Rabbi Steve Greenberg is a former faculty member at the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America, and senior teaching fellow at CLAL-The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership. Steve has broken boundaries and led the fight to make Orthodox Judaism more open and inclusive and accepting of homosexual members.
Steve was featured in the acclaimed 2001 film Trembling Before G-d, about Orthodox gay Jews, and has appeared in more than 500 post-screening community dialogues throughout the world. As educational coordinator for the film’s outreach project, he arranged for screenings in Israel’s religious school system, reaching more than 2,000 principals, educators and school counselors.
Steve helped organize the first Orthodox Mental Health Conference on homosexuality, and has worked with numerous families in reconciliation, and he is a founding member and educational advisor of the Open House in Jerusalem, an organization that advances the cause of social tolerance.
Winner of the coveted Koret Book Award for Philosophy and Thought, Steve is the author of the groundbreaking book Wrestling with God & Men: Homosexuality in the Jewish Tradition (University of Wisconsin Press, 2004). The Koret awards are the most prestigious in Jewish prose. The book was also selected as a finalist for the Lambda Literary Awards.
Steve received his B.A. in philosophy from Yeshiva University and his rabbinical ordination from Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary. He is a graduate of the Jerusalem Fellows program, a two-year fellowship for senior Jewish educators sponsored by the Mandel Institute.