Yeshiva University Will Recognize LGBTQ Club, Ending Long Court Battle
The settlement concludes nearly four years of litigation over YU’s refusal to recognize the LGBTQ club on religious grounds.
After years of litigation, Yeshiva University has agreed to settle with YU Pride Alliance, officially recognizing the LGBTQ student group with a new name, “Hareni.”
The flagship Modern Orthodox Jewish school announced its settlement agreemement with the Pride Alliance in a joint statement yesterday: “The parties have reached an agreement and the litigation is ending,” they said. “Current students will be implementing a club, to be known as Hareni, that will seek to support LGBTQ students and their allies and will operate in accordance with the approved guidelines of Yeshiva University’s senior rabbis.”
“The club will be run like other clubs on campus, all in the spirit of a collaborative and mutually supportive campus culture,” they announced.
YU objected to recognizing the LGBTQ group on religious grounds. We covered the long-running court battle between the Orthodox Jewish university and the student Pride Alliance here:
- NYC Comptroller to Yeshiva University: Recognize LGBTQ Club or Risk Public Funding
- Yeshiva University Inches Its Way Back To SCOTUS By Appealing LGBTQ Club Ruling To NY’s Highest Court
- Yeshiva University Must Recognize LGBTQ Club, Appeals Court Rules
- Yeshiva University and ‘Pride Alliance’ Agree To Stay Of State Court Order That Forced School To Officially Recognize LGBT Group
- Pending Return to SCOTUS, Yeshiva University Freezes All Student Group Activities Rather Than Recognize LGBT Alliance
- Yeshiva University Must Recognize LGBTQ Student Group For Now, After SCOTUS Vacates Stay As Premature
- Justice Sotomayor Stays NY State Court Order Forcing Yeshiva University To Recognize “Pride Alliance” Club
- Yeshiva U Fight Against Order It Recognize Student Pride Alliance Suffers Blow When Denied “Leave To Appeal” to NY High Ct
The parties’ announcement came after nearly four years of court fighting that began in 2021 when a group of students sued the school, arguing it had discriminated against them when it refused to formally recognize an official “Pride Alliance” club.
In June of 2022, the New York County Supreme Court (in New York, the trial court) ordered YU to recognize the LGBTQ club, against its religious convictions.
Notwithstanding its Orthodox Jewish character, the trial court found that YU’s charter precluded its claim for a religious exemption under New York antidiscrimination law. YU had amended its charter in 1967 to change its status from a religious to an educational corporation, “organized and operated exclusively for educational purposes” under state law. The Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court later affirmed the trial court’s ruling.
YU then appealed to the United States Supreme Court to stay the ruling, but in a 5-4 ruling the Court denied its request, sending it back to exhaust the appeals process in state court.
The YU Commentator reports that the litigation stalled for nearly two years over pre-trial discovery disputes between the parties’ lawyers, with no significant developments in the case until yesterday.
The Commentator has more on the developing story:
Minutes after the agreement was announced, the Pride Alliance’s student WhatsApp group name was changed from “YU Pride Alliance” to “Hareni.”
“It is with great pleasure and excitement that we announce to everyone that we are now an official club at YU!” Former Pride Alliance co-presidents Schneur Friedman (YC ‘25) and Hayley Goldberg (SCW ‘27) told the WhatsApp group. “We will go forward using the club name Hareni coming from the phrase … “I hereby undertake to fulfill the positive commandment, Love your fellow as yourself” … We are honored to begin this official club as your co-presidents and will continue to foster a strong community within YU! Stay tuned for upcoming meetings, social events, and initiatives—we can’t wait to share this journey with you!”
“This agreement affirms that there has never been a genuine conflict between Torah values and open LGBTQ+ identity,” Doniel Weinreich (YC ‘20), one of the plaintiffs, told The Commentator. “It demonstrates that fully committed Orthodox Jewish environments can also be affirming of LGBTQ+ constituents. This is a great moment for the entire Modern Orthodox community. It is a testament that uncompromising commitment to Torah and halacha can exist without the homophobia and cowardice that has previously hindered our community and institutions.”
Not everyone is celebrating YU’s capitulation, however. Conservative scholar Yoram Hazony lamented that freedom to practice Orthodox Judaism had ended in New York State:
Many of you told me I was exaggerating or jumping to conclusions when I said freedom to practice Orthodox Judaism had ended in New York State. Now you all know the truth. https://t.co/C6DJXsOV7o pic.twitter.com/Jh99PvCch8
— Yoram Hazony (@yhazony) March 21, 2025
Others saw the decision as a betrayal of Torah values and YU’s mission:
Disgusting. Any self respecting religious Jew must immediately boycott Yeshiva University until this decision is retracted! This does NOT reflect Jewish or Torah values!! Absolutely disgusting. A travesty. A tragedy. @YUNews!! https://t.co/1ip7Fw0Cem
— Mr. Kitty
(@Sassy_Khat) March 21, 2025
In its exclusive report, The New York Times said the agreement was “a notable reversal” for YU and that the school has not explained why it changed its position.
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Comments
Sad, it won’t end well.. in the end
Only commentator Alohaaloha has read the article on X.
Yeshiva University amended their charter and changed from a religious institution to an educational corporation.
For tax purposes and to accept Federal money.
They had no chance of winning.
Time to re Amanda the charter
Going back to being a religious institution is no guarantee. NYS declared war on traditional yeshiva education several years ago & the battle over teaching young kids from religious homes about ‘alternative forms of sexual expression’ continues.
We already got Brandon to quit….
“the agreement was “a notable reversal” for YU and that the school has not explained why it changed its position.”
We all know why.
Yes, it didn’t have a leg to stand on, that’s why.
And it’s achieved an agreement that the new club will adhere to Jewish law. Given that, there’s no reason it should object to the club.
Milhouse, I am not a social conservative, but how does an LGBT club adhere to (halachic) Jewish law? Wouldn’t its mere existence contradict it?
If the new club adhered to Jewish law it would disband. Apart from the issue of mishcav zachor itself there seem to me issues of lifnei iver, kefira, tzniut, pritzut & disregard of talmedei chachamim.
Terrible timing for YU to take this position. We finally have an federal administration that is willing to support religious freedom and YU bends the knee to a woke mob?
New York however remains a hotbed of leftist fanaticism. New York state has a lot more power to hurt a university in New York than the federal government.
This sucks!
This is just plain wrong.
No, it is not wrong. The fact is that YU has gay students, and there’s no reason they should not have a club where they can meet for mutual support, just like students with other common interests.
And with a commitment that the club will not do anything contrary to Jewish law, the university has actually achieved something.
quislings
Both Yeshiva University and NY Jews need to relocate to a state which wants and appreciates them. A fringe benefit of that would be to greatly accelerate NYC’s decline.
Many have but relocating is easier said than done when you lose a community to do it.
What about they/them’s ‘Self-Identify as a Turtle’ club? Will YU recognize our lived truth, or will we have to sue, also??
Can’t we all just get along…
Especially since 10/7, NYC has gone from being the most Jewish city in the diaspora to one of the most anti-Jewish.
YU should consider moving the campus to Florida.
And the difference between Modern Orthodox and actual orthodox appears to be the willingness to ignore scripture because we should be nice.
Much like mainline Christianity, in fact.
Indeed, though there are offshoots of mainline denominations that adhere more closely to Scripture. Think Global Methodist instead of United Methodist and Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) instead of PC(USA).
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At 95% voting for Trump Orthodox Jews are among the most conservative blocks in America.
For some context Orthodox Jews are more likely to vote Republican than African Americans are to vote Democrat.
Also for some context you are significantly more likely to find Irish Trump supporters (not Irish Americans I mean Irish from the capital of pronouns and transgender ideology) than Orthodox Jewish Democrats.
Danny, I wish what you wrote were so, but my impression is that while this is true in Brooklyn it’s not true in Manhattan, and especially in the community associated with YU, where there has historically been a significant Democrat contingent. There have been several very prominent community leaders with the OU that have been active Democrats.
That is not true at all. “Love your fellow as yourself” is scripture, and the anti-gay fanatics ignore it.
Sorry but you are misreading that mitzvah. It is not a requirement to put a hechsher on LGBT activities.
Wow, what an unbelievable unforced error on Yeshiva’s part. What’s next, Hamas chapter? Satan chapter? Sadly, you can count on one hand the number of Catholic colleges that don’t have a recognized LGB club on campus as well. Notre Dame allowed it back in 2013, one of the many ‘unpredictable’ ramifications of the gay marriage decision. I’m not sure what the climate is like on most of the evangelical campuses. I do know Liberty University doesn’t allow it.
You could predict cave or not cave based on state location.
Yeshiva fought heroically for the budget they had and the likelihood of success.
Ultimately it was in a doomed fight (look at the composition of NY courts and the composition of the legislature and very strict limits of what the federal government could do in terms of regulations) because of the historic accident that Jews moved to NY when coming to America and NY is now a very hostile location.
I don’t think Notre Dame caved because of gay marriage from SCOTUS. They simply always craved approval from the more elite secular academic institutions and change to avoid the criticism.
Craving approval is definitely a problem.
But was Yeshiva craving???
Given the presumed composition of the student body, isn’t this a potentially suicidal move for the college?
Unless Orthodox Jews have a radically different take on LGTPism to the Torah, this really doesn’t make sense.
The fact is that some percentage of Orthodox Jews, just like any other group, are gay. And this being the 21st century, they’re not willing to be forced into a closet for the rest of their lives, or to submit to harassment and persecution. They are members of the community and are entitled to the same respect and love as anyone else. “Love your fellow” applies to them as much as to anyone else. An Orthodoxy that literally forces some people to abandon it is an Orthodoxy that doesn’t deserve that name, and doesn’t deserve to exist. YU’s own traditions demand acceptance of anyone who is committed to observing Jewish law to the best of their ability, and helping them to work towards that goal.
But the main point here is that YU is not a religious institution, and so doesn’t get the benefit of religious exemptions to the law.
‘“YU had amended its charter in 1967 to change its status from a religious to an educational corporation, “organized and operated exclusively for educational purposes” under state law.’
Okay, so now re-amend the charter..
For a secular educational institution with hundreds of millions of dollars in assets to transform itself into a religious institution would probably require the state attorney-general’s approval. That would be Letitia James.
Yoram Hazony is full of chara. No religious institution has been or can be forced to recognize a club that is contrary to its charter.
YU is by its own choice not a religious institution. More than fifty years ago it engraved on a bull’s horn that it is a secular institution. For more than fifty years it has enjoyed whatever benefits it hoped such a declaration would bring it. Now it’s finally had to face the consequences of that declaration. It can’t have it both ways.
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