In a first, Orthodox rabbinical school ordains an out gay rabbi

The leading liberal Orthodox rabbinical school quietly ordained an out gay rabbi this summer, marking a first for an Orthodox Jewish institution in the U.S.

Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, an all-male seminary in Riverdale, New York, ordained Rabbi Tadhg Cleary in a June 12 ceremony alongside three other graduates.

Cleary’s ordination, or semicha, came six years after YCT’s controversial refusal to ordain a different gay student whose public wedding engagement went viral. The same rosh yeshiva (head of school) who made that decision, Rabbi Dov Linzer, gave final approval to Cleary’s admission into the program and conferred his ordination, the significance of which has not been previously reported.

That a gay man was on a path to ordination was widely known at the yeshiva and in Orthodox LGBTQ+ spaces. Cleary came out to the YCT administration before he applied and accepted his admission on the condition that he could be fully out as a student. It was also public if you knew where to look: Cleary came out as queer in a 2023 blog post that the school links to on its website.

Until Cleary and the yeshiva were contacted by the Forward, however, they had planned not to discuss his ordination publicly, wanting to avoid a discourse that has been taxing to the school and which, in their view, is tertiary to Cleary’s qualities as a rabbi.

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