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Revision as of 20:01, 26 January 2026
Congregation Sha’ar Zahav (lit. ‘Golden Gate‘) is an LGBT synagogue in San Francisco.
History
Congregation Sha’ar Zahav was founded in July 1977 by Daniel Chesir, Shamir Durst, and Bernard Pechter, all gay men. It was the first LGBT syngagogue in San Francisco, taking its name from the city’s Golden Gate Bridge and Jerusalem‘s Golden Gate. After Pechter visited Congregation Beit Simchat Torah in New York City, he was inspired to create a similarly spiritual place for gay and lesbian Jews. Creating Sha’ar Zahav was the first time Pechter had stepped into a synagogue since 1967, when he sought a rabbi’s counsel on being gay and was belittled for it. The congregation initially met at at the Glide Memorial Church, a noted center for civil rights activism.
Congregation Sha’ar Zahav gained traction quickly; it amassed 80 paying members by the end of 1978, up to 150 by October of the next year. Some new members at the time recalled having joined due to a mention in an article published in the San Francisco Chronicle by a friend of Pechter’s, at his request. Pechter also placed weekly ads in the Jewish Bulletin after initially being denied access because the newspaper considered the simple time-and-date ad “controversial and discriminatory”. Early speakers included David Goldstein, publisher of The Advocate, and Harvey Milk, then a candidate for Board of Supervisors.
With San Francisco as the capital of American gay culture, Sha’ar Zahav was able to influence nationwide American Jewish attitudes. Milk, who as an openly gay San Francisco supervisor became a national figure, was a member, although Bennett later said, “I don’t believe he ever came there to pray, P-R-A-Y. I believe he came there to prey, P-R-E-Y, and to get votes”—prey referring to cruising, as Sha’ar Zahav was a popular place to find partners both for romance and casual sex.[7]
References
Citations
- ^ Drinkwater 2019, p. 189, citing Bennett 2009 and further quoting Bennett regarding cruising: “It was a mix. If they didn’t find their next ex-husband [sic] that night, then they found their date for that night. If it blossomed into something else, [it did]” (brackets original).
Sources
Books and journals
- Drinkwater, Gregg (3 April 2019). “Creating an embodied queer Judaism: liturgy, ritual and sexuality at San Francisco’s Congregation Sha’ar Zahav, 1977–1987”. Journal of Modern Jewish Studies. 18 (2): 177–193. doi:10.1080/14725886.2019.1593687. S2CID 150674014.
- Drinkwater, Gregg (2020a). Building Queer Judaism: Gay Synagogues and the Transformation of an American Religious Community, 1948-1990 (Dissertation). University of Colorado.
- Drinkwater, Gregg (Fall 2020b). “AIDS Was Our Earthquake: American Jewish Responses to the AIDS Crisis, 1985–92”. Jewish Social Studies. 26 (1): 122. doi:10.2979/jewisocistud.26.1.11. S2CID 229614332. ProQuest 2463163489.
- Drinkwater, Gregg (October 2020c). “Queer Healing: AIDS, Gay Synagogues, Lesbian Feminists, and the Origins of the Jewish Healing Movement”. American Jewish History. 104 (4). American Jewish Historical Society / Johns Hopkins University Press: 605–629. doi:10.1353/ajh.2020.0053. S2CID 242611690. EBSCOhost 149410711.
Other sources
- “Rabbi Allen Bennett”. LGBTQ Religious Archives Network (Audio interview with transcript). Interviewed by Mark Bowman. 2009-05-03. Archived from the original on July 30, 2023. Retrieved 11 October 2023.
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