com