JQY Drop-in Center Fall + Winter Dates!

JQY Drop-in Center Fall + Winter Dates

The JQY Drop-in Center offers a safe and free weekly space where LGBTQ teens and youth can come and:

• Check in with licensed social workers
• Meet others they can relate to
• Participate in support groups & workshops
• Have access to health and safety resources
• Enjoy a hot kosher meal
• Be part of an affirming community
• Know they are not alone.

Each week, the Drop-in Center will feature a unique program (support groups, yoga, game night, LGBTQ book club, and more!) which will take place alongside drop-in hours. Feel free to join for the program, hang out during drop-in hours, or both!

Follow us on Facebook for more information on our weekly programming!

WHERE

130 West 30th Street • New York, NY • 10001

Located on the lower level of the beautiful new 

Congregation Beit Simchat Torah (CBST) building.

Just one block from Penn Station!

WHO

Open to all LGBTQ Jewish-identified individuals, ages 13-23

UPCOMING DROP-IN DATES AND HOURS

Thursday, Nov 3rd, 2016, 6:30pm - 9:30pm

Sunday, Nov 6th, 2016, 4:00pm - 7:00pm

Thursday, Nov 10th, 2016 6:30pm - 9:30pm

Thursday, Nov 17th, 2016 6:30pm - 9:30pm

Thursday, Dec 1st, 2016 6:30pm - 9:30pm

Thursday, Dec 8th, 2016 6:30pm - 9:30pm

Thursday, Dec 15th, 2016 6:30pm - 9:30pm

Thursday, Dec 22nd, 2016 6:30pm - 9:30pm

Thursday, Dec 29th, 2016 6:30pm - 9:30pm

Thursday, Jan 5th, 2017 6:30pm - 9:30pm

Sunday, Jan 8th, 2017 4:00pm - 7:00pm

Thursday, Jan 12th, 2017 6:30pm - 9:30pm

Thursday, Jan 19th, 2017 6:30pm - 9:30pm

Thursday, Jan 26th, 2017 6:30pm - 9:30pm

Thursday, Feb 2nd, 2017 6:30pm - 9:30pm

Thursday, Feb 9th, 2017 6:30pm - 9:30pm

Sunday, Feb 12th, 2017 4:00pm - 7:00pm

Thursday, Feb 16th, 2017 6:30pm - 9:30pm

Thursday, Feb 23rd, 2017 6:30pm - 9:30pm

Stay tuned for future dates!

Email info@JQYouth.org for more information

THANK YOU!

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts. We depend on charitable donations from individuals like you to sustain our mission of supporting and empowering at-risk LGBTQ youth from Orthodox, Hassidic, and Sephardic Jewish communities.

Your support is extremely meaningful, and enables us to continue to strengthen our organization and further our mission.

JQY is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. All donations are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by the law.

JQY Drop-in Center Hours

JQY is proud to announce 

the relaunch of the JQY Drop-in Center!

RE-OPENING NIGHT

Thursday, Nov 3rd, 2016

6:30pm - 9:30pm

&

Sunday, Nov 6th, 2016

4:00pm - 7:00pm

130 West 30th Street, NYC

JQY Drop-in hours offer a safe and free weekly space where LGBTQ teens and youth can come and:

• hang out and meet others like them 
• enjoy a hot kosher meal
• check in with JQY's licensed Social Workers
• access to health and safety resources
• participate in JQY's programming, specializing in supporting LGBTQ Jewish youth from Orthodox, Sephardic, and Hassidic communities
• be part of a community
• know you are not alone.

WHERE

130 West 30th Street • New York, NY • 10001

Located on the lower level of the beautiful new 

Congregation Beit Simchat Torah (CBST) building.

Just one block from Penn Station!

WHO

Open to all LGBTQ Jewish-identified individuals, ages 13-23

DROP IN DATES AND HOURS

Thursday, Nov 3rd, 2016, 6:30pm - 9:30pm

Sunday, Nov 6th, 2016, 4:00pm - 7:00pm

More fall dates to be announced shortly

Email info@JQYouth.org for more information

JQY is the proud recipient of the "Natan Grant for ROI Entrepreneurs"!

Press Release Contact: Mordechai Levovitz LMSW	For Immediate Release: 2/23/2016
Telephone: 917.841.3567
Organization: JQY
Email: Info@JQYouth.org

JQY is the recipient of the "Natan Grant for ROI Entrepreneurs"

Grant will allow an expansion of JQY Teen Programming including the first ever LGBTQ Jewish Teen Drop-In Center in NYC

New York, NY: JQY (Jewish Queer Youth) provides support, crisis and educational resources on behalf of at-risk LGBTQ youth in traditional Jewish communities. JQY specializes in creating programming tailored to Jewish queer youth growing up in potentially rejecting environments including Orthodox, Hasidic and Sephardic populations. JQY is the largest direct service provider of all LGBTQ Jewish Youth programming in New York. Programs include youth support groups, one-on-one counseling, holiday programming, and family intervention work. JQY also creates LGBTQ sensitivity training opportunities for Orthodox educators, mental health professionals, Orthodox High schools and rabbis. In New York City, 74% of Jewish youth are growing up in Orthodox homes (NYTimes, 2012). LGBT Jews from Orthodox Jewish communities face higher levels of homophobia as well as family and communal rejection (Safran, 2012). LGBTQ teens from rejecting families are eight times more likely to attempt suicide (Family Acceptance Project, 2009). This means that the vast majority of NYC's LGBTQ Jewish youth face significant challenges and are a particularly vulnerable cohort. JQY Teen Program is the only initiative in NYC designed to address the specific needs of this population by offering culturally competent direct support, social, crisis, and educational resources. In January 2016 it was announced that JQY was chosen as the recipient of the"Natan Grant for ROI Entrepreneurs" to expand its teen programming. The Natan Fund is a giving circle based in New York City supporting Jewish and Israeli social innovation. JQY's co-founder and Executive Director, Mordechai Levovitz LMSW is a member of the ROI Community, an initiative of the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation that connects and supports emerging Jewish leaders around the globe. The Natan Fund calls this JQY initiative "a perfect fit for Natan's mission of providing early-stage funding to develop creative strategies that address central challenges facing the Jewish people." The funds will be used to build on JQY Teen Programming including providing more teen phone support hours with licensed social workers, hiring additional mental health professionals at JQY's monthly Long Island Orthodox high school teen support group, organizing Orthodox high school guidance counselor sensitivity trainings, creating a Jewish LGBTQ young adult leadership retreat, and launching the first ever Jewish LGBTQ Teen Drop-In Center in NYC. The JQY Teen Drop-In Center will offer weekly multiple programming tailored toward the different specific needs of at-risk LGBTQ Jewish youth, including trans support, STD safety, and suicide intervention. Staffed by four licensed social workers, and two interns, the JQY Teen Drop-In Center will be a professional, welcoming and Jewish safe space for all LGBTQ teens in need. Sean Herzfeld, a 16-year-old JQY member who recently came out in his Orthodox high school, points out that “It’s not enough to simply tell LGBT teens in religious communities that It Gets Better later, we have to provide the programming to make it better now...and that’s what JQY does.” # # #

JQY Community Debrief: The Creating Change Conference

JQY at The Creating Change Conference
What Happened? & What Does it Mean?

Where: JCC Manhattan, 334 Amterdam Ave, NYC
When: Thursday January 28th, 8pm-10pm

This past Shabbos the leaders of JQY were invited to the National LGBTQ Task Force's Creating Change Conference in Chicago. We were tasked with representing the Jewish Movement Working Group at the conference, and helped organize the multiple Jewish themed sessions and Friday Night Shabbos Service. We have been working in partnership with the Task Force for the last five years. Included in our offerings this year were a 3 hour Queer Muslim Jewish Dialogue, a Jewish LGBTQ organizational strategy session, and a Queer Jewish Caucus that focused on engaging young Queer Jews on what it means to have both Jewish and LGBTQ identities. 

On Friday night there was a heated anti-Israel protest against a reception sponsored by A Wider Bridge. The reception was cut short and the Jerusalem Open House representatives set to speak felt it was too unsafe to present. A video of the Protest has gone viral and has spurred a global conversation about the lines between anti-Israel rhetoric and blatant antisemetism.

The question remains if the LGBTQ activist Conference is a safe space for Jews, Israelis, or pro-Israel voices. There is now a concerted effort to work with the Task Force on better guidelines for inclusion and safety.

Join us for a JQY Community discussion about what happened. Hear first hand experiences from people who were there. Take part in a conversation about how we can make sure the LGBTQ world is a safer space for Jews and Israelis.

JQY at the National LGBTQ Creating Change Conference: What really happened

JQY is devoted to the health and well being of LGBTQ Jewish Youth at risk. Our membership reflects the full spectrum of Jewish feelings about Israel. As our focus is the emotional and physical welfare of all LGBTQ young people in the Jewish community, it is important that no one feel excluded from care because of their political or denominational stance. While we do not take political positions on issues such as Israel and foreign policy, we are committed to the full inclusion of LGBTQ Jews in every aspect of Jewish life. We are proud that we were the organization responsible for finally allowing LGBTQ groups to march openly at the New York Celebrate Israel Day Parade.

This past Shabbos the leaders of JQY were invited to the National LGBTQ Task Force's Creating Change Conference in Chicago. We were tasked with representing the Jewish Movement Working Group at the conference, and helped organize the multiple Jewish themed sessions and Friday Night Shabbos Service. We have been working in partnership with the Task Force for the last five years. Included in our offerings this year were a 3 hour Queer Muslim Jewish Dialogue, a Jewish LGBTQ organizational strategy session, and a Queer Jewish Caucus that focused on engaging young Queer Jews on what it means to have both Jewish and LGBTQ identities. These Jewish sessions, including the Friday prayers, were all well attended, peaceful, successful, and went on with absolutely no protest.

Due to our close involvement with the Task Force and our position of leadership facilitating many of these conversations, we feel that we are in a unique position to provide background and clarity with respect to what occurred at the conference and our response:

1. The anti-Israel protest that took place was not against the Shabbos Service; it happened on a different floor, at a different time and was directed at a reception which was a separate event.
2. The leadership of JQY proudly attended the A Wider Bridge reception, but also appreciate the rights and feelings of LGBTQ Jewish teens who, based on their own consciences, chose to peacefully protest the event.
3. There were 4 protesters that entered the reception room. 3 of the young women occupied the stage. They were outnumbered by almost 100 reception attendees, most of who were not conference participants. The protesters inside were vocal but not physical, and at one point they tried to leave the room but were prevented by hotel security.
4. Antisemitism, silencing points of view, physical intimidation, denying Jews the right to live in Israel, and calls to violence are inexcusable and JQY does not tolerate this in our space or any other.
5. We are disappointed in the LGBTQ Task Force for neither supplying the reception attendees, nor the protesters, designated spaces in the corridor so that people could both safely access the event and feel heard without risking arrest.
6. JQY stands with the Jerusalem Open House, and at no point were we pressured by the Conference to silence, boycott, or remove Jerusalem Open House speakers from our Jewish sessions. On the contrary, even when the A Wider Bridge party was temporarily canceled, Task Force leaders encouraged us to include the Jerusalem Open House speakers at our Jewish conference sessions.
7. While we believe that the Task Force leadership may have made mistakes, we wholly reject any accusation of antisemitism against their Executive Director Rea Carey, Conference Director Sue Hyde, or any National LGBTQ Task Force staff. Our experience working with the Task Force has made us confident that the intentions of their leadership have always been fueled by good will and integrity.
8. JQY is committed to a longer and more thought-out engagement on these issues with the National LGBTQ Task Force. We call on the Task Force to invest the appropriate time, resources and effort to give this serious (and often triggering) issue the respect it deserves.

We leave the conference inspired by the wisdom, energy and brilliance expressed by the Jewish LGBTQ teens at the Conference's Jewish Queer Caucus. They reminded us that just like one can only learn about someone's gender identity and sexual orientation by listening to how that person self identifies, we can not make assumptions about what loving or criticizing Israel means to someone until we allow them to express the full complexities of this relationship. Being LGBTQ and Jewish can inform the way we think about Israel in that we should not feel that we have to choose a box, binary, or label. Caring and compassion are not a zero sum game. We are infinitely dedicated to the safety, well being, dignity, self determination, celebration, and liberation of all people. These are the Jewish values that guides our mission to provide the support, crisis work and advocacy for LGBTQ young people at risk in the Jewish community.

Join us for the upcoming JQY community discussion about this topic featuring conference attendees and leaders. Details will be posted on JQYouth.org and our JQY Facebook Page.

Thank You,

The JQY Team