Our group is an active member of Keshet UK, the national forum for LGBT Jews.  Some of our members are involved in this message of hope to young LGBT Jews.  It does get better!

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Our members certainly believe that life gets better as group members.

Below are a few quotes from members and what they have gained from membership



Connect with their Jewish identity
  • "JGLG is a place I feel at home. Only when I came I out could I finally accept being gay and Jewish as two parts of my personality."
  • "Being Jewish had been an important part of my life as a married man with children. After my divorce and when I came out I needed to find a Jewish community I was comfortable in. Through JGLG I found a new community. At the Shabaton weekend the experience of benching and making kiddush together made me proud to be a gay Jew."
  • "I lost my orthodoxy when I came out and felt rejected by the Jewish community. Through JGLG I could reconnect with this important part of who I am."
  • "I didn't know a single Jewish gay person until I joined JGLG. Over the past two years I have made gay and lesbian friends and they are an important part of my life."
  • "I had been in a traditional Jewish marriage and when I came out I couldn't see a way to be a Jewish mother and a dyke. The two things didn't connect. JGLG brought it together for me. I am not religious but I found praying together during the Shabbat service profound."
  • "I got to 40 and wanted to get back to my roots. JGLG fills a big hole for me."

Make friends
  • "I dip in and out of JGLG as a way of making Jewish gay friends."
  • "I fell into the group rather than deciding to join it. I had friends who were JGLG machers and I felt guilty I was doing nothing. Then I discovered I enjoyed it and decided to join because I wanted to."
  • "I joined JGLG when I returned to the UK after a few years living elsewhere and needed to meet new people."
  • "It took me years before I finally came out. I had no lesbian friends. I have met people through JGLG. I enjoy the seder every year as a way to express my Jewishness and new friendships."

Find Jewish partners
  • "When I was 30 my family was still trying to fix me up with a nice Jewish woman. I joined JGLG when I realised I needed to accept I was a gay Jew."
  • "I agreed to come to a JGLG meeting to keep a friend company. She was on the lookout for a Jewish girlfriend. Now we are together! We both have made friends. I feel I finally belong somewhere."
  • "I have just moved to London and wanted to find a gay Jewish community. I also would like to find a Jewish boyfriend."

Find support
  • "JGLG lets me begin to unite the Jewish and gay parts of myself. Meeting people who have gone through the same issues is helping me think about how I can tell my parents about myself."
  • "I joined 20 years ago and the first person I met is still a good friend today. The group was there for me when my father died and has been very important to me."
  • "I joined JGLG because my partner and I wanted to find a Jewish gay man who would help us to have a baby. The first event I went to - a fireworks party - was fun and friendly. Being gay and Jewish had always been completely separate parts of my life and I realised JGLG could be a way of joining them. After a while I joined the committee to give something back. And we also eventually found the man who became our daughter's daddy!"
  • "I knew about JGLG for a long time before I joined. I wanted to meet other people who had made the same guilt-ridden path I had as a lesbian Jew."

Accepting community
  • "My partner is Jewish. I am not. I won't convert but we lead a rich Jewish life together."
  • "People have such different experiences, are different ages, and may not have much in common, but being gay and Jewish creates an intense feeling of connectedness."