Why Join?

Below are a few quotes from JGLG members on why they became 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 wantedto."
• "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."